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Hey all, new to the forum as I am a first time Kat owner...
My Kat is the 1988 GSX1100F and it doesn't appear to be in bad shape. It is the project/toy bike for my son and I. Don't have a lot of $ to put in it, and since the kid is still in learning mode when it comes to street bikes I figure it will be put through hell in the next year. A pic will be put up as soon as I get a chance.
BTW, I am also new to being a sport bike owner. Have ridden them off and on through the years, but never owned one. I ride a '90 Heritage Softail as my main form of transport (20k+miles per year.) So I'm not new to bikes or some basic wrenching.
First my most pressing issues:
1) It has some electrical issue that if it were consistent I believe I would know what it was, but it isn't. I have ridden it several days to work ~20miles each way, and have even made a stop or two during the day without problems. However, twice now I have taken a ride, gotten stuck in some traffic, made several stops and all of a sudden when I'm running down the road the tach starts jumping all over the place,and then drop to 0 and stay there, which is the first noticeable symptom. Then after another 2-4mi the bike dies and has NO POWER at all. I haven't had a meter with me when it does this so I haven't been able to do any troubleshooting as it is occurring. But if I jump the bike at that point it starts right up and it is as if nothing happened, in fact by the time I got home the battery was back up to 12.2. If this were happening consistently I would start looking to the charging system, but since it doesn't I'm not sure where to look. The engine temp doesn't appear to make a difference because I have let it run standing still, started and stopped several times, and let the engine get good and hot and it didn't reproduce the problem.
2) Does anyone have any recommendations for mirror replacement with no modification? Aftermarkets available?
3) One of the front blinker lenses is broken, is it cheaper and easier to change both sides to something different, or does anyone know a good resource for those lenses?
The other issues are things that I think I will want to work on over time, but are not as pressing as the bike will be completely rideable without them.
1) Windscreen is completely oxidized, replacement appears expensive, any one have luck with refurbishing like can be done with car headlights?
2) Eventually (once I'm fairly comfortable the kid isn't going to just drop the bike,) I would like to freshen up the plastic. Any good (read cheap) resources? Would I be better off just having a friend shoot the existing plastic, even with scratches?
I think I have asked enough for my first post...
My Kat is the 1988 GSX1100F and it doesn't appear to be in bad shape. It is the project/toy bike for my son and I. Don't have a lot of $ to put in it, and since the kid is still in learning mode when it comes to street bikes I figure it will be put through hell in the next year. A pic will be put up as soon as I get a chance.
BTW, I am also new to being a sport bike owner. Have ridden them off and on through the years, but never owned one. I ride a '90 Heritage Softail as my main form of transport (20k+miles per year.) So I'm not new to bikes or some basic wrenching.
First my most pressing issues:
1) It has some electrical issue that if it were consistent I believe I would know what it was, but it isn't. I have ridden it several days to work ~20miles each way, and have even made a stop or two during the day without problems. However, twice now I have taken a ride, gotten stuck in some traffic, made several stops and all of a sudden when I'm running down the road the tach starts jumping all over the place,and then drop to 0 and stay there, which is the first noticeable symptom. Then after another 2-4mi the bike dies and has NO POWER at all. I haven't had a meter with me when it does this so I haven't been able to do any troubleshooting as it is occurring. But if I jump the bike at that point it starts right up and it is as if nothing happened, in fact by the time I got home the battery was back up to 12.2. If this were happening consistently I would start looking to the charging system, but since it doesn't I'm not sure where to look. The engine temp doesn't appear to make a difference because I have let it run standing still, started and stopped several times, and let the engine get good and hot and it didn't reproduce the problem.
2) Does anyone have any recommendations for mirror replacement with no modification? Aftermarkets available?
3) One of the front blinker lenses is broken, is it cheaper and easier to change both sides to something different, or does anyone know a good resource for those lenses?
The other issues are things that I think I will want to work on over time, but are not as pressing as the bike will be completely rideable without them.
1) Windscreen is completely oxidized, replacement appears expensive, any one have luck with refurbishing like can be done with car headlights?
2) Eventually (once I'm fairly comfortable the kid isn't going to just drop the bike,) I would like to freshen up the plastic. Any good (read cheap) resources? Would I be better off just having a friend shoot the existing plastic, even with scratches?
I think I have asked enough for my first post...
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