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Stevie B Racing - 1kt log
1KT Log
This bike is actually my wife's. She's a bit on the small side, so although the XJR400 was hers, she found it a bit big
and heavy to manage. We looked for a TZR as something smallish, light and easy to use. This one was available at
Caversham Bridge Motorcycles (in Reading) for £1295 so we took a look and bought it in August 1999.
It was a recent import from Japan, had 8000km on the clock and had been standing for a while. The shop put new tyres,
battery and head gasket (as it was leaking) on it and away we went. Other than a few scratches to the paint-work and a
small amount of pitting to the forks (sliders and stanchions), it wasn't too shabby.
All good for a couple of years - then it got stored along with the other bikes in the shed.
Summer 2007 and this was the last one to be resurrected.
First stop - new battery. And new gearbox oil (it had been stored with the box filled to the brim). And plugs.
Amazingly, it started really well - at first! After running it a few times, just to keep it functioning, it began to
get more difficult to coax it into life. As it wasn't being used regularly, this was more a nuisance than a real issue.
Until I booked it for an MOT and, you guessed it, it wouldn't start at all on the day of the test....
Somehow I'd got the idea that the battery needed to be good to get it started, when in fact the exciter coil is
independent of the battery - so all it really needs is a good kick to get the windings spinning and it should spark.
Well, it had a spark (though it looked weak) and the plugs were getting wet after a lot of kicking it over.
After a deal of thinking about it I pulled the carbs apart and soaked the pilot jets in nail varnish remover, cleaned
them with carb cleaner fluid and rebuilt them. Still no joy, but the extreme wetness of the plugs had me worried. I
decided to check out the choke mechanisms.
Sure enough, the little brass barrels were stuck in the 'on' position (i.e. up) in the carbs. After a thorough clean
they now slide ok. Still no joy starting though. Time to investigate the crankcase.
Plenty of mixture in there! It was a least half-way up the crank webs. I started soaking it out with rag, realised
that was going to take until Christmas, and opted to siphon the remainder out. There was a lot and it didn't taste good.
All back together. Now it started regularly. But after 30 seconds running, it would drip fluid onto the floor. Carbs
apart again to find why it was over-flowing. Truth is, it wasn't over-flowing from the carbs at all. I eventually
spotted it was over-flowing from the gearbox! This bike is full of surprises!
So, the gearbox was full of petrol/oil mixture too - must have come passed the seal. Having drained the box and replaced
with oil, it now starts ok and doesn't drip. The exhausts seem to have a fair amount of liquid in them too, so this is
going to take a while to get through the system. How much damage has been done to the seal between the crank and
gearbox we shall see.
All this took place over a period of a year and while the engine was being worked over I was also looking at the body
and cycle parts. Somewhere in the mix was the small disaster of it falling over in the shed and hitting a set of shelves!
Luckily (!) its fall was broken by one of the fairing hand-blisters, which was, in turn, broken. The other one had already
been cracked and repaired before we took ownership, so I decided to source a pair. I found a pristine pair in Germany
but had to spray them to get them a colour match for the rest of the red on the bike. Volkswagen Mars Red was the
closest 'off the shelf' colour I could find and it's a good match.
I've never liked the feel from the front brake on this bike. It's really wooden. So, I decided an upgrade was in order.
I scoured around for a while and came up with some 'blue spot' calipers from an R6. I sourced an R1 master cylinder and,
so far, have only fitted the caliper.
To tidy-up the rear end I've removed the pillion foot pegs and bought a single seat cowl. Again this needed restoring in
terms of paint and a new rubber cushion making up.
The only other changes I can remember to date are a new coil (new old stock) with NGK caps that I had in the shed,
a better set of second-hand forks and a number plate of a size appropriate for the MOT.
As part of a future project, I have in the shed a pair of standard exhausts that have been butchered - the idea being
that I'll weld-up some correctly sized cones to make a set of expansion chambers.
Well, it passed the MOT ok after the (loose) handlebar grips were glued on. I took a slighty circuitous route home to give it a thrash
and it pulled ok once opened up but I still think it's vibrating a lot at lower revs i.e. 3000 - 5000 rpm.....
