Dagsê guys,
I am recently retired now but when I met my wife 35 years ago, I ensured that I came as a package deal complete with a Kawa Z550 before we got married. So future biking is not (should not be?) a problem for me.
I used to work in the Free State goldfields and when I got transferred to Jhb, I sold my bike unfortunately and then Life also happened. Now that I am having a breather, I am looking to get back into bikes, something like an NC750X. The feeling of freedom on a bike is just unparalleled.
A bit about my old bike (long read, sorry): I bought it secondhand from a Free State hooligan IMHO. Being new to bikes at the time, I didn't smell a rat when I saw the alumunium foil-wrapped fuses afterwards. Of course, the voltage regulator was shot and that is why the fuses received the miner's treatment. Fortunately a new bike scrapyard opened up at the time, so I was lucky enough to get a voltage regulator from them. Hell's bells, new bike part pricing was horrendous to say the least, and I assume it only got worse over time.
The previous owner also had racing cams fitted to the bike, so I can attain that it got past the 200 mark on the speedo. Even in my youthful stupidity I realised that a Z550 wasn't designed for 200 as a normal smooth road became a hop skip and jump affair at that speed. Very dangerous, but I had a heck of a blast every time.
The cursed electric start. The bike had no kick-start, so it was electric start only. When going on a road trip and you stop to refuel, the electric start don't start until the air-cooled engine cooled down a bit. I had many meters on my clock for trying to push-start a Z550. Believe me, a Z550 mid-weight bike ain't so mid-weight after a while. I resolved this issue after reading up (pre-Google days) that Kawasaki upgraded their starter motors from having field coils to permanent magnet motors. What a stupid idea, a magnet looses it magnetism if heated up. So I luckily managed to get the old starter motor model with field coils from a bike scrapyard, and that solved the issue of restarting a hot engine.
Then the Free State winters dawned upon me. That real vrot chemical mixture encased in oblique grey plastic called a motorcycle battery, was invented in hell and sent to earth by satan in person to torture the biking fraternity. When cold, no start. I solved this by fitting a Willard 619 car battery under the seat. A real tight fit but I managed to do it neatly. Problem solved, and the new battery system worked so well that I could drive to work by just using my starter motor. Maybe this was the first electric motorcycle in the Free State, who knows?
Then there was always this chain creaking sound present when I bought the bike. I inspected the timing chain and replaced the drive chain with a new o-ring chain but the creaking sound remained. Until one day, the creaking sound stopped and the bike stopped as well. I then discovered that the Z550 had another chain, a wide mother of a chain connecting the engine and the gearbox internally and this chain decided it had enough of the racing cams and promptly died on me. I decided to strip the whole bike since I had to strip the engine anyways. Besides, the bike frame was in dire need of a coat of paint as well. I used a roll of Gladwrap bags and yellow post-it notes to keep the respective parts together. This trick worked very well in reassembling your bike afterwards. Naas from Stateway Motorcycles said he couldn't help me with a new chain as both the Z550 and Z750 bikes were not imported by Midmacor (or something similar), it was therefore classed as grey imports so sorry, voertsek and goodbye. I waited a few weeks in order for Naas to forget my mutt and I approached him again about the chain. This time I got wise, and gave him the engine number instead of the bike name and model. Like magic snagic the correct chain sailed forth from the spares bin and it was a perfect fit.
During assembling of the engine, I discovered that they guys fitting the racing cams used too much gasket sealing compound (gasket maker). The chain breaking was a blessing in disguise as their over-enthusiastic application of gasket compound partially blocked off some of the oil channels in the engine. I cleaned the said channels out and I was careful not to use too much gasket sealing compound when putting the engine together again.
While the bike was stripped into a gazillion pieces, I decided now was a good time to replace all the wheel bearings as well. Now I distrusted my good old friend Naas from Stateway Motorcycles already but I asked him first to give me a price on the four wheel bearings. SKF Bearings subsequently quoted me for all four wheel bearings slightly more compared to Naas' quote for a single bearing. What a rip-off from Naas, I would go so far as to class it as a crime against bikers.
