The title of the thread comes from the name given to the bike by one of the Daves.
It's a long term project because I do a bit here and there in between riding it. I have other bikes to ride but this one's too much fun to leave alone.
The story starts in 2006. I took a big chunk of annual leave and went on a road trip to Tasmania on my ZZR600. Great bike, by the way. Surprisingly capable, too. The only complaint I had was that it was way too easy to grind hard bits along the road. After snapping off a peg feeler, grinding bits off both stands and touching some fairings down I decided I had two options. The first was to do up the suspension on the 600. An Ohlins (or similar), adjustable dogbones and a complete overhaul of the front end would see me at least getting to the edges of the rear tyre. Cost? To do what I really wanted to do, $3k upwards. Hmm. Option 2 was obvious - get another bike that had ground clearance already and sell the ZZR. Problem - I'm a serial bike collector. I've still got every road bike I've owned. And I LIKE the ZZR. It's the only bike I've ever bought (including the ZX9) that said, "BUY ME," the instant I sat on it.
So I compromised. I decided to keep the ZZR and get a J model 6 to go with it. At the time I wasn't real flush, so had to scrape together some fundage before going down that road. No problem, right? Wrong. Someone threw a curve ball in the shape of ...
... for a ridiculous price, including almost everything required to put it back on the road. I figured I could either flip it quick or put it back on the road, throw some paint at it and grab a few extra pennies in the process. I didn't REALLY like it, but figured if I couldn't get used to it there'd certainly be someone willing to take it off my hands for at least what I put into it. So I handed over the "6" money and took it home. For the record, the green paint on the fairings looks to be $2 spray can enamel. The tank is 2 pack, and the very devil to sand. I'll admit to detesting the colour green, particularly on a ZX9R F, but that's a story for another day. The tail section is about 70% by weight pure, unadulterated BOG.
The next day it looked like this:
Road tail fairing in primer and not much else. The bike had been a demo for Midtown Kawasaki, and had been gently (or not) laid over when there was 700 odd km on the odo. It was then sold cheaply to someone who used to work there, who promptly replaced the engine, did wierd and wonderful things to the front suspension, put an horrendously expensive shock in it and went racing. The frame's been straightened more than once, but it's been done very well. Apparently it likes lying down on the right hand side, a tendency that seems to be continuing (more on that later). Once he'd finished with it, he took the expensive shock out and engine out, putting the original shock and engine back in.
Work inconveniently got rather busy at this stage so, having another bike to ride (really, how good could a 9 REALLY be?), I left it alone for a bit. The extra cash paid off - I spent all of $150 on parts and $340 for a set of tyres.
This really requires a little explanation. The bike's an '02, and original colour of the bike was Candy Gold Spark. The left hand side of the bike had pristine original paint. Including the left half of the upper. The tail was completely in black primer, as was the right half of the upper. The right hand mid fairing WAS just black primer, but the chap who did the inspection wanted it to be gold. Didn't have to be exactly the same, as long as it was gold. So I rattle canned it with something I had at home (I believe it's a Commodore colour - ick) just to get it through rego. The headlight at this stage was held together in a fairly flimsy arrangement - it had lost one mount (sort of replaced, but it wasn't strong) and had a large crack up the side of the RH lens - well hidden. That was ok because it also didn't have an original parking light, so any water that got in soon evaporated!
Red Dave saw it for the first time and said something like, "It's got more colours than the old Benetton F1 car," which soon became a running joke.
Note to self: "Yeah, the nine's not a bad thing really. I could see myself getting used to this. Now where's that 7?" (Disappearing out of shot)
On the way back up the hill ...
Note to self: "Ya gotta luv th' nine! This bike is AWESOME." (The seven was 4 corners back, by the way.)
By this time I'd been well and truly assimilated. The mighty nine rules all! By the way, Shinkos get a really bad wrap but they're not that bad. The rear profile's the problem. IMO the front is stickier and more communicative than a Power. The rear is just too wiiiiide and flat, which makes the bike not want to turn. A shame, really.
How'd THAT get in here? This is the sadly lamented Tiggr, who donated his wheels to the cause. At this point I was still thinking about fixing mine up as standard as possible.
Me being broke again, I went and got myself another job. There's an old truism - you've either got the money or the time. Well, I now had money for paint. Before I knew it nearly 12 months passed. After a few hours (
) in the shed with me obsessing over every last imperfection in the emerging paint, on one foggy, drizzly summer morning, out popped ...
The battery was shot, but it's the easiest bike in the world to bump start. As long as you don't start at the bottom of a hill!
For some reason everyone always had a comment about the green tank.
Some time in between I also managed to pick up a perfect headlight assembly for not a lot of dollars. Score!Exactly one month after that picture was taken, a lovely person decided that it needed to be pushed over. Shattered the RH rider's peg bracket, bent the stainless mid pipe, pushed in the muffler far enough to put a lot of nasty scratches in the swing arm and put two almost unnoticeable scratches in my fresh paint. Didn't quite go through the clear. I was often asked why my Oggies were so big. Now everyone knows. The exhaust will need replacing, but for now it's working. Loudly. Just doesn't look pretty any more. A kind member allowed me to purchase some polished peg hangers for a steal, which sorted that.
Gave it a service today, and decided to put on the spare blue tank (off a '98) for my upcoming trip to Tassie (and while I fix up the original!). The photo shows up the different colour, but in real life it's hard to pick. My paint is a minor variation on Ford's Blueprint Blue, which is 70% (
) pearl. Being a metallic pearl, it changes as the light hits it, disguising the difference somewhat. What can be seen is not cut or polished yet - it's straight out of the gun, and at the moment it's all quite dirty. There are still many hours of work left in it, but for now I'm riding it and having a ball.What next? After I'm satisfied with the blue paint (shut up, Brett), I'll get another belly pan (complete this time!) and paint it amd the intake snorkel black with a coarse metal flake. I like the understated look so I'll probably finish it up with 98 model style "ZX9R" above the indicator. The frame, subframe and swingarm will be powder coated semi gloss black - it's just a matter of time. I've already got a hugger (or two, or ...) - dunno why I didn't put it on today to be honest.
In conclusion, for now anyway, I've still got every road bike I've owned, and I've even managed to get some goodies to improve the ZZR. Trouble is, it too needs a service (and tyres) and the only way to get me off the 9 is to use a BIG crowbar!
