I have long read posts on katriders, never thought to join, but I figured I would share the adventure unfolding before me.
I got a beautiful '99 katana 750 off a trusted co-worker. It didn't run, but I knew from some experience with my old 05 ninja 250 that it sounded like a carb issue. Sure enough, i get it home, and over the course of 3 days of cleaning and pushing air through it, bike starts right up. Sounds great for sitting in a garage for 3 years.
It had some bugs to work out, bled the brakes, cleaned the calipers, fixed a busted wire on my 3rd spark plug, nowshe's running smooth. Being the speed junkie I am, i buy a jet kit, tune the carbs, and I'm in business.
Everythings going great, it's my daily driver, no problems until somebody at work backs into me. My fairings got busted up pretty good, broke my clutch handle, and back left foot peg (at the frame), and worst of all, put about a 3 inch hole in my yoshimura carbon fiber exhaust.
I repaired what I could, the fairings were busted, the handle was cheap, but the exhaust seemed to be a total loss. Thus my adventure begins.
I looked up my options. A new exhaust was beyond my budget, And I didn't have time to save up, so I found a way to patch it. I got some fiberglass mat and I patched it. If you know anything about fiberglass, you will find out what I still didn't know at the time, mats are more for corners, and fillers, but what I needed was fiberglass sheet.
The mat worked,though. The bike ran fine until a little more bad luck occurred. I met my wife at our local hospital for a prenatal appointment, and they said that she was already in the beginning of labor, and we got a room. Not a problem, I'm excited. The only problem is my bike is going to be left out for a couple days. Nothing I haven't done before, but there is a massive freeze coming in 2 days, and maybe even snow for a day. Pretty rare in NC.
I don't think of it much, there wasn't anything I could really do about it. So, after a few days, the baby is delivered, and we are free to take her home. I went to go ride home, while my wife took the van, but my bike is literally frozen. I can't even get the key in the ignition.
I went back the next day, thankfully the ice melted. I start her up, she reluctantly runs. As I let it warm up, it starts spewing a large volume of liquids. It just keeps going. I can't find anything wrong, but it seemed that oil and gas had both overflown, and the engine was purging it. I also assumed there was probably some water/ice in the exhaust pipe, so after checking the oil levels and getting some gas, I manage to drive her home.
My bike is really unhappy at this point, i do make it home that night, though, and pull into the garage. I see some smoke, but it was pushing a bit of smoke from the exhaust the whole time, so I wasn't too alarmed. Then I saw an orange glow coming from inside the bike. I noticed how it burned when I breathed in and realized something was terribly wrong. I quickly backed it out of the garage, popped the seat off, yanked off the tank, and saw my sludge soaked bike slowly starting to burn.
The flames didn't seem to spread much, and in the end the damage only included my pod air filters, and a part of my wiring harness. I was lucky, the sludge that came out of, and covered my bike was a mixture of gas and oil, most of the gas, I assume, evaporated on the ride home, if it didn't, I probably wouldn't have much of a bike left.
We can rebuild it, we have the technology...
Now, just 2 days later, I begin my low budget rebuild project, and I'm here to take along anybody willing to read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the current goal list for my rebuild.
~Looks: Custom fairings, lights, under glow, and mirrors.
~Fairings: Home built custom, full fiberglass, streamlined aerodynamics, while allowing proper air flow to the engine and carbs.
~Carbs: Clean out and tune to finished product.
~Exhaust: Clean off and properly patch hole OR cut hole out of exhaust pipe, wrap remains in fiberglass sheet, resulting in shortened yoshi exhaust.
~Weight: Remove excess weight as possible. Ex: plastic that holds battery between seat and back tire.
~Fabrication: Make fiberglass parts that streamline the final design. Ex: Fiberglass batter holder that is not visible from the sides.
~Electric: Fix the burnt wires, streamline the electric system on the bike.
I got a beautiful '99 katana 750 off a trusted co-worker. It didn't run, but I knew from some experience with my old 05 ninja 250 that it sounded like a carb issue. Sure enough, i get it home, and over the course of 3 days of cleaning and pushing air through it, bike starts right up. Sounds great for sitting in a garage for 3 years.
It had some bugs to work out, bled the brakes, cleaned the calipers, fixed a busted wire on my 3rd spark plug, nowshe's running smooth. Being the speed junkie I am, i buy a jet kit, tune the carbs, and I'm in business.
Everythings going great, it's my daily driver, no problems until somebody at work backs into me. My fairings got busted up pretty good, broke my clutch handle, and back left foot peg (at the frame), and worst of all, put about a 3 inch hole in my yoshimura carbon fiber exhaust.
I repaired what I could, the fairings were busted, the handle was cheap, but the exhaust seemed to be a total loss. Thus my adventure begins.
I looked up my options. A new exhaust was beyond my budget, And I didn't have time to save up, so I found a way to patch it. I got some fiberglass mat and I patched it. If you know anything about fiberglass, you will find out what I still didn't know at the time, mats are more for corners, and fillers, but what I needed was fiberglass sheet.
The mat worked,though. The bike ran fine until a little more bad luck occurred. I met my wife at our local hospital for a prenatal appointment, and they said that she was already in the beginning of labor, and we got a room. Not a problem, I'm excited. The only problem is my bike is going to be left out for a couple days. Nothing I haven't done before, but there is a massive freeze coming in 2 days, and maybe even snow for a day. Pretty rare in NC.
I don't think of it much, there wasn't anything I could really do about it. So, after a few days, the baby is delivered, and we are free to take her home. I went to go ride home, while my wife took the van, but my bike is literally frozen. I can't even get the key in the ignition.
I went back the next day, thankfully the ice melted. I start her up, she reluctantly runs. As I let it warm up, it starts spewing a large volume of liquids. It just keeps going. I can't find anything wrong, but it seemed that oil and gas had both overflown, and the engine was purging it. I also assumed there was probably some water/ice in the exhaust pipe, so after checking the oil levels and getting some gas, I manage to drive her home.
My bike is really unhappy at this point, i do make it home that night, though, and pull into the garage. I see some smoke, but it was pushing a bit of smoke from the exhaust the whole time, so I wasn't too alarmed. Then I saw an orange glow coming from inside the bike. I noticed how it burned when I breathed in and realized something was terribly wrong. I quickly backed it out of the garage, popped the seat off, yanked off the tank, and saw my sludge soaked bike slowly starting to burn.
The flames didn't seem to spread much, and in the end the damage only included my pod air filters, and a part of my wiring harness. I was lucky, the sludge that came out of, and covered my bike was a mixture of gas and oil, most of the gas, I assume, evaporated on the ride home, if it didn't, I probably wouldn't have much of a bike left.
We can rebuild it, we have the technology...
Now, just 2 days later, I begin my low budget rebuild project, and I'm here to take along anybody willing to read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the current goal list for my rebuild.
~Looks: Custom fairings, lights, under glow, and mirrors.
~Fairings: Home built custom, full fiberglass, streamlined aerodynamics, while allowing proper air flow to the engine and carbs.
~Carbs: Clean out and tune to finished product.
~Exhaust: Clean off and properly patch hole OR cut hole out of exhaust pipe, wrap remains in fiberglass sheet, resulting in shortened yoshi exhaust.
~Weight: Remove excess weight as possible. Ex: plastic that holds battery between seat and back tire.
~Fabrication: Make fiberglass parts that streamline the final design. Ex: Fiberglass batter holder that is not visible from the sides.
~Electric: Fix the burnt wires, streamline the electric system on the bike.
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