[cool4kats]

I saw a police radar speedo sign on the side of the road near me, so rode by to check my speedo.
Woh! my speedo reads 60 but the radar sign said I was only going 53!!!
No wonder everybody was passing me on the highway!
So I calculate a 13% difference. Good to know, now I can compensate.

My Kat did not have a clock so I ended up using a RAM mount and iphone with a speedometer app.
That way I had a more accurate speedo and a clock.

[1LE]

Ah, fender is free! Last fender screw out. Took a lot of soaking in PB Blaster and about a dozen good whacks with a medium sized rubber mallet onto a manual impact tool (with large straight screwdriver bit going into the slot I cut in the screw). After those first couple of very difficult turns, it became free enough to finish with a regular large screwdriver. Everything looks good, apparently was just seriously stuck. Thanks all for the various tips, I think I employed them all to finally get all 4 of those pesky screws out!

Started the fork disassembly process and stopped pretty much immediately with the 6mm deep hex bolt. Placed an order for a looooong 6mm hex driver socket to match, as well as an order for the seals, dust covers, and all the various screws/bolts that I either find to not be suitable for reuse or were just plain missing during the fork removal from the chassis.

[shpielers]

Ah, fender is free! Last fender screw out. Took a lot of soaking in PB Blaster and about a dozen good whacks with a medium sized rubber mallet onto a manual impact tool (with large straight screwdriver bit going into the slot I cut in the screw). After those first couple of very difficult turns, it became free enough to finish with a regular large screwdriver. Everything looks good, apparently was just seriously stuck. Thanks all for the various tips, I think I employed them all to finally get all 4 of those pesky screws out!

Started the fork disassembly process and stopped pretty much immediately with the 6mm deep hex bolt. Placed an order for a looooong 6mm hex driver socket to match, as well as an order for the seals, dust covers, and all the various screws/bolts that I either find to not be suitable for reuse or were just plain missing during the fork removal from the chassis.

'Grats for sticking with it and getting it done.

[trumper]

Finally got the T-Rex sliders installed. Initaiily thoght they were not going to work as they did not clear the fairing but turns out I was grinding down on the wrong spot on the bracket. Looks good now.

[cool4kats]

Ah, fender is free! Last fender screw out. Took a lot of soaking in PB Blaster and about a dozen good whacks with a medium sized rubber mallet onto a manual impact tool (with large straight screwdriver bit going into the slot I cut in the screw). After those first couple of very difficult turns, it became free enough to finish with a regular large screwdriver. Everything looks good, apparently was just seriously stuck. Thanks all for the various tips, I think I employed them all to finally get all 4 of those pesky screws out!

Started the fork disassembly process and stopped pretty much immediately with the 6mm deep hex bolt. Placed an order for a looooong 6mm hex driver socket to match, as well as an order for the seals, dust covers, and all the various screws/bolts that I either find to not be suitable for reuse or were just plain missing during the fork removal from the chassis.

Don't use the ball end type. Get a good quality one. It is helpful to have an air impact wrench for removing the damper rod bolt on the bottom.

[1LE]

Don't use the ball end type. Get a good quality one. It is helpful to have an air impact wrench for removing the damper rod bolt on the bottom.

Yeah, I fit my ball end hexkey in there and was considering putting a cheater bar on it, but had a bad feeling about it. Just felt like a real good way to strip the head in a hurry. So, a long "socket driver" (no ball on the end, straight up hex) is on order from Snap-On. Unfortunately appears to be backordered at the moment. We'll see how long that backorder goes on. If it stretches too long and I miss too much riding season I can always drop the forks off with a local mechanic to do the actual rebuild for me.

Reassembling the bike looks to be ridiculously easy compared to the disassembly, and it really only took me 2 weeks of nibbling at it here and there to get it apart. I really should have tracked total hours. I'm sure they're quite high for this type of job, but I really don't feel bad about it at all, what with pretty much everything being stuck. Also was an excellent learning experience. I've worked on rusty old cars a lot before, but there most times you don't even worry about the screws if you snap a couple off since there are so many more than necessary. Every single one on the bike looks to serve a real purpose, so I was forced to improve my knowledge and technique.

[buffalobill]

Just put these clip ons my 750.
I am 6'4" need room to get low for corners.

[Aaron-71]

Rode it to work yesterday.

After some riding now, it feels like the rear tire trails the bike better... possibly because of a decent rear shock?

[Aaron-71]

Covered it for the last 2 days.

Rain + downtown work. Not good combinations.

[Kat Floyd]

Amen, Its been a week of rain here in the gulf and next week looks no different!

[1LE]

One fork strut half assembled now. Halted while waiting for tools to arrive.

Asked over on mech about trying to determine if the bushing was still in spec (as the manual and extra directions all say to IRAN, but aren't totally clear about how much wear is too much). Since I ride the bike so few miles, it didn't look like the "bad" picture, my fork oil was free of any "glitter", and the forks operation seemed fine (other than the leaking oil seal) I've gone ahead and re-used. Even if it doesn't have tons of life left technically, that could be years of riding for me (I did 350 miles last year and 200 miles the year before)...

Instructions also weren't clear on which threadlocker to use on the bottom and oil bolts, so went for blue after reading horror stories about people needing torches to break free bolts locked with red. One problem I ran into is that the spec torque appears to be for clean and dry, which it is NOT when there's threadlocker on there... While that's not an issue for the beefy bottom bolt, I'm not sure how the directions can require threadlocker then also give such a high (relatively speaking) torque value for the tiny oil bolt. Wet, the spec torque should probably be HALF that based on my prior experiences with bolts that size (from automotive). I did follow the directions as written though, and as a result the oil bolt started to yield right when I got to the low end of the spec torque range, so that's just where it's going to be. So, on next rebuild I'll definitely have to replace it. Not looking forward to that bolt on the other side, I hate stuff like that.

After screwing around for a while trying to set the seal the various DIY methods and getting frustrated, placed an order for a real fork seal driver. FYI, 41mm.

[Aaron-71]

Uncovered my Kat and rode it to work today.

Downtown driving is going to be hella-fun today.

Still considering selling the Kat after this season is over or part-way through the season... $2400 to license my Kat (without insurance) is too much money for me.

Starting to look at antique Suzuki Intruders.

[shpielers]

Uncovered my Kat and rode it to work today.

Downtown driving is going to be hella-fun today.

Still considering selling the Kat after this season is over or part-way through the season... $2400 to license my Kat (without insurance) is too much money for me.

Starting to look at antique Suzuki Intruders.

$2400 for registration?!? Jesus! Is that per year?? $109 here.

[crimsontracer]

Just put these clip ons my 750.
I am 6'4" need room to get low for corners.

I dig my clipons as well. 6'2" and same problem though. I went under the tree though.

After lots of carb tuning over two weeks - I finally got it dialed in enough to go for a 150 mile ride to the ocean and back this weekend. The kat is running great and I only have a few more tweaks to make to the carbs to really get it dialed in.

[1LE]

$2400 for registration?!? Jesus! Is that per year?? $109 here.

Wow, that's crazy. I got my Katana because it costs me nearly nothing at all to keep. It was $1 to buy, registration is $42 a year, and insurance is $150 a year. I spend more than that on maintaining it each year.