johnr

this is my first tech question in the oilcooled world, so here goes. i remember from the old place a thread about the little inserts for the flatslide cv carbs that went on top of the slide needle to stop it from rocking about in the slide and prematurely wearing the needle and thee emulsion tubes. ive tried searching using different terms but ive not managed to find anything relating to it. has anyone got any info on who made them? im going to fit a set of 36mm carbs to the gsxr motor in the kat i just got and thought id strip them first and see if theeyre worn, if so, i will order new ones, but reccon that fitting the little spacer/bush on top of the needle might prolong the life of the parts. any ideas?

not sure if he does them yet, but he was looking into starting production of them. i gave him one of my spare frames to jig them up on.

oil leak from head could be the o rings on the head nuts, they dont often get changed and leak often. but when youre on the road the airflow can blow the oil everywhere. so clean the engine off and degrease it all, replace the o rings and then check it again. your leak on your left side could well be oil from thee head nuts. engine dying could be the carbs needing a clean, but first of all, check that the air vent in the tank filler, cos if it gets blocked up, then as the bike uses fuel, the fuel flows out of the tank and if it cant pull in air through thee vent, it can crate an air lock that kills thee engine. 10 mins standing and its ok again. it can be infuriatingly tricky to pin down. if it does it again, turn the engine off, take your lid off and listen as you remove the fuel cap and listen for thee hiss as it pulls air into the tank.

And yes, 400 kat is cable speedo.

Its a typo and I don't think they realise, hence they still have them brand new. I reccon one of them, a mph to kph convertor and you have a set of 180mph kat clocks! Tkn are no longer trading I'm told.

http://www.unicornjapan-shop.com/product/6564

unfortunately, ive not yet found another set of clocks with matching internals to the kat, though im sure theyre out there. if your odometer isnt working, it might be worth stripping and cleaning the interior workings as they might just be sticking. but be super super careful with the needle mounts, theyre incredibly delicate, and if im stripping a set, i prefer to cut the needles off and fit new ones rather than try to lever them off. theres a guy on fb selling reproduction replica needles, or, if you can source them, the needles from mitsubishi shogun/pajero 4x4's are the same, albeit a touch longer so you need to delicately trim them.

th lpm ones are pretty much spot on, particularly for originality fetishes. as theyre moulded from original items, they even have thee replicated moulding marks on the inside where they wouldnt be seen, so the suzuki part marks and lettering embossed inside the panels are replicated on the copy.

although if you must refer to the abomination from the 90's, the commonly used disparaging term is 'teapot' which is doubly useful, because firstly, it accurately describes the bulging jellymould bodywork on them, and secondly, it really annoys the fuck out of the owners who seem to be under the belief that they own something worth owning....

sue says i cant come to scotland unless i ring up first and check that barry has an empty garage.....

in my defence............. actually,,,,,,,, i have no defence............. it was a full bottle of kraken, and you werent exactly a non participant in this, i only drank the rum after you had given me single malt....... and i only drank single malt after we ran out of wine........

she was a little bit more sweary and a lot more agressive on the day. never stand between a girl and her competitive celebrity ballroom dancing tv show...

cheesy chips?

well stock shocks were pretty poor and seldom lasted more than 3 to 5 years, so the shocks could have been swapped then, or they could be the latest in a long stream of aftermarket shocks. ikon set up in the early 2000s so konis will date from before then!. oh, and you might want to join the owners club!

I picked this up last week from Barry in Pennicuik. Id gone up to drop off an rgv project for a mate of his, and whilst in the shed drooling over the stuff he is building, it was mentioned that this little kat was up for sale, either one price as it is or another higher price with the few small jobs needed done and sorted. we went back to katanamanglers and partook of a bottle of rum and then, suitably refreshed (and under mrs katanamangers instruction to get out and let her watch telly) , we went back to Barrys and the deal was done.i opted to take it as it is, and arranged to com back last week to collect it. i have to say that even though ive a shed full of katanas in various states of dismantling, this bike was the very image of the bike i wanted to build. so, i bought it. it needs a couple of bits of tinkering, seat is getting swapped for a steve adams covered one, the fuel tap needs a mount and ive got some flatslide cv 38's from a diferent gsxr to fit to it. it needs a silencer mount making up and a soft link for the chain to replace the split link it currently sports, and aside from a blow over with some petrol proof laquer on the tank, its all done and dusted. bike started life as a kat 1000, engine is gsxr11k, front is r1 and rear wheel is zx9r, swingarm is lovely aftermarket item but im not sure what off. but thats it, every credit to barry for building it, its all his own work, and thanks to katanamangler for putting me up and feeding me!

koni dial a ride shockers. not standard fitment, but a bloody good shocker for all that. the rubber cover that protects the adjuster needs pulling back over, indeed, the shock is on back to front, take the top nut off, support the bikes weight on its centrestand, then pull the top mount off, and turn it round. you will find that the damping adjuster is facing in towards the frame. they arent made any more, but all the designs and tooling was sold to a company in australia that manufactures them to the same standards under the name of 'ikon' you should still be able to buy kits to refurb them as they are a rebuildable unit. whats wrong with them? theyre a pretty good quality item tbh, but you need to make sure that both shocks are on the same setting re preload and damping, which you wont be able to alter until you turn it round!. the lettering that you have saying 'top' should be facing the frame, not outwards. and, yes, well worth refurbing. back in the day, when the stock shocks gave up the ghost, most riders beat a path to koni's door. if its stock shocks you are after, theres a guy on the owners club site selling a pair that need a tidy up but are by no means beyond saving.

i could bring the katana down now ive finally bloody got one in one piece!

next door to the trafford centre in manchester.

ive got a frame wth the shock mounts moved. its the sister frame to the lucky7 katana built the other year. i will take some snaps tomorrow.

i know, whatever you do, dont look at clocks.......

unicorn in japan http://unicornjapan.com/english/

make that 3

back in the old days the way to get finky modern looking clocks on your ujm was to fit a set of katana clocks. probabaly part of the reason why there arent many out there now. but they look cood.

get a different sump plate on it

get a multimeter, measure the voltage at the battery with the engine off then with the engine running and the lights on. anything over 14.5/15 volts is bad.