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New (ish) guy in NJ
Hello KatRiders,
I've been lurking on and off for two years... never really had too much to say. I lost my left leg just below the knee 15 years ago and thought that I'd never ride.
A friend of mine knew that I'd always wanted to ride-- i bought the Katana on Ebay for $500 as a test subject-- He's a mechanic and ultimately came up with a solution to move the shifter to the right side. We also moved the rear brakes to the front brake lever (one master cyclinder with a proportioing valve-- it works surprisingly well)
I've been doing this on a fairly ratty looking '91 600. Rattle-can paint job, awful sounding V&H supersport (LOUD) can, and rattly (missing all the OEM mounting hardware) plastics.
I decided this year that I'd keep the bike for another year or two (I was looking at an Aprillia Mana... all tiptronic and a very easy solution for a one-legged rider!) instead of buying a new set of headaches.
I knew that if I was going to keep the bike, I had to improve on the performance, sound, and cosmetics.
The biggest issue I had with my 91 was the carbs.... they'd start running lean at 4-5k rpm and the bike would sort of "burble" They were never jetted for the god-awful V&H exhaust... so. My first investment was in a Yoshimura Can. I purchased one at auction meant for a '06 GSX-R 600. Virtually a perfect fit after a small amount of hacksaw work. My brother in law is a professional welder-- he fabricated and welded a custom mounting tabs to mate up with the mounting tabs on the pipe..
We managed to get 6 of the 8 head bolts out without stripping or breaking them. The last two wil require and easy out--- but at least the V&H headers are off. picked up 25 lbs of glass beads today to sand-blast them. Once they're clean, I'll hit them with some high-heat black and then wrap them in fiberglass wrap... got a nice roll or blue wrap from SickSpeed for $15.00. Once the whole exhaust is in place, it's off to the local power-sports garage for jetting and tuning.
I pulled all the plastic off and have been sanding and prepping them for Black carbon Fiber Vinyl Wrap. I read some of the guides and tip sheets here... nothing can really prepare you for this painstaking work, though. The panels need to be absolutely smooth.... otherwise the vinyl shows every imperfection. I have one of the rear tail fairings done (it looks great) and will be starting on the fronts this weekend.
new tires on the way (i went 10mm larger... i think that's ok) along with a new chain, sprocket and counter-sprocket. I also got lots of anodized aluminum goodies to jazz up the black carbon fiber.
I'll post pictures as I go... any input is welcomed- ESPECIALLY related to the Vinyl wrap and the jetting.
Thanks,
Andy
I've been lurking on and off for two years... never really had too much to say. I lost my left leg just below the knee 15 years ago and thought that I'd never ride.
A friend of mine knew that I'd always wanted to ride-- i bought the Katana on Ebay for $500 as a test subject-- He's a mechanic and ultimately came up with a solution to move the shifter to the right side. We also moved the rear brakes to the front brake lever (one master cyclinder with a proportioing valve-- it works surprisingly well)
I've been doing this on a fairly ratty looking '91 600. Rattle-can paint job, awful sounding V&H supersport (LOUD) can, and rattly (missing all the OEM mounting hardware) plastics.
I decided this year that I'd keep the bike for another year or two (I was looking at an Aprillia Mana... all tiptronic and a very easy solution for a one-legged rider!) instead of buying a new set of headaches.
I knew that if I was going to keep the bike, I had to improve on the performance, sound, and cosmetics.
The biggest issue I had with my 91 was the carbs.... they'd start running lean at 4-5k rpm and the bike would sort of "burble" They were never jetted for the god-awful V&H exhaust... so. My first investment was in a Yoshimura Can. I purchased one at auction meant for a '06 GSX-R 600. Virtually a perfect fit after a small amount of hacksaw work. My brother in law is a professional welder-- he fabricated and welded a custom mounting tabs to mate up with the mounting tabs on the pipe..
We managed to get 6 of the 8 head bolts out without stripping or breaking them. The last two wil require and easy out--- but at least the V&H headers are off. picked up 25 lbs of glass beads today to sand-blast them. Once they're clean, I'll hit them with some high-heat black and then wrap them in fiberglass wrap... got a nice roll or blue wrap from SickSpeed for $15.00. Once the whole exhaust is in place, it's off to the local power-sports garage for jetting and tuning.
I pulled all the plastic off and have been sanding and prepping them for Black carbon Fiber Vinyl Wrap. I read some of the guides and tip sheets here... nothing can really prepare you for this painstaking work, though. The panels need to be absolutely smooth.... otherwise the vinyl shows every imperfection. I have one of the rear tail fairings done (it looks great) and will be starting on the fronts this weekend.
new tires on the way (i went 10mm larger... i think that's ok) along with a new chain, sprocket and counter-sprocket. I also got lots of anodized aluminum goodies to jazz up the black carbon fiber.
I'll post pictures as I go... any input is welcomed- ESPECIALLY related to the Vinyl wrap and the jetting.
Thanks,
Andy
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