Although I haven’t posted for a while, things have been going on…

Firstly I had a late summer visit to Lonesome, and had the grand tour of his new mansion. A palatial van conveniently situated with easy access to major routes (in a layby of a carriageway off the M1.). All amenities are available, including hot and cold running water (hot in summer, and cold in winter). But all seriousness aside, it’s an amazing place he has setup inside an old 7.5 ton box lorry.

The ride and conversation were as last time the perfect tonic to the weeks stresses and strains. The bike ran fine, and Lonesome gave me the usual warm welcome and we talked crap for a while and I headed home.

Then on 20th September the Z750 twin was again entered for the Wolverton Show, and placed among the classic bikes from all areas of the world. There were plenty of British machines, and a fair few Japanese classics too.

My dad once again made the trip up on his BSA pictured here next to the Z750, with my daughter perched on the seat.

There were also a lot of Scooters there too

One of the kind scooter owners allowed Phoebe to sit on his bike.

Anyway, it was a nice day with plenty to see and do, here’s a selection of highlights

Unfortunately the Summer and the tax are both running out, so the Z750 will take a few months break again. Hopefully next year will be good to us with sunny weekends, and I can get out on the bike more often. I also hope to be doing some updates over the winter months as I clean and tidy some areas of the bike.

Stay safe.

It’s been a while since I posted, because the Z750 has been nowhere for a while. Today though my wife needed some shopping so I offered to take her on the Kawasaki, and to my surprise not only did she accept but also decided we should go a little further than the local Tesco to give the Twin a run.

So it was that we went to Asda near Bletchley. As the Kawasaki’s twin cylinders hadn’t breathed fire for a while I thought it may need some coaxing back to the land of the living. I switched on the ignition, and hit the starter button expecting nothing. The lazy starter turned slowly once, and on the second lot of compression the Z750 fired up.

Knowing there was not much fuel I hit the kill switch, and pulled the heavy lump up the hill out of the drive backwards, and onto the road. We both suited up and got back on the bike, which again started on the button with one push. We were off, bound for the supermarket. A nice leisurely ride saw us there in just a few minutes, and parked. While the missus went off for the provisions I checked just how low the petrol was. Lets just say we’d made it to our destination, which luckily had a fuel station on site as we wouldn’t have gone much further.

The wife returned with her booty, and we forced the rucksack to take more than it should (I’m sure she must have forgotten we weren’t in the car). Back on ole Betsy which started again on the button, and round the corner to the filling station. Packed with cars, but on the bike we could jump ahead while the back ones were waiting for the pumps to clear.

Its thirst quenched we headed for home on the Kawasaki. At one stage we were even overtaking cars, and no complaints from the wife either. Then it was home again, and put away for later. Hope we get some more good weather soon.

Well as you can guess from the title I finally managed to get the Kawasaki down for an MOT. A few false starts as there were no slots available at the mot station, or I was too busy to get there, but finally it all came together. The bike ran ok to get there, the MOT tester was happy that the bike was roadworthy and we got the required certificate.

I got home, waited a few hours and then applied for tax online. Everything was showing as accepted, MOT, Insurance etc. so the tax went through without a hitch. So now we’re ready to go once more.

This was going to be the weekend I took the Z750 in for it’s MOT and got ready to ride again. The Kawasaki had other plans though. Running through the lights to make sure they all worked, and my previous temporary repair to the high beam/low beam switch gave up. The screw replacing the original thumb push just broke out of the internal switchgear. So no high beam.

Luckily when Big Al got his Z750 he replaced both handlebar switch controls, so there was a spare in the garage. The problem was the wires had been cut (not by Al I hasten to add) so the loom would need connecting in some way. I decided that soldering was the best course of action.

I removed the left hand control switches and cut back the wiring to a point I could access easily, and that had a previous taped repair anyway. I then mounted the “new “ set of control switches, and put the cable through to cut to match the existing bit. So far so good.

Out came the trusty soldering iron, and solder. The first wire was matched to its new partner, and both were tinned and then held together and the iron applied to melt the solder together. Success. Cover the exposed wires and on to the next. The second one also went well. It’s after that things become difficult.

