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Maxton re valved the forks , Then I fitted a new Nitron shock to the bike , once set up what was noticeable is the ride quality over the type of roads we have in the North East of Scotland ( I Run it up to Aberdeen regularly over the Cairn O Mount and Glenshee ), was not cheap but its a world away from what it was ....I would say its worthwhile if the bike is a keeper mine was new and has now done 20k it now feels well damped as oppose to just jarring over bumps... holds its line better , I wanted comfort at legal speeds and this has delivered  .

Hope this helps

Allan.

Sounds fine , I work away from time to time but have a bit of leeway so see who else wants to go and will make plans for a run , may even get a good weekend without the heavens busting open every couple of hours  .

Be nice  , a run round the Borders or over west would be good , even down to Devils Bridge  or my doorstep Glenshee and up over the Lecht although with all the rain that may not be such a good road as there is loads of sand and gravel all over the shop , anyway those are my thoughts.

Will keep an eye out for replies.

Allan.

Sounds like a possible sump off job , the sump steel wont handle a lot of rough treatment , I have got them out of Landrovers/Tractors by using  easy outs , call the workshop in your local dealer and they will advise before trying anything , at the moment its a new bolt ......I would not imagine a new sump would be very cheap .

PS if you are going to have a crack at this yourself  you need to start with a small drill bit and work up then tap it with a L/Hand thread , but if you have snapped the nut off then it will be in too tight to get off with a smaller size .

Well since the weather was nice for a change , took off for Settle in north Yorkshire via Edinburgh then down the A7 to see some of the family stopped at Devils Bridge then down to RAF Cosford to visit the museum the next day back up the road 2 days later , then up to Aberdeen for work and took the long way home along the North Deeside road past balmoral then over by Glenshee , over 2000 miles on the bike now ............hopefully the pics come out ok enjoy   

Yes been glued to it , Brother is in uniform  there on duty and he is having a ball , my sports are Archery and Shooting and a gold there as well in double trap  all in all well impressed we as a country can organise anything but sometimes you wonder if you are watching the same Olympics that the press watch juging by some articles.

At the very real risk of being called a smart arse , I have cut a section of pushbike inner tube about 3 inches long and fitted it over the hyd adjuster to stop water and dirt getting in , a but of insulating tape round the bottom of the plastic nut was the first attempt , looking at a Nitron with remote Hyd preload for it but will see how this works first.

I would think that since its a common problem then Kawasaki would be ok , needs to go through the dealer though most are very good but some are not , I have had goodwill claims for other bikes due to the dealer pushing it for me , no harm in asking , I think the adjuster is compressing Gas  or oil to put pressure on the spring  so therefore resivoir may be under pressure , if its oil the cant understand them all seizing as the guts of it are in oil , it may be dirt getting into the nut in which case WD40 or any other sprays may be usless , I have been playing about with the settings on mine and have now got it to where it appears compliant enough without being too soft ( I weigh 13 stone )I have been spoiled though as the R1 runs Ohlins back and KTech forks..... crazy amount of money but worth every penny , the shock can be rebuilt apparently or Nitron do one for £380 not hydraulic preload or  £150 extra gets you one , built to your spec , trouble is once you do the back the front feels all wrong ..............

Give it a polish then put the clear plastic on it , only you will know I have manged to score mine and thats what I did to hide it , looks fine , as you use the bike it pick up stone chips etc , I look after mine but its got some chips on it and I am not going to loose any sleep over it , that said its annoying when you have invested a lot of money in something so good .

FYI Dont use WD 40 on anything with rubber in it as it rots rubber and yes I found out the hard way ( Fork seals ) not sue about ACF50 it may be ok as again it was designed for the USAF / USNavy planes , I am in the lucky position of owning a 2012 bike and the preload adjuster turns with no probs with an audible click each full turn wind it in fully home and fully out every now and again ( Used to do the same on the scopes ), as for stones I dont see how this should be an issue ( Its in the states and consequently danger of a law suite ) I have had small stones or grit in the calipers before ( Bikes and Cars ) if you saw how much grit they spread on the roads round here during the winter you would understand , I am more worried about some of the neeps driving cars round here to be honest .

When you see the likes of Nick Sanders on an R1 round the world and where he takes it ..................blooming nutcase , I wouldnt have taken the motocross bike some of these places , the bike appeared to survive ok considering .

Just my outlook on it , quite willing to accept I may be wrong folks............

The West coast is having a pretty good summer apparently , I am on the East Coast slowly drowning and thinking about fitting race wets ...........

Cracking pics though , loads of good roads with hardly any traffic , I take badly when I go down to North Yorkshire to visit family.... and its not half as bad as further south ...........

I may be wrong here but.....

I Always use a power washer ( a domestic one ) on other bikes I have owned , they are not going to blow the core out  ( an Industrial one will ) ,  if the Rad is that fragile then we are all in trouble , used to do tractors and combine rads with a washer that genarated 5000 psi it was the only thing that got all the crap out , or strip them out soak and blow out with HP air line ( Wearing a pair of goggles ) , the old GPZ 900 R was known for overheating and boiling up cannot see that the GTR would suffer like that but I am new to the bike so I hope not , ended up pulling the thermostat out in the campsite at Paul Ricard during the old Bol D Or ...its a long story ...

Unless someone is motocrossing with their GTR I cant really see rad cleaning being a routine maint task , bugs are going to degrade eventually .....surely !!!

Yes it does look better in the flesh , much better , was going to buy a Triumph Explorer and did like it but the dealer had this on demo and I asked for a go ....had pretty much made up my mind inside of 20 miles , cracking bike there is no mass produced machine that wont have faults of some kind but this is one of the better bikes so far , I started on a Super Dream in 1978 then a Z 1000 etc

Need glasses..... it looked more brown than red but hey ho will go for red , 900 miles so far , pic was outide Fettercairn just came over the Cairn O Mount road , as for suspension guru I wish  , just spent enough to finance the war on terror on suspension ( Mainly Ohlins and KTech ) started with a new GPZ 900 R wayyyyy back and set them all up myself , best on was a ZZR 1100 D model and the R1 I failed miserably managed to get it handling like an aircraft carrier in a gale , so it got taken to a lad in fife who worked for various teams , and well the difference is stunning , anyway chuffed to bits with the GTR key is a bit different though .....

Allan.

Well folks Allan from the North East of Jockland , just got a red ( Brown to me ) GTR 2012 yesterday and now at 700 miles I think its pretty good , no probs with screen ,power fine suspension not there yet ( bit of fiddling req ) brakes pretty good for the weight of it , comfy quick etc , went over by Glenshee on the way home and commuting to Sunny Aberdeen today and tommorow ( Yes sunny as in big yellow thing in sky ) all in all very happy , still no idea about key though its pretty strang just marching off with it still in ignition.................