Wednesday, July 25, 2007

 

A little something to help valve adjustments go smoothly


Ever since I posted my videos on valve adjustment to The Superbike Blog a few months ago, I've gotten requests from readers to produce a valve adjustment sheet like the one I made on graph paper in the series. Well, here you go.

The sheet is designed for bikes with up to four cylinders and up to four valves per cylinder. Distribute at will, as this is a gift to all my fellow wrenchers out there.

BTW, if you want to see how I use this diagram or are unfamiliar with the valve adjustment process, click below:



Monday, July 02, 2007

 

Well, I finally did it -- there's a Z-Rex in the stable!


After threatening to buy one of these things for six years now, I finally picked up a ZRX1200R, a super-clean 2004 model with low miles and no mods. Of course, I immediately piped and jetted it. Survey says: AWESOME.

This muscle bike genre is a totally different animal. I had forgotten that. Where my ZX7R and ZX6R are scalpels -- surgical instruments of sheer precision and subtlety, the Z-Rex is a machete -- brutish and rude and scary, but in an immersingly addictive way.

Here's the best part: Almost 90 foot-pounds of torque. Holy crap.

Resultantly, the powerband on the thing is huge. The bike pulls crazy-strong from 3,000 rpm (it will wheelie off the throttle -- no clutch required) and pulls like a freight train all the way through 9,000 rpm (where it's still making 115 or so horsepower at the rear wheel). It redlines at around 11,000 with a quick rev limit thereafter. The motor is extremely smooth, and it instantly turns you into a throttle junkie because you virtually have all of the power you need all of the time in almost any gear.

I have to be honest -- I can't get enough of this thing. And it's not just New Toy Syndrome, either. I could kick myself for not buying this thing sooner. More info to come.

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