Out on the 400 Four

Had to go to Tesco and decided to go The Long Way Round (tm) by way of
Box Hill.

Haven't been there for years. But sunny Sunday, no particular place to
go, l nice old classic bike...

Glad I did, because that bunch that restore old Plod bikes had a
mini-display. Apn 13, Pan 11, old BMW R76/6 and a couple of US CHiPs
Kawasakis. Got chatting to one of the Kawa owners (and no, he wasn't
Plod himself).

I did know that they built the bikes in the US (Nebraska - I always
thought it was Ohio) but I didn't know they were building them up until
2005, when they failed to meet California's emissions laws.

Los Angeles alone had 1300 of the things! Best of all, the engine, the
complete engine, was (and maybe still is) available as a single spare
part, with its own part number.

It raises the possibility of being able to build a lovely retro special,
or classic racer, using an off-the-shelf brand new Z1000J3 (for that's
what this one had) engine.

 

Yea right, I picked up the Bloo one yesterday with a nice new MOT.
Took it for a celebratory bimble around the Mendips, stopped for
a break and it promptly displayed its contempt by pissing fuel
everywhere from no.4 carb. Carefully home, looking for petrol stations
and JUST made it, still incontinent, on the last gasp of reserve.

So that was today spent fettling carbs - fortunately I had a spare[1]
float hinge pin to replace the slightly bent one Grrrrrr.

I had intended to take a look at the cam chain on the Black one and
decide if it might be better to bid on a certain nice engine on EBay <B-)

Wot - no LE or Rotary Notrun ......

[1] I knew I had one somewhere but...... usual sweary search.

 

No, more's the pity.

If you need any carb spares again, just holler. I've got three sets of
dead carbs which I occasionally rob for parts (like the float bowl
screws - if you drop one, can you ever find it? Can you buggery.)

 

Ohio was where Honda built Goldwings (until recently), wasn't it?

 

I think so.