New member

[JonW]

Yep, Im sure youre right D. Sadly it'll eat stainless steel pipes in around a year as it keeps all the moisture in. terrible stuff, see it on performance cars owned by kids all the time. pay thousands for exhausts and then ruin them with wrap. 'its racing kit, donchakno!'. yeah...

[JPG]

Seems I stirred a hornets nest by mentioning cafe racer. Perhaps I use the term more loosely and you have some definition in mind. When I was a impressionable youngster, a cafe racer was simply a bike that was stripped of unnecessary parts and mods done mostly to save weight and clutter. In our scene, they were often bikes built up after a crash with different forks (because of collision with car/whatever), clip-ons , minimalist lights/instruments and lightweight wheels. I was hoping to get a set of actual expansion chambers done. I built a road racer out of a RM465 and a local exhaust builder made a chamber that looked and performed great. As I said yesterday though, I first need to get the RZ running before defending my choice of mod (which may or may not eventuate). I certainly have no intention to end up with something that looks like the next bike out there - kind of defeats the purpose. Wrap-wise, has anyone actually bothered on an expansion pipe? Must look awful!

[JonW]

sounds like youve got a great plan, I for one am all for adding different parts from other bikes and making stuff you have work to get a working or better bike from it. Im excited to see what you come up with.

One tip: If youre trying to get a bike running that hasnt run properly in yonks, change the crank seals. It will save you hassle in the long run for sure. They are cheap, but it is a bit of work - yet well worth it for peace of mind. Those guys who tell you to just run it are usually guys who play with 4 strokes.

[BRG1200]

The “old rubber” issue is a pain in the arse.