"Bike" Magazine FJ+ Article

[Dan Filetti]

So, I read various motorcycle rags, most of them really, from time to time.  This month I happened to pickup a copy of the Brit rag: "Bike".  They are doing a 3 -part/ 3 month story on a budget competition.  There are three competitors each with a 1000 pound budget, and for this they had to buy an 'old beater' no less than 1000cc, and from the 90's.  The budget cap was to also include getting the bikes set to take a 2,000 mile trip through Europe. Tires and brakes $$ was excluded from the 1000 pound budget.

Part 1 was the individual efforts of buying the bike, -that was last months' article.  Interestingly, I have owned two of the three* and ridden the other.  The three bikes purchased were:

*CBR1000F
ZX1100
*FJ1200

This months' article was the 'fix it up' portion. Now these writers are incented to sell new bikes, so there is no end to the 'dinosaurs' 'handles like a truck' 'smoky old beater' comments, but I was interested in that they dyno'd the FJ at 111HP, the ZX at 110HP, and the CBR at 98HP (but it 'vibrated so much they could not get an accurate read' -whatever that means.)  The FJ was gone-over by an FJ owners group guru -can't recall the guys' name, but I'd be surprised if he was not known to this community.  This fellow, apparently pronounced it as a 'good one', yet they maligned it as 'not likely to be able to finish the 2000 mile race/ride'. 

They did mention a "common mod/ fix", that I had not heard before, whereby the rear ride height could be extended by setting the preload all the way up, and the resetting the adjuster to the bottom setting, which gives you that much more adjustment.  -This is from memory, but I was surprised that I had not read this elsewhere -anyone else heard this?

In one sense, it's good to see the notoriety, but I was hoping for a bit more respect.  Next month is the ride/ race thought France/ Spain.  I'll be interested in reading that not only did the FJ finish, but better than expected -just guessing on that...

Anyway, thought I'd pass it along.

Dan

[tqmx1]

The rear ride height trick Big George has done on his 90. The only thing that I would be worried about would be coil bind with it twisted that tight.

[rktmanfj]

They did mention a "common mod/ fix", that I had not heard before, whereby the rear ride height could be extended by setting the preload all the way up, and the resetting the adjuster to the bottom setting, which gives you that much more adjustment.  -This is from memory, but I was surprised that I had not read this elsewhere -anyone else heard this?

My shock is currently set at 2 on the rewind.

I didn't get any additional static ride height out of it, but it did decrease sag a little, I think

Randy T
Indy

[Lotsokids]

I owned a '91 ZX1100 - it was the fastest bike I've ever owned, and the biggest piece of garbage I've ever owned. It was the first production bike with ram air intake, and clocked at 176 MPH. It seemed like the faster I went, the faster it wanted to go. But it broke down about 25% of the time riding it. I bought it for $2,000, put nearly $2,000 in parts into it, and sold it *twice* for $1,900 - all within about a year.

The worst thing happened when I sold it (the first time) and on the way to the new owner's home, the transmission bearings came out and the shaft cocked to the side and siezed the engine. The guy I sold it to seemed to be a nice guy and so we were both put into a bad situation. I told him that bike was hurting both of us, but I could make it hurt only me. So I gave him all of his money back. Later I found the transmission parts I needed, pulled the engine/tranny and replaced all of the transmission "guts." I learned that the ZX1100 had a cronic #3 crank bearing siezure. The bearing oil holes and the block holes didn't line up. At high RPM, the oil pump can't keep up and the bearing freezes onto the crank and launches the #3 piston out the front of the block. This is fairly common and this was the situation of the engine I bought the transmission parts from. The guy I bought these parts from said he was going about 145 MPH and the engine grenaded, and he saw the #3 piston skip down the road in front of him. NOT GOOD. When I pulled my case in half, I could see the misallignment. I took a dremel tool and carved the opening on the block side to match the bearing better.

Also while riding, I hit a bump, and the set screw on top of the left fork blew out and squirted fork oil all over my faceshield and jacket. That makes for a very unhappy "Lotsokids." I was actually so angry, I got out my welder and welded the hole shut. I replaced the forks later.

I hope I didn't hijack this thread, but I wanted people to know the woes with my ZX1100. I LOVE MY FJ1200!!!

Here are some pics:

Me teaching the Air Force Sport Bike class on it



After the bearings left the transmission



Engine out





Some stuff you never want to see at your oil pump pickup

[Pat Conlon]

....Also while riding, I hit a bump, and the set screw on top of the left fork blew out and squirted fork oil all over my faceshield and jacket.
That makes for a very unhappy "Lotsokids." I was actually so angry, I got out my welder and welded the hole shut......

AAAAAAAAHHH shit,  I just blew coffee through my nose....

[simi_ed]

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaark!  Go away, big green POS!  Gimme my Yammie ...

[Lotsokids]

....Also while riding, I hit a bump, and the set screw on top of the left fork blew out and squirted fork oil all over my faceshield and jacket.
That makes for a very unhappy "Lotsokids." I was actually so angry, I got out my welder and welded the hole shut......

AAAAAAAAHHH shit,  I just blew coffee through my nose....

I even have a picture of that, Pat when I changed the forks.

[andyb]

After riding a D model ZX11, I have to say that they aren't all that bad.  The only problem that I had with it was it was one hell of a big-feeling machine, with a long reach to the bars.  Super smooth, powerful, in fact a bit boring because it was so effortless.

I suppose that's how things are with used bikes though, there's a few winners and a whole lot of losers out there, just gotta be careful with what you get.  Both my 900 and FJ were in pretty sorry states when I got them, neither making more than 3/4 the power that they should have been.