GSXR4

If you own a GSXR400 you will already know that your carbs are a ticking time bomb ready to cause you misery. A friend of mine needed a bike for his ACU licence so I stupidly offered my nowhere near ready GSXR. Well that was the kick up the bum I needed to get things ready! My bike was running rough and I knew that the carbs would be the most likely candidate. The first place to go is to grab my trusty Davida carb balancing gauges. I have used the cheaper balancing gauges before which do the job but if you have the spare cash (or do what I did and stalk eBay) you should get a set of these self adjusting gauges. I simply plugged these into the vacuum take offs on the carb rubbers, podged a funnel into the fuel line, gassed her up and got the bike warmed up. This is easier said than done when the bike doesn't tick over though as my hands were a bit full and a slight parts deficiency was getting in my way already.  The tick over screw is located in the centre of the c...

I picked this bike up as an incomplete project. As such there were one or two loose ends on the bike, none of which were worth talking about individually. With the bike needed for a track day I went about making some of these problems go away. Hoses  Simple things like getting fuel to the carbs were still yet to be achieved. I have a selection of silica hoses which were good for things like breathers and a few lengths of braided fuel line were ordered to handle the fuel tank. I left plenty of excess in length to allow the tank to be raised for maintenance before cutting the hose to length and attaching either end with a jubilee clip. With this done I could run the bike up but more on that another time.  Bodywork The fairings have largely been secured with tech screws and matching anchor nuts. Replacement M6 dome head screws were ordered to replace these for a more secure factory look. The front mudguard was secured with nuts and bolts. To get the mudguard on you...

Looking for a sidekick This year I have started racing a Yamaha RD250 in the CRMC. Racing as a whole is new to me so the more time I can get on the track the better. The RD however would much rather sit in the garage and rust quietly without being bothered by anyone.   I hadn't owned the RD long before I realised it needed a sidekick for track days and training. Before the RD was ready I had booked my ACU licence day at Cadwell park circuit. With the RD and NSR 250 's both incomplete I was left with the options of borrowing a track bike or riding the VFR800 RC46 . Having more than one bike to chose from is a luxury I admit but I didn't much fancy the risk of binning my main commuter bike especially when I planned to remove my VW T5 from the road soon for some fairly major modifications. As it happened the VFR did a fine job with no  mishaps but it firmed up my need for an affordable and reliable track bike.  I would have the option of the NSR25...