As you can see from my blurb, I had a serious love affair with my first bike
I am recently retired now but when I met my wife 35 years ago, I ensured that I came as a package deal complete with a Kawa Z550 before we got married. So future biking is not (should not be?) a problem for me.
I used to work in the Free State goldfields and when I got transferred to Jhb, I sold my bike unfortunately and then Life also happened. Now that I am having a breather, I am looking to get back into bikes, something like an NC750X. The feeling of freedom on a bike is just unparalleled.
A bit about my old bike (long read, sorry): I bought it secondhand from a Free State hooligan IMHO. Being new to bikes at the time, I didn't smell a rat when I saw the alumunium foil-wrapped fuses afterwards. Of course, the voltage regulator was shot and that is why the fuses received the miner's treatment. Fortunately a new bike scrapyard opened up at the time, so I was lucky enough to get a voltage regulator from them. Hell's bells, new bike part pricing was horrendous to say the least, and I assume it only got worse over time.
The previous owner also had racing cams fitted to the bike, so I can attain that it got past the 200 mark on the speedo. Even in my youthful stupidity I realised that a Z550 wasn't designed for 200 as a normal smooth road became a hop skip and jump affair at that speed. Very dangerous, but I had a heck of a blast every time.
The cursed electric start. The bike had no kick-start, so it was electric start only. When going on a road trip and you stop to refuel, the electric start don't start until the air-cooled engine cooled down a bit. I had many meters on my clock for trying to push-start a Z550. Believe me, a Z550 mid-weight bike ain't so mid-weight after a while. I resolved this issue after reading up (pre-Google days) that Kawasaki upgraded their starter motors from having field coils to permanent magnet motors. What a stupid idea, a magnet looses it magnetism if heated up. So I luckily managed to get the old starter motor model with field coils from a bike scrapyard, and that solved the issue of restarting a hot engine.
Then the Free State winters dawned upon me. That real vrot chemical mixture encased in oblique grey plastic called a motorcycle battery, was invented in hell and sent to earth by satan in person to torture the biking fraternity. When cold, no start. I solved this by fitting a Willard 619 car battery under the seat. A real tight fit but I managed to do it neatly. Problem solved, and the new battery system worked so well that I could drive to work by just using my starter motor. Maybe this was the first electric motorcycle in the Free State, who knows?
Then there was always this chain creaking sound present when I bought the bike. I inspected the timing chain and replaced the drive chain with a new o-ring chain but the creaking sound remained. Until one day, the creaking sound stopped and the bike stopped as well. I then discovered that the Z550 had another chain, a wide mother of a chain connecting the engine and the gearbox internally and this chain decided it had enough of the racing cams and promptly died on me. I decided to strip the whole bike since I had to strip the engine anyways. Besides, the bike frame was in dire need of a coat of paint as well. I used a roll of Gladwrap bags and yellow post-it notes to keep the respective parts together. This trick worked very well in reassembling your bike afterwards. Naas from Stateway Motorcycles said he couldn't help me with a new chain as both the Z550 and Z750 bikes were not imported by Midmacor (or something similar), it was therefore classed as grey imports so sorry, voertsek and goodbye. I waited a few weeks in order for Naas to forget my mutt and I approached him again about the chain. This time I got wise, and gave him the engine number instead of the bike name and model. Like magic snagic the correct chain sailed forth from the spares bin and it was a perfect fit.
During assembling of the engine, I discovered that they guys fitting the racing cams used too much gasket sealing compound (gasket maker). The chain breaking was a blessing in disguise as their over-enthusiastic application of gasket compound partially blocked off some of the oil channels in the engine. I cleaned the said channels out and I was careful not to use too much gasket sealing compound when putting the engine together again.
While the bike was stripped into a gazillion pieces, I decided now was a good time to replace all the wheel bearings as well. Now I distrusted my good old friend Naas from Stateway Motorcycles already but I asked him first to give me a price on the four wheel bearings. SKF Bearings subsequently quoted me for all four wheel bearings slightly more compared to Naas' quote for a single bearing. What a rip-off from Naas, I would go so far as to class it as a crime against bikers.
As you can see from my blurb, I had a serious love affair with my first bike