The 2 previously soldered wires now have a tendency to push the others away from each other so twisting and bending becomes the only choice. 3rd and 4th wires done, the 5th wire becomes difficult to position, solder and hold all with just two hands. If you ever want to learn new swear words and new and innovative sentences containing swear words, just turn up when someone is in this predicament. The burnt fingertips and many badly soldered joints which have to be redone are not good for the nerves.

By wire number 7 the whole world seems to have turned against you, and everything nearby is in danger of a kick or getting thrown if it gets in the way. Add some wind cooling the solder rapidly and things get real ugly.

Anyway in the end all 8 wires are soldered, 4 fingertips are burnt and none of the neighbours will let their kids anywhere near in case they pick up some bad words. But joy of joys it all works and now all is right with the world once more. Peace is restored to the Sabbath.

So next time it’s the MOT test. Be afraid…..

I finally decided it was time to get to work on the Z750 twin and maybe get the mot done. I removed the cover and looked at the bike and decided I should replace the torn seat cover as I have had one sitting around which was made by another Z750 twin owner (Thanks Phil).

So I removed the 3 securing bolts and took off the seat. Removed the dangling trim, and prised up the clips holding the cover in place. Luckily the base is in good condition, a rarity on Japanese bikes of this vintage, but this was so I was happy. I covered the stickers underneath the seat and then painted the base to tidy it up.

After waiting for the paint to dry which should take 24 hours according to the tin but in this case was less than 10 minutes, I started to fit the new cover. Impatient? Me? So I pulled it tight across the foam, and started pulling it over the sharp pointy clips at the front. With the help of my wife I worked along one side, then the other pulling it very tight and pushing th4e foam down to ensure a nice smooth crease free finish.

Eventually it was all pulled on, and as we’d gone round we’d also put on a piece of black trim my dad had picked up from an autojumble which helped keep the cover in place and finish off the edge nicely. A little trim and the seat was ready to refit complete with fingerprints in the soft paint on the underside.

Then I made the decision to start the Kawasaki Twin and a couple of kicks saw it breathe fire once again. But only briefly before it coughed on one cylinder, and then the remaining one gave up trying to drag its dead brother. The last excursion fault had reared its head again, but I had an idea it was one of the carbs and they’d need removing and stripping. Impatience and laziness fought that one out, and laziness won. So I put the cover back on.

One week later and I had worked up enthusiasm to remove the carburettors, which involved removing the side panels, petrol tank and 4 hose clamps. Wriggled out the carbs and removed the cables so I could work on them.

Starting with a diaphragm check, I removed the tops of the carbs and held up the diaphragms to the light and tugged lightly. Both were fine. I stripped the carb bowls off, and checked the floats, and needles and blew in the pipes while holding the floats up to check they were shutting off, and opening with the float movement. All ok. A quick clean through the venturi (holes to you and me) with some cleaner spray, and clean up the inaccessible parts with some more spray and it was time to refit them.

After the carbs were back on, I put the tank and covers back and got ready to start the bike again. That’s where the cats come into it. On the new seat cover I noticed some small pin pricks, and claw marks where the cats have been using the bike as a resting place and clawing the the seat to pull themselves up on their preferred spot. GRRRRRR. Anybody need a tennis racquet restrung, I know where to get some catgut. Also I feel so much less sympathy for Tom when Jerry hits him with a frying pan or other blunt object on Cartoon Network now.

Luckily the Z750 twin started on the second kick, and ran perfectly for ten minutes or so at various throttle settings. Hopefully it can now be ridden for its mot in the near future ready to be taxed and ridden again in 2009. Watch this space…

The Z750 has been rested up for the winter. Last year I paid the money to tax it all year round, but found that the winter was cold, and colder on a bike than in the car, who’d have thought it?

So this year I saved the money and took the bike off the road to carry out a few repairs etc on it while it was stood up. So far since October till now in mid February I have erm  well left the old Kawasaki covered up nice and warm and not looked under the cover since. But I did think about removing the seat to fit a new cover. I also considered cleaning and repainting some parts. But none of it happened.

So there you have it then, 4 months of absolutely nothing happening summed up into 3 paragraphs. Probably could have stretched it a bit and said how I’d also given some consideration to removing the carburettors for a good check over and clean out, but that would have been pushing it as the thought didn’t cross my mind until just a moment ago when I was trying to come up with something to write.

Soon though it will go for this years MOT and be taxed and ridden again, and I’m considering buying slim and fit Al’s Z750 off him if I can raise the funds. So look in again soon to see what’s happening.

