Dezza

Do the new internals from the Chinese MC fit in the (now 14mm) original body? Also, why is the 14mm Chinese mc not worth trying out, or am I missing something here? It would be fairly straightforward to change the hose and any other bits if interchangeable with the original unit. <1mm difference in the mc bore diameter isn't going to make much of a difference to the feel of the rear brake, and it's the rear brake anyway. Hill starts, more use when it starts raining......

Nice bike - a Trigger's Broom Katana is definitely the bike to have here!

Interesting, I will eventually need a hugger for a top braced swingarm on my project bike. Who makes the 750W guards?

Maybe I am getting the wrong end of the nipple

If they are leaking then isn't it most likely to be the O rings at fault? Other Suzuki carbs have similar components and they are made of alloy but the O rings can perish, e.g. 1100EFE carbs. If this is the case then all that may be needed is O ring replacement.

I just looked them up and the L and R Suzuki rubbers for the EFE have the same part numbers although it is not entirely clear if this has always been so as one has a superseded part number, just to make things clear...... I am not at home so cannot check the numbers on my bike though. One other thing is the rubbers are likely to have taken shape over the last 30 years and the inners and outers are thus likely to be slightly different shapes now, even if they didn't start out that way.

My inners and outers definitely have different numbers embossed on them and they are the original rubbers supplied with the donor bike from new. If I do not have them on the correct way, the carbs will not go on but I use stock carbs. Using flatslides like yours may not reveal the difference. My rubbers are hard but not cracked and require heat in order for me to get the carbs on now.

Great attention to detail

Yep, the circuit has been flogged, at last. The new owners look like they haven't wasted any time making improvements and have even started replacing the early neolithic era bogs around the track. Wheatcroft jnr. can now have even more of his dad's dosh to spend on his idiotic , massive collection of Nazi war memorabilia most of which he doesn't let anyone else see, including Hitler's staff car (this is not a joke by the way).

Do the outer and inner Triumph rubbers have different part numbers? If so, they may be curved in the same way as the Suzuki ones. If they all have the same part number, then they are unlikely to fit as easy as do the Suzuki rubbers because the Suzuki rubbers for the inner two and outer two cylinders differ very slightly.

You could send it to me so I could put it on my project bike if you so wish, beer vouchers provided......

If you have a condensing tumble drier and clean out the tank regularly, the water it will contain will effectively be de-ionised and can be used in these new fangled water cooled machines by tight-arses like me who want to avoid buying distilled water. Or know someone locally than works in a university science department where they have a distilled water dispenser.... I think Prestone anti-freeze can be used in any water cooled engine but it will be best to check first. You can sometimes get it cheap at autojumbles but that's the same for just about everything auto....

What the hell is a say what now? I am guessing some words have been automatically replaced but I have no idea which ones. That frame is mightily beefy on the side rails but seems to rely on the engine mounting directly onto the cylinder head, whilst dispensing completely with the original front engine mounts on the crankcases. Maybe OK for a Bandit 400 but maybe not with something that has 120bhp.

Yep, also use a support under the cooler and a bit of M6 alloy tube between each of the upper and lower mounting holes. Just having a top support is probably asking for trouble.

I use a stainless steel bracket at the top rather than alloy, all bolted up with no rubbers and have never had a problem, and that's on a bike with an efe engine with no rubber mounts. I think stainless will probably have different properties than alloy when it comes to transmitting vibration but this will have to be explained by someone that knows what they are on about, and that's not me

Had frame welded by blacksmith - great stuff I really like your paint scheme too Good luck for the 2018 season.

FZR600 engine in the FZR400 frame seems like a common build. The later 600 engines are pretty powerful and the 400 chassis has a reputation for great handling and build quality. They are absolutely tiny though, more Angel Nieto than Terry Rymer.

Looking at the bike, if a head cooler is necessary then something else on the bike is going to need to be modified to allow this to happen. Either using a different headlight set up to allow for a cooler up front or using a conventional exhaust so an underseat cooler can be used could be the way to go here, but the seat unit may have to be changed too as it looks fairly small. As an alternative, maybe 2 coolers mounted longditudally, one either side of the bike, would work. Like the radiators on a Gurls blouse SP2 or some of the aftermarket Yoshimura coolers for GSXRs that went under the fairing.

What were the standard sizes for the jets?

The stem, with the long threaded part and threaded bit for the top bearing, looks like a great idea to copy for other yokes because it can obviously be adjusted to enable the yokes to fit a variety of different headstock lengths

Unless your bike has undergone dramatic weight loss and or power increase, going up 3 teeth on the front will be too much without also going up a lot on the back. If the stock gearing is 15/42 then the gearbox sprocket has to turn 2.8 times to make the rear wheel turn once. The GSXR rear wheel will help as it is a lower profile tyre than a stock Kat rear but anything less than 2.5 and you may be overgeared. A 45 tooth rear sprocket would give you this ratio; to get the stock ratio of 2.8 you'll need a 50 tooth sprocket but using one this big may mean you run into chain fouling issues, e.g. on the rear shock. Personally, I would use a 16 or a 17 tooth front sprocket but as we all know, these aren't exactly cheap.

Looks good. Did you drill out the threads of the clutch adjuster boss on the crankcase to fit the hydraulic slave cylinder directly? Mine wouldn't screw in as there isn't enough space to turn the unit so I had to make up a bracket.

It looks like the nearer the end of the silencer can is to the rear wheel spindle, the better looking the system

Are the inlet rubbers in good condition? If old they harden and can crack and cause a leak, a problem made worse by using jubilee clips instead of the stock clips (which are impossible to overtighten). Yours looks like it still has the stock clips though

Maybe also a commercial exhaust manufacturer would take into account the 'note' of the pipes they make, which may, for road bikes at least, even be more important than any technical advantage. If a 421 configuaration made the bike sound naff, even if it was technically superior, the manufacturer may decide to go with the 'inferior' option if it made more commercial sense. This would be less likely for products sold for racing though. Just a thought.