Just renewed my bike insurance with Motorcycle Direct and noting the recent speeding offence.
Protected no-claims, fully comprehensive with declared modifications and living in London. SD&P plus commuting. £158.72.
Result!
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Well today I went to collect the ZRX from PDQ post-fettling. And yes, I think it looks great!
Larry mentioned that Nick had test-ridden it just to be on the safe side after they’d achieved their best-ever dyno results for a ZRX1200R on standard carbs/bores. I’d asked for a 44T rear sprocket as before and Larry suggested it would be sensible to go back to a 42T at some point as Nick had come back wide-eyed and declared it a tad berserk… We’ll see tomorrow!
Well the results of the engine work and fettling at PDQ are in: up to 158bhp at the rear wheel! Well done to Larry and the team.
Dyno Chart
Also interesting is that that was up from 130bhp before their engine work and after I’d fitted a full Akrapovic system and rejetted it myself a while before.
And to put all that into context, it was dyno’d standard but with an Akrapovic end can in July 2005 and put out 114bhp (up from c. 108bhp as standard at the rear wheel).
A quick update on Blue Rex’s progress: it turns out that reprofiling my standard cams would have been experimental and Larry wasn’t prepared to experiment on a customer’s bike, so we agreed to buy a new set of ZZR1200 cams after all along with stronger valve springs.
As the clutch had been slipping on track for a while, I also asked Larry to upgrade the clutch plates and springs whilst it was apart.
In the intervening period, its MoT has expired so it’s been MoT’d and passed.
Worse was yet to come: PDQ have been awarded the sole concession for Dymag wheels worldwide and was offering an introductory deal … so a set of 7 spoke magnesium alloy wheels in satin black are going on with a new, slightly larger section Bridgestone BT016 tyre (which should be fine for our planned Ardeche Valley trip in June) rather than a full-on trackday tyre. Oh and as my secondhand Akrapovic full system would be looking out of place now, I’ve upgraded to a new hexagonal system with carbon fibre end can to set it all off – the removed parts will be for sale on the OC when I collect it. As that won’t be for a week or two, PDQ will run the engine in on the dyno and do a pre and post run-in dyno run for a reading as to what the engine is putting out.
Well after Robspeed Motorcycles at Grimsby serviced Blue Rex and left it misfiring within 3 miles of their workshops, I decided the time had come for Blue Rex to get some fettling and proper setting up.
I’d been keeping a set of cams I’d been sold a few years ago which I was told were ZZR1200 cams. So I rang Larry Webb at PDQ in Berkshire to ask him what he suggested. He recommended fitting those cams, gas-flowing the cylinder head, fitting high compression pistons (in the existing bore sizes) and then fettling it all together properly, so I dropped it off and have left them to it.
Bad news came recently: the cams I’d been sold were actually standard ZRX1200R cams so I now have the existing ones plus a set of new ones. Larry is going to send them to the States to get them re-profiled instead as that’s what they used to do back in the day. This will add a few hundred pounds more to the existing quote, but is cheaper than buying new ZZR1200 cams which are silly expensive.
We’ll see what results we get.
I was signed up to do the RBLR1000 – 1,000 miles in 24 hours for charity with proceeds going to the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.
So I had the bike serviced at Robspeed: a full service with shim check, etc. and a new chain and front sprocket which left me with a little change from £500.
But on the way home it started spluttering a bit. I assumed that some fresh petrol would help, so I topped it up and then took it out for a shakedown run on Thursday. Fine wide full open but running rough as a dog’s bottom at low revs or tickover.
I daren’t use the bike for 1,000 miles in the Highlands, so I had to quickly fettle the Fireblade to have the satnav working and the like. And so I abandoned Blue Rex for the Blade for Scotland. Read on…
Alan, a friend from the ZRXOC – where his nickname is sifu2 – sent me a DVD with his footage from Kawasaki Day at the Ace Café which I’ve ripped and uploaded (with his permission, of course). It’s on YouTube but also here:
Click it to start and/or go large.
This morning we managed to escape our road before it was closed for the London Marathon and headed for the Ace Café London for Kawasaki Day (aka ZRXOC Day!). Click the image for the set on Flickr.
ZRXOC at the Ace
Yesterday I spent the day tearing around Castle Combe race circuit in Wiltshire on a Motorcycle Folly trackday.
To get it there, I’d hitched up the trailer to my Mazda RX-8R3 and “extreme towed†it to Castle Combe on Sunday evening. This took longer than it should have done due to all those mindless morons sitting blocking the middle lane on the M4 – they clearly don’t know (or don’t care) that cars towing trailers aren’t allowed into the outside overtaking lane. Twats!
Anyway, here are some shots of the bike and car after I’d loaded the bike onto the trailer at the end of the day:
I also shot some footage with my miniscule MUVI camera clipped to the collar of my leathers:
Click the icon to run it full screen.
One of the few issues I have with the Kawaskai ZRX1200R is its seat: when you first climb on it seems very plush and comfortable, but after 80 miles or so it does start getting uncomfortable. So I ordered a Sargent Solo replacement seat from the States.
Whereas before I’d be shuffling around uncomfortably after a relatively short while, the Sargent cossets your bum in comfort and even has space and a tube for you to stow something in the seat itself (in my case a ZRXOA rubber torch).
The seat is slightly slippery when you wear leathers but IÂ find that quite useful when shifting my bum from side to side on trackdays.
Recommended.
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