It’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK so consequently it’s cloudy, showery and changeable on the weather front. So as I won’t ride in the possibility of rain I decided to do some maintenance on the Z750 twin. Nothing too drastic, some minor lubrication and simple routine stuff was all I had in mind, about ten minutes of fettling in other words.

Firstly I decided to grease the rear swing arm bushes, which Kawasaki made provision for on the Z750 B1 by putting in a grease nipple on the swing arm. I retrieved the grease gun from my company van, and found it empty as I had left it. Located the grease cartridges and changed it. That sounds easy enough as I write it here, but it took 20 minutes to find the grease cartridges and to coax it into the grease gun which didn’t seem to want to screw back together afterwards.

After some persuasion and naughty words (the wife and kids were out so it was ok to use them instead of words like “oh bother” and “deary me”) I was ready to hit the grease nipple with the nozzle. Kawasaki saw fit to give us a grease point, but not to make it accessible. You can see it between the frame and the rear brake line I have ringed it on this blurred picture for you

It even looks accessible until you push the grease gun nozzle in the gap. I tried several different ways, and a lot of the swear words I knew before getting the nozzle on the nipple and pumping grease on the swing arm at the same time as into the nipple. I spent the next ten minutes with a bit of stick and rag cleaning the excess grease off the swing arm to prevent it falling on the tyre while I am riding one day.

With the swing arm having got as much grease as my blood pressure was going to allow before breaking out of several veins in my brain, I set about the simple task of lubricating the chain. Have you ever noticed how the nozzles of cans of spray (such as the chain spray I was about to use) have a habit of going missing?

Having located the chain spray nozzle I realised I was unable to spin the rear wheel to access the entire chain. I had to get the bike higher in order to get the rear wheel off the ground. I found a piece of wood, placed it carefully under the centre stand and heaved the bike up the extra height. The wheel spun freely and I lubricated the chain. It has been said at times I work on the wrong side of safety, decide for yourself now

I noticed the wood had moved as I was about to take the bike back down off the stand, it didn’t fall so it must have been safe like that right? You can comment below if you’d like to

By now the 10 minute routine lube jobs had run into an hour and a half, and I decided I’d had enough for one day. It is after all a holiday so I am going to rest now.

Today I decided it was time the poor old Kawasaki’s engine had some fresh oil. It was last changed when I first bought the bike and it has done some work since then, and the oil was only going to be in for the initial start up, and a few miles before it got changed to kind of flush the lubrication system out.

The oil change has been on the agenda for a while, but today I finally got out the washing up bowl (don’t tell the wife) to drain the oil into and got underneath with the spanner and let out the old lubricant. It wasn’t in bad condition really, but it’s gone now to be recycled, and the new oil is in.

I just couldn’t be arsed to change the oil filter though as that meant removing footrests, gear levers, engine side covers and more faffing around. That’s a job for the next Z750 twins next oil change, when it may also get some other new parts, but at least the oil is good for a few more miles of engine protection duties.

It’s that time of year, cold, wet and miserable, when for me anyway motorcycling loses its appeal somewhat. I know the ruffty tuffty biker types will be making faces and pointing at me for that remark, but laugh away, I’m staying warm and dry for now.

So with the absence of any Z750 activity there has been a dearth of posts, as I’m sure people reading a site about Z750 twins won’t be interested in reading about me sitting by the fire watching telly. There is a little news though.

I bought some motorcycle trouses from Ebay to wear in case of a dry day even if it’s a bit cold during the winter. Problem was the manufacturer got the sizing wrong, and the xl just doesn’t fit my lithe body. I mean it can’t be me can it?
Well I have lost a stone and a half since I bought them, and they do button up now so a few more pounds should see me in them

On another note, the Lonesome Twin Forum went down, and unfortunately this has become a common ocurrence meaning the Z750 twin owners of the world lose contact. So some of the members have got together and started the Z750 Twin Forum to keep us in touch. Why not visit and see who’s there?

So that’s about all for now, till next time, Take Care out there.

Taxation

I paid up for a whole years tax on the 31st October so the Z750 is on the road for at least 12 months more. That’s tax, MOT and insurance paid for a while now anyway
Next to put some of our liquid gold priced petrol in the bike.