That's the one and it's a fookin' nutter bike!
I've just come back from my first hooligan ride in ages.
I downloaded the manual, set the suspension to stock and put air in the tyres.
What a difference! It turns! It steers! It holds a line! It can CHANGE lines!
2mm more preload at the rear and the front and rear were behaving in unison. Still a bit choppy but a billion times better than the random settings the previous owner had dialed in. Get this. 21 clicks of compression on the rear. No rebound. None. It stuttered worse than Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda. Only 2 clicks of rebound on the front. Hit a big bump mid corner and it would gently wallow. After dialling the new settings in I hit a couple of big dips cranked over and it just ate it up. Having said that if I'd made the same sort of wholesale changes on an Ohlins equipped bike it would be a different kettle of fish altogether. Almost a parallel universe.
The rear tyre really showed evidence of there being no rebound damping with a big lip on the trailing edge of the major tread grooves (Michelin Pilot Powers - really nice) and the front edge wearing down. Giving it more rebound gave it a slight lip on the leading edge, so I could probably do a bit better but I don't have time. It leaves tomorrow! Waaaah.
That ENGINE! Flatslide carbs FTW. These are set up nicely and anyone with a tiny amount of skill can ride around the fluffy fuelling under 3k rpm. The clutch on the other hand gets and absolute flailing. Get it over 5k rpm and it's all on, not R1 or GSXR1000 on but anyone can ride one of THOSE, right the way to redline. There's a weird resonance from the intake too which makes it sound like Noriyuki Haga is about to ride up alongside, punch you in the head and hit the kill switch for riding his bike like a pussy. I want one of those engines for my Zed. Sob.
Bugger spending megabucks on a new GSXR600, get one of these and grow some hair on your balls.
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