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Literally just got this back on the road after a long hiatus.

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It has a brand new motor. Everything is new except for the bottom case. I put it away because one of the bearings in the bottom end was making noise, and upon getting the motor apart I found out that it was a pretty old rebuild. Nothing was seriously broken, so to speak, just not in the best of shape.

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Not trusting myself to this job, I handed the bike over to a gentleman in a nearby town who owns a very nice motorcycle shop. It turned out that he not only was the last person to rebuild that motor several years ago, but he also owned it prior to the man I bought it from. He literally owned this exact bike many years ago.

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We attributed the bearing failure simply to old age, since it had been at least six years since it had been rebuilt. Six years of hard riding - because that's the only way a Kawasaki Triple knows. He did a fantastic job of redoing the motor. The crankshaft was damaged, so it was shipped out and completely restored. Brand new everything. It should be good for many years to come.

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He also put in a new fuel petcock that actually makes sense, so now I have one fuel shut-off instead of one to each carb. The carburetors have been made like-new as well. New chain and sprocket.

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It runs absolutely amazing now. It rode nice before, but now it is responsive at all RPM ranges. Normally these are pretty doggy below 4-5000RPM, which is to be expected with a two-stroke, but it just runs so nice now at all speeds. It's great to have this bike back. It's so loud and obnoxious and thirsty for fuel, but I love it.

I've always been attracted to that bike of yours. Such a sweet coincidence with the mechanic you found!

Beautiful bike. I have always loved the RDs. Vintage is the way to go.

He's a real stand-up guy, that is for sure. I have not done enough motors to be confident in redoing this bike, so leaving it to him was definitely the way to go. I HATE handing any vehicle to anyone else, so it is one hell of an occasion when I find myself legitimately wanting to let someone else touch any car or bike I own. Not to mention how he has already rebuilt that exact bike before. The situation could have not been more perfect. I think he gave me a bit of a discount because of it as well.

The guy has a pretty nice business set up, tons of bikes in his shop. I was charged for the motor rebuild and parts relating to that, but I did not get charged much (or at all) for the following:

Carburetors completely cleaned and rejetted.
The "tip" on one of the right exhaust pipes was loose. He welded it back up.
Issue with the gas cap gasket and gas cap latch was fixed.
A bunch of other little things.

It's nice to have a "legit" motorcycle again. Now that my father has his Harley, we can finally go on some long rides again next year. Probably going to do a few poker runs (basically a motorcycle road rally) as well.

This post has been edited by Bubs on Nov 14 2010, 10:23 AM

Some new respect for that bike. What kind of speed were you hitting in the WOT bit?

I cut out early on that clip, but I let off at around 80.

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You're talking about the 96, right?

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Sweet video bro. She sounds awesome. I love that 2-stroke ping.

LOL no it doesn't.

This is the sound of a Saab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXVRdSbKDT8

It sounds more like an old grand prix car with the Cosworth DFV.

This post has been edited by MattW on Nov 18 2010, 11:51 PM

Were you there for the Limerock even with the old F1 cars with DFV's? things f**king SCREAM!

No. I only go for the ALMS weekend.

I only go whenever i get a free or discounted weekend pass...got a friend who works there. Good place to see cars fly, drink some brews and catch a tan haha.

Good shit. One of the best tacks in the country for sure.

Advantage #6507 of Having a Scooter:
Is your home on ground level? Just roll it inside and toss it in a closet for the winter. It'll fit just fine.

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That scoot looks warm and happy.

Haha, that thing always looks happy. It looked happy outside with icicles dripping off the handlebars too.

Scoots are the greatest! As soon as I get the CB on the road I'm gonna get me a scoot too. There is just something about them that always puts me in a good mood when I see them.

Vespa Vietbodge?

Even the guy had the gall for selling it that high.*

*Note: You can pretty much guess why. "Vietbodge." AKA, f**ked-up restoration.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread with a new purchase....

I ended up buying a friend's SR50 DiTech (Tuono?) for less than 500, and the only issue was that the scooter runs fine for a few, but when you try to drive the thing, it'll die.....

Though on the outside, normal wear and tear (A few scratches), but with it's usual SR-R livery. Pictures later as I sort things out with the title.

Playing around with the new Flip cam (was borrowing one for rallyX) and using the Panavise suction mount as a helmet cam.

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This post has been edited by Bubs on May 9 2011, 03:58 PM

Even if it was absurdly cold, riding the Burgman is a blast. Even for a maxi-scooter.



This post has been edited by Ken Nōgami on Nov 10 2011, 06:16 PM

my hog