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So I went out to bike night (beach to hang & talk, hogfish grill to see everyone, 4th street bridge for the stunt shows, and Ybor for the party), and I ran into a guy who looked to be about 19 with a '05 Kat 750 that had been turned into a pure stunt platform... labelled "Rare Breed".
It was so weird, I just had to share it (and am still kicking myself for not taking the camera -- maybe next time):
Sprockets: Rear 62 tooth, front 10 tooth. The rear sprocket was so large that at first I thought it was a 16" rear wheel.
Tire: Rear 190 on the stock rim, run at 18 to 20 psi
Rear Fairings: cut all the way across twice, once at the rear edge of the seat, again halfway to the tail light. The pieces were then drilled with holes and laced into place with vinyl lacing. 12 O'Clock bar optional (not installed at that instant).
Front Fairings: like the rears, these had also been sliced all the way down slightly forward of the holes over the engine, drilled and laced back into place with vinyl lacing. Repeat about 8" forward, slicing all the way, drilling and lacing.
Stock left handlebar san grip, but still with the control pod in place (choke, etc): appeared to be welded to the steering stem, pointing straight forward and up at a 45 degree angle, so it ended just shy of the windshield. End of the bar was covered in the dense foam used on MX bikes, as a brace I guess.
Left handlebar replaced with an aftermarket handlebar, with an MX-style clutch lever low down and a brake lever where the stock clutch lever goes (complete with GSXR style brake reservior). Foot control for the rear brake was in place, but there was no rear brake cylinder at the foot control.
Instrument panel surround gone for good; instrument cluster held in place by what appeared to be more vinyl lacing.
The biggest over-kill frame protectors I've ever seen. These were steel pipe pieces welded on at the frame where many mount standard frame sliders (upper hole in the fairings) reaching out about 18", plus a piece going backwards from about 12" out on that pipe and welded just in front of the rider footpegs at the frame. From this triangular structure, the slider stuck out another 5" easy (and was somewhat ground down). I could have easily stood on this frame-protector rig.
Headlight kill switch.
Stock footpegs replaced with shorter versions (about 2/3rds the length of the stock ones, but still rubber-covered style).
Rear footpegs replaced with roller-style MX-bike foot pegs.
Paint: black and/or flat-black. There wasn't anything silvered left on his bike except some of the controls.
There well may have been other mods that I didn't notice -- I was trying to figure out how the lacing concept worked and why you'd do that...
The thing that really got me was that he started with a new, good Kat and sliced & modded it like that -- not one that was already wrecked. He mentioned that his top speed is about 100 mph, with the needle coming around on the speedo to about where it starts at zero; he isn't using a speedo corrector and said he wasn't interested/didn't care about that aspect.
Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet
It was so weird, I just had to share it (and am still kicking myself for not taking the camera -- maybe next time):
Sprockets: Rear 62 tooth, front 10 tooth. The rear sprocket was so large that at first I thought it was a 16" rear wheel. Tire: Rear 190 on the stock rim, run at 18 to 20 psi Rear Fairings: cut all the way across twice, once at the rear edge of the seat, again halfway to the tail light. The pieces were then drilled with holes and laced into place with vinyl lacing. 12 O'Clock bar optional (not installed at that instant). Front Fairings: like the rears, these had also been sliced all the way down slightly forward of the holes over the engine, drilled and laced back into place with vinyl lacing. Repeat about 8" forward, slicing all the way, drilling and lacing. Stock left handlebar san grip, but still with the control pod in place (choke, etc): appeared to be welded to the steering stem, pointing straight forward and up at a 45 degree angle, so it ended just shy of the windshield. End of the bar was covered in the dense foam used on MX bikes, as a brace I guess. Left handlebar replaced with an aftermarket handlebar, with an MX-style clutch lever low down and a brake lever where the stock clutch lever goes (complete with GSXR style brake reservior). Foot control for the rear brake was in place, but there was no rear brake cylinder at the foot control. Instrument panel surround gone for good; instrument cluster held in place by what appeared to be more vinyl lacing. The biggest over-kill frame protectors I've ever seen. These were steel pipe pieces welded on at the frame where many mount standard frame sliders (upper hole in the fairings) reaching out about 18", plus a piece going backwards from about 12" out on that pipe and welded just in front of the rider footpegs at the frame. From this triangular structure, the slider stuck out another 5" easy (and was somewhat ground down). I could have easily stood on this frame-protector rig. Headlight kill switch. Stock footpegs replaced with shorter versions (about 2/3rds the length of the stock ones, but still rubber-covered style). Rear footpegs replaced with roller-style MX-bike foot pegs. Paint: black and/or flat-black. There wasn't anything silvered left on his bike except some of the controls.There well may have been other mods that I didn't notice -- I was trying to figure out how the lacing concept worked and why you'd do that...
The thing that really got me was that he started with a new, good Kat and sliced & modded it like that -- not one that was already wrecked. He mentioned that his top speed is about 100 mph, with the needle coming around on the speedo to about where it starts at zero; he isn't using a speedo corrector and said he wasn't interested/didn't care about that aspect.
Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet
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