Now for Something Different: W800 Gentlemen Cup 2012

Here’s a new feature I’ve been meaning to start for a while.

Whilst browsing Youtube for awesome bike videos, I stumbled across this little gem. The description reads “Video vom ersten Rennen des Kawasaki W800-Cup. Der Film zeigt eine gekürzte Fassung des 2. Laufes in Bürglen TG.” Which is German, and translates to; “Video from the first race of the Kawasaki W800 Cup. The film shows a shortened version of the 2nd Run in Bürglen TG.”

Yamaha FZR600R – Cartridge Forks

The final year for production of Yamahas’ FZR600R was 1996 for Europe. In that final year the FZR was given cartridge forks, and a much improved rear shock absorber featuring a remote reservoir and adjustable rebound and compression dampening.

After waiting for quite some time I finally found a set of those final year forks on eBay. I rebuilt them with fresh seals, oil, and new Yacugar fork springs, and they are now installed in my bike.

All of this actually happened in the middle of March.

The install took about three hours including the time taken to rebuild the forks, and was done in the course of an afternoon.

So how do they work on the road? The new forks are awesome! They are so much better than the old set-up. Less violent diving under braking, far more responsive to changes in road surface, and with much better feedback. I now know exactly what the front end is doing and I like it.

Yamaha FZR600R – Nitron Shock

A few weeks ago now the stock unit went horribly soft and spongy, there was also some significant corrosion on the rod, in other words it was goosed.

Scouring eBay turned up zilch so I decided to take the proverbial plunge and go for a Nitron shock. (Shop around kids, there are deals to be had out there.)

So how does the new shock handle? Well put simply the Nitron shock is amazing, completely transforms the handling of the bike, makes it much more stable mid corner and allows for much better traction on exit, even managed to get the front wheel up on the exit of a couple of 2nd and 3rd gear corners, I kid you not.

The shock was built to my weight and riding style (I specified 89kg fully geared rider weight and fast road/track riding), it is noticeably stiffer, feels more like a modern bike set up. Adjustment is dead easy using the supplied C-Spanner for preload, and a clicker on the bottom that adjusts both rebound and compression at the same time, a bit basic but more than enough for my experience/budget.

The only “downside” is that it shows up the front end, which means I am now saving my pennies for a set of Racetech .95 springs. Winding the preload adjusters all the way in helped a bit but it’s not really the right thing to do.