Frosty evening ride

[Millietant]

After a glorious sunny day, with temperatures in the low teens (Celsius), my new-to-the-FJ pals asked if I fancied a ride out this evening. It seemed like a brilliant idea, so at 6pm we're headed out into the countryside for a little 50 mile round trip, with a stop off for a cuppa.

Those LED headlight bulbs really make a difference to the pleasure level of night riding, but the winter chill certainly don't

Leaving the celubrious accommodations of a random, warm McDonalds around 8pm, we suddenly realised that in winter, with clear skies, the temperatures suddenly fall quite dramatically once the sun goes down and riding in 1 degree Celsius, without a winter jacket lining and wearing unlined summer gloves, might not have been the best of ideas 

But, nevertheless, it was another great ride with no physical after effects and another step on my road to recovery 

[Old Rider]

Good to see you back in the saddle Dean!. it looks like all 3 fj in picture has converted to lead bulbs. When cold i use 100% wool gloves inside the riding gloves.  watch out for ice when riding  in or out of tunnels or over bridges dont ask me how i know. but i guess you already know about that.
Bless you!

[Old Rider]

I also have put a LED phillips bulb H4 socket in my kawasaki and it doubled the brightness.
I took a trip on the kz900 yesterday after i put on some vintage look tires

[Millietant]

We're all using OSRAM P43t LED bulbs in our FJ's.

They're fantastic. Pete was with us on his 2015 R1 for about 20 miles on Tuesday evening and the R1's headlights looked like candles in comparison to our FJ's. 

[FJ1200W]

We're all using OSRAM P43t LED bulbs in our FJ's. 

Plug and play?

[Millietant]

We're all using OSRAM P43t LED bulbs in our FJ's. 

Plug and play?

Yes, just need to trim the rubber boot cover (I secured mine with a bit of duct tape).

[FJ1200W]

We're all using OSRAM P43t LED bulbs in our FJ's. 

Plug and play?

Yes, just need to trim the rubber boot cover (I secured mine with a bit of duct tape).

Thanks - I'm willing to try LED again.

[T Legg]

I also have put a LED phillips bulb H4 socket in my kawasaki and it doubled the brightness.
I took a trip on the kz900 yesterday after i put on some vintage look tires

Your Kawasaki is a nice looking bike. How did you fix the hole you found in the casting when you first bought it?
 I put new much better rear shocks ,tires and brake caliper on my 71' CB750 k1 this winter. I went for more modern tires this time. Between the tires and shocks it handles much better. It still doesn't stop worth a shit.

[Old Rider]

Your Kawasaki is a nice looking bike. How did you fix the hole you found in the casting when you first bought it?
 I put new much better rear shocks ,tires and brake caliper on my 71' CB750 k1 this winter. I went for more modern tires this time. Between the tires and shocks it handles much better. It still doesn't stop worth a shit.

Hi Travis!
This is not the same bike i first bought a z1000 1977 ,but owned that for about 4-5 days because i found bad things with it .I returned it to seller and got the money back.

Then i bought this kz900 1976 .At first it did run good but then started to misfire and doing funny things like melting a coil. I found camchain had stretched and camsliders and rollers was worn.The camchain jumped 1 tooth.I then got problem setting the valve timing. Long story short i ended up doing a full rebuild of the head cut valveseats  stuffed in new cylinder sleeves got them bored /honed to the oem 903cc pistons
replaced all o-rings and bearings in engine replaced camchain and camrollers/sliders checked oilpump and gearbox
new boyer bransden electronic ignition and coils.  Not cheap but at least now i know what i have.

Cool you have a cb750 k1 nice bikes. what brand is the chocks ? are they soft?
I ask because i also replaced the rear chocks this winter because they was cheep and looked nice with the reflector they are for kawa z1 the models before kz900.They are way to stiff like riding with no damping and i did not like how they look on my bike  .I will put the old chocks that sat on the bike back.


