Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Motorcycles you have loved

Doohicky, 685cc piston, auxiliary lights, eagle mike raising links, seat, radiator bypass(thermobob) air horn, fork brace,Handle bars, happy trails pannier racks in rear and fairing guards in front, 14/16 front sprocket- depending on whats going on, pelican case on the rear. Exhaust baffle drilled out. Airbox drilled and desnorkled, carb shimmed and jetted. PVC valve added- not sure that did anything.

I think thats it?

IIRC, the trick to really getting off the line with the Kaw 750 triple was changing out the swingarm to a longer one from Cal Fab or the like. That still didn't make a canyon carver out of it.
Putting a slightly longer Cal Fab swingarm and Fox Shox on the RD was The Bomb though.

robertlatham1

Wow, that is one cool set up and ride! Pretty snappy now? My KLR650 was torquey but not quick, really.

I know all about needing the other lights, for sure! I tried to ride my KLR on an unlit mountain gravel road one night. Went about 400 yards, tried to make two "blank and dark" totally blind turns and headed back for the campsite!

Can you now see to the sides a bit when riding late? Frame mounted headlight was one of the few engineering mistakes I thing that Kawi made on that otherwise great bike, plus needing the doohicky for the valve train.

This one was fun too.

I still have my KZ750E1. Has 68,000 or so on the clock, has been tossed at least seven times, hopped up the suspension every time I bent the parts beyond repair.
I took a scope and looked at the upper end internals at 60,000 miles and everything was still tight and beautiful, compression perfect. Did oil spectro twice and no changes in 20,000 miles.
Ran perfect up until the spark went away, a thousand bucks worth of parts for a $600 bike in running condition. I really need to ante up the money for SPARK.
It was a great rat bike. Nothing flashy, all the money went into suspension and tires. Reliable as a rock until the ignition electronics turned to slag.

Yep, that's the one that kicked my arse on that canyon road. That was a bad hombre when it came out. It was by far the best handling bike until Suzuki came out with the GSX-R.

I always thought the Interceptor was a great looking bike.

I loved the look of that bike. Ever since I saw a picture of Freddy Spenser's race version I always had wanted one.

My XR is bone stock except for tires and my previous bike was a ZRX1200R so it's apples and cumquats to compare.
The Kawi was fast enough I was going to get hurt or go to jail and the riding posture fit me like a glove.
I let the Kawi go as the survivability on the XR1200 is much better because it's slow by comparison.
The Harley torque is fun and it does run hard to 90 or so but runs out of breath on the highway(wishing for another gear).
In the mountains it's a blast, wide bars, good firm suspension, excellent brakes compared to any other Harley, comfortable seat and riding posture for 1up riding.
I can't keep up with the kids on crotch rockets in the twisties but I'm having more fun and am not speeding as much as I was with the Z. The XR handles twisties better than the Z at least for me. It's a fun bike.
I'm tempted to get aftermarket exhaust but would need a fuel tuner as well to adjust the fuel injection mix. I'll see how bored I am this winter!!

The XR is a damn cool bike, but I don't think I could give up a ZXR 1200 for an XR...I just drool over the ZXR's. But I know what you mean about the speed. My ZZR is 175HP of CRAZY fast. I really have to be careful not to twist that throttle too much. So I totally understand where you're coming from there. If they boosted the HP up to around 95-100 and added another gear, I'll bet the XR would be perfect. As it is, it still looks like a whole lot of fun. And good looking, at least I think so.

I have 100HP at the crankshaft, and I want MORE! Always.... MORE

But you are correct that a 100HP Sport/Road Race/Flat tracker wannabe type Sportster is loads of fun and really fast enough for most.

Good power, good handling, GREAT sounding, a head turner and conversation starter as well.

In between my last post here and this one, I was shopping fat tire upgrade kits for Sporsters. Adding a 16 inch 240 tire at the rear and a 16 inch 200 out front should make the bike even more fun.

colodog,

If you tire of your bike and want to go back to the ZXR's or such please let me know. That is one fine ride you have there.

Safariman your mail box is full! Send me a pm with e-mail.

Hey, thanks. Check this out. Was in an ADAP the other day and a kid pulls up on it. We got to talking, and found that we had similar tastes. Built it in his apartment over the winter. Wanna' take a guess as to the powerplant?

850 suzuki

Good guess, B. 550 Suzuki, wearing Wonder Woman brand muffler. I asked him how many tickets he's gotten for the pipes. He said that he'd gotten none yet; when he sees JL, he goes reeeaaal easy on the hammer.

Tickets for loud pipes is a foreign concept around here.

Indeed. I see these all the time in Tokyo; they're more popular than motorcycles now, by far, if I'm not mistaken. Yo B, when are you gonna' get on to customizing yours?

lol,...my custom touches aren't so obvious.

So far, they consist of a Corbin seat, some SKF wheel bearings, and an improved primary spline adapter.

Must be nice. You runnin' straight pipes on your HD?

nah,..straight pipes are obnoxious and do nothing but make noise.

A 2 into 1 header is the way to go on a big twin. They're loud also, but they're making additional torque as well as noise.

As soon as I feel like dropping $600, I'm going to put a Bassani unit on my bike.