Any human followers out there?

As I am new to blogging, I wonder if there are any human readers, or if all the page views are coming from web crawlers/bots or whatever they are?  Time to figure out how blogs work and how to spread the word about this blog.  It is pretty interesting tracking how many hits from Russia and former Eastern Bloc countries though!

Winter Project Number Two: 1997 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

A little while ago I picked up this 1997 Ninja ZX-6R off of Craigslist as a basket case pretty cheap.  It hasn't run in a while after being laid down on the track about five years ago.  Much of the bike is in baskets in my storage shed but I am missing a few parts.  Once I get the Connie running, I plan on chasing down the few parts I need, putting this bike on my lift and getting it re-assembled.  Then I'll have to decide if I want to keep it as a street bike, sell it to a racing or trackday riding friend, or even become a "Racing Team Owner" and have one of them campaign it for me either in WERA or Chuckwalla motorcycle racing.

Thoughts or suggestions on getting it running again welcome!

Winter project number one-Kawasaki Concours

Here's my second bike-a 1986 Kawasaki Concours.  If you aren't familiar with the "Connie", they debuted in 1986 when Kawasaki took their new Ninja 1000, converted it to shaft drive and added a larger fairing and sport touring trim.  This was one of the first sport tourers, and immediately found a loyal following.  Kawasaki produced the Concours 1000 (aka C10 model) for 20 years with only minor changes and upgrades, the main one being an improved front end and standard wheel sizes in the 90s.  In 2006, the last C10s were made, and after a short hiatus, Kawasaki introduced the Concours 1400, now based on the Ninja 14.  This bike has also found a niche as a "super" sport tourer.

My bike has been sitting for a little over a year as we have remodeled a house and I've ridden my Sportster.  Now that we are moving into the house the garage will be available to get this bike running again.  I'll post the repairs and upgrades as I go-likely will pull the carbs, rebuild them, completely flush and fill all fluids and check the valves.  This particular year of Connie has a valve issue called "tuliping" but many folks have advised me that my bike wouldn't have made it 84K+ if there was an issue.  Considering I only have about $1200 into the bike, the parts are worth almost as much as the running bike, but I'd like to take it over 100,000 miles.  I've never had a bike make it that far yet.

Have a good weekend riding!

Balance!

Just got an e-mail from a friend who has been having wobble problems on his Harley, and tried a variety of things.  Well, some helped, some didn't but the wobble wouldn't completely go away.  One result was a badly worn front tire, which he replaced a couple of months ago, thinking the wear/cupping might be part of the problem.

Turns out, the front tire/rim were never properly balanced, and when he took it off and had a local independent shop check the balance, they found it needed some weights.  So far so good-and supported one of our favorite indy shops in Poway CA.  The good thing is, since we can ride year round in SoCAL, he's back in the wind for a CMA meeting and a fundraiser ride this weekend.

Now if I can get some miles on my bike before he wears out that front and has me help him replace it!

Sportser and testing adding pictures

The pic is of my 99 XLH883 Sportster when I was about 2/3rds the way done with my customizing.  Since this pick was taken I have added mini-apes and a removable National City Cycles windscreen I bought from Jireh Cycles (http://www.jirehcycles.com/)   Overall I like how the bike is set-up, and am not in a big hurry to pull the engine apart and bump it up with a 1200 kit.  I am leaning toward the Wiseco reverse dome pistons, but any recommendations would be welcome.

I'm also pretty happy with Jireh Cycles as one of the places I go for new parts, tires and things like that.  Not my only source, but the only one bad experience was a back ordered tire with no estimate, and I needed to get the bike back on the road.  Otherwise happy with their mix of price, selection and speed of service over the years.

Now that I've figured out how to upload pics, I'll start adding some of my other bikes, and stock photos of other bikes I've owned with brief reviews.

Updates coming soon!

Took a few days off, but will update the blog over the next few days with pictures of the Sportster and the project Ninja X-6R.  Will also get that list of previously owned bikes and maybe short reviews of them.

I'll also start adding some links, both to other blogs and newsgroups and a few vendors I have had good experiences buying parts and accesories from over the years.