Here is a pick from yesterday after washing and polishing

[T Legg]

During a high speed run on my 86 FJ last fall I lost compression in all four cylinders. After checking the cam timing and valve lash and finding nothing wrong I parked it until I have time to pull the head off and see what happened.
In the mean time I rebuilt the front brakes, replaced the front and back wheel bearings and put new tires on my poor neglected CB 750 . After a ride with my son I was telling him how I had forgotten how important throttle control was to dampen the bounce in hard corners on the old bike. He suggested my 54 year old shocks may be worn out. That Christmas he offered to buy new shocks. I had the choice between Hagon's and Ikon's. I read that people thought the Hagon's were too stiff and harsh so I picked the Ikon's.
 They are firm but not harsh. The handling is much better. The bounce in hard corners is now minor and I don't have to roll on the throttle to counter the pogo stick effect of diving front forks and bouncing rear shocks.

[Old Rider]

During a high speed run on my 86 FJ last fall I lost compression in all four cylinders. After checking the cam timing and valve lash and finding nothing wrong I parked it until I have time to pull the head off and see what happened.
In the mean time I rebuilt the front brakes, replaced the front and back wheel bearings and put new tires on my poor neglected CB 750 . After a ride with my son I was telling him how I had forgotten how important throttle control was to dampen the bounce in hard corners on the old bike. He suggested my 54 year old shocks may be worn out. That Christmas he offered to buy new shocks. I had the choice between Hagon's and Ikon's. I read that people thought the Hagon's were too stiff and harsh so I picked the Ikon's.
 They are firm but not harsh. The handling is much better. The bounce in hard corners is now minor and I don't have to roll on the throttle to counter the pogo stick effect of diving front forks and bouncing rear shocks.

Your cb looks cool i was going to ask if it was candy gold color before i saw the picture because i know a guy with a cb750 that is candy gold. I like the patina on the tank!! it looks like there is not much rust .I would keep it like that. Ikon chocks are good after what i heard.I also bought shocks for christmas  it is a good christmas present ,but not sure  ladies  will be happy with chocks for christmas .

Since last post i have done some riding i tried to adjust the springs, but they was on the softest already so did not help.Today i think they felt a little softer .Maybe they are hard because the ambient temperature is cold .Also front forks feel stiffer that last summer. and even the seatfoam is hard haha.Today it was a little warm outside and it was a little better to ride ,but I still get back pain and it feels like kidney stones and old broken ribs is rattling around in there
.I had a kidney belt on today to keep things in place.I think i am getting to old for this old style bike, but fun to ride.
The shocks i have is branded EMGO and the price was about 150usd so did not expect the best quality. I read now that "they will be softer after riding about 1000 miles" not sure if will try to wait and see.Now i stand up when riding on roads with many bumps haha.
hope you get the fj fixed soon good riding season to you and your son ! 

[T Legg]

I think my son paid over $ 500.00 US for the shocks.
 I just got my first FJ the old  black 84 1100 back on the road. I took it for a ride yesterday.
   I put a new engine from an XJR 1300 in it with mikuni rs38 flat slides. I also upgraded the forks from gold valves and progressive springs to RPM valves and straight rate springs. I also went from stock 17/42 sprockets to 18/40 .
 I havent really put it through its paces yet but I did do a roll on from 50 mph up to 7500 rpm in 5th gear. It hit 135 mph on the speedometer in nothing flat ( from the rpm verses mph chart i think it was really only 129 mph). I want to get it back out to the airstrip in Alpine county and see what it can do at WOT.

[T Legg]

Yesterday at Galena creek.

[Old Rider]

I think i remember you posted something about installing the xjr engine .The fj/xjr engine is a great roll on torque monster.beats many new bikes i think.Many years ago somtimes we vent to a old military runway to test bikes,but last time i vent there i was met with concrete road blocks someone bought the runway and chopped it into shorter sections using it for driving schools .