We bought it a couple of years ago as a budget project (to build a road-legal track hack for under £1,000) – and this is how it ended up. It’s all together and running, starts off the button, and all the right gears are in the ‘box, and even select in the right order. Bonus.

The paintjob is, shall we say, basic. It’s a rattle-can job done by Art Ed Andy, and he never quite got round lacquering the tank, which is looking decidedly worse than the rest of the bike (which is good going).

It’s got a one-off underseat exhaust made by JHS (it’s insanely loud!), a GSX-R tail unit, track rearsets, R1 headlights, and uprated rear shocks (god knows what they’re off), and new Renthals. The master cylinder is off an old GSX-R750. Ignoring the general wrongness of it – there’s not really anything actually wrong with it, bar a decent bit of clutch rattle when it’s not engaged, and a flat spot in the mid-range. The tyres have only done about 40 miles too…

All-in-all it’s a fun little bike. You could slap a numberplate and rear light on it for a MOT and tear up the neighbourhood, or you could take the headlights off and trackday it to death. Either way, for £500, you can’t have much more fun (or very high expectations). The inch of dust covering it is completely free of charge, and offers instant weight-loss opportunities for the new owner.

So – fancy it? Contact Moby if you do. The price is £500, and there are a couple of original spares to go with it.

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In truth I was hoping to get a brand new loom from Kawasaki but it just isn’t available, there was almost one in Belgium but that was not to be. I therefore had to hunt through the crap that had culminated in the corner of my garage to save the loom that I honestly thought would never have power pass through it again.

I have tried to replace it, nothing from the OE source but plenty of sites to hunt around and offers from contacts. I have had a lot of success with ebay so far but there is no guarantee that my loom would be any worse than those to bid for. I was offered a new loom built from scratch by Tubbs (of Buell fame) at Moore Speed Racing but again thought it best to work on what I had, bit of patching up by the Guvnor should do it and thus grabbed the phone and headed over to Moby’s country retreat for help, advice and for him to do it.

Armed with roll after roll of black electrical tape, new connectors, diagrams and very sharp knives we delved into the maze of wires. This loom tells a story about it’s previous owner. Firstly the alarm weaved into the loom was not cheap when fitted and was fitted well, however as the years rolled on the out going cash on this bike dried up – and a few jobs were done by the then owner. Badly.

Moby and I stripped the loom back from the alarm that was woven into the loom and detached it before taping it back again, we then taped the entire loom back up so that it now looked passable with a few additional patches done en route.

Then it was the mere case of getting it all woven back into the ZXR400, and brilliantly I had another 400 right next to me to use as a map. So all connected and awaiting a battery, then we will see if our electrical skills have done the job!

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In addition the frame for the clocks needed a spruce up and the Peugeot black from Halfords did the job nicely, it’s a rough finish but you have to pick your battles. One that I would definitely have lost was the top yoke. This had had a kicking and the surround for the ignition was bent and buckled and not worth putting back on the bike. So eBay bought a new yoke to me for a tenner and then a further £20 had it powder coated by Initial Impact in Salisbury who had done the frame. I could have sprayed this but it will eventually be in my constant eye line and I don’t want to be knee down around Druids thinking – I wish I hadn’t painted that myself……

The result is stunning and its like new, the only problem I had was with the thickness of the powdercoat and squeezing the yoke over the forks. Again careful perseverance with a squeeze here and a gentle knock with a rubber hammer there and she went on.

With the rads and coolers ready to role I needed to get the system on. Like so many parts of this ’91 bomb parts needed to be replaced, no more so that the exhaust system. It’s knackered. Fortunately though the ZXR400 that my Mrs blew up is sitting happily, patiently awaiting my attention – thus I whipped of the brand new system that had come with this bike and donated it to my own. This went on a charm and allowed my just like knew rads to slip in front.

Now we are talking, I am getting very excitable as I have this false optimism that she will soon be done. It’s a stage where you stop working and start admiring patting yourself on the back – it’s a dangerous time this as reality will I am sure wake me up with a violent shove. In the end these parts are not to tricky to do – I have wire loom to tackle next, god help me…. Moby?

Contacts:

R&G Racing
Samco Sport
HPS
Wemoto
M/C Recycle
JHS Racing
Skidmarx
eBay

Initial Impact         01722 744461

Charlie

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After I looked around the bike a few problems became very apparent… The hoses looked like they have never been changed, and were dry and crispy – so  I had to replace them. This is not something I have done before and did my research, the hoses that were coming out on top were from Samco, promising longer life and extra durability under pretty extreme temperatures – in fact the temperature that MSS Kawasaki and HM Plant Honda run at – no problem then for my liddle four hundred.

On ordering from Samco I had to choose the colour, now I am a Kawasaki nut but never been partial to the green. I have almost decided that the 400 will be black, white of red – not green though, so the hoses can be just to keep true to the brand – and they could not be any more Kawasaki green if they tried.

Other areas needed attention, too. The leads basically came away in my hands as I tried to check the sparks, so they will need replacing. The shock  is screwed so I will be needing another of those in time but for the time being I put the old one back in to build around.

Then there is the general wear and tear of the radiator grills and oil cooler brackets. They have been scrubbed thoroughly, any rust spots removed and are currently sitting on a cardboard shelter awaiting my skills with a rattle can. Lets face it – I have spent a fortune on the powder coating, time for me to do a few touch up bits myself.

More soon… Honest!

Contacts:

R&G Racing
Samco Sport
HPS
Wemoto
M/C Recycle
JHS Racing
Skidmarx
eBay

Initial Impact         01722 744461

Charlie

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I have always loved motorcycles and after a stint working for Fast Bikes decided to stop just talking about it and do it. Just under a year ago I started looking for my first bike. Originally I was searching for something sensible, mainly SV650s and Honda Hornets. After looking at a few of them I decided that I actually wanted something a little more inspiring – a sportsbike it was then. I thought a 600 was my best option but after speaking to some insurance companies eager to pull my trousers down for a year’s cover, I decided a 400 was the way to go if I wanted a proper sportsbike without massive insurance costs. For me there were only two choices; a ZXR400 or an NC30.

Most of the Kawasakis I could find for the money I had were pretty bad and there seemed to be more NC30s about so it was an easy choice, plus you can’t deny that a 400 with single-sided swingarm and V4 is cool. I reckon the Honda easily beats the ZXR on looks too. After deciding on an NC30, I went scouring high and low for something around the grand mark. Unsurprisingly fleabay came up with the goods for my limited budget and a couple of days later I was looking at the bike on my driveway – what had I let myself in for?

Spending under a thousand pounds on an NC30 got me a bike that is essentially decent, but it needs some work. Things that were immediately obvious were the missing left side middle panel and the fact that the original fairing had taken a battering over the years – they were properly bodged together where they meet under the bike. The rear brake was awesomely badgered with the rear pads worn down to the metal, shot seals and a master cylinder in need of a rebuild. A closer look at one of the front brake discs also revealed that it had a hairline crack – glad I didn’t notice that before riding it 60 miles back to my house.

After having the bike for a couple of days one thing became immediately obvious – I had a bit of a project on my hands. The previous owner’s obvious lack of mechanical sympathy and general neglect meant it was a bit of a dog - nothing that couldn’t be sorted. I thought a good place to start work would be with the basics – an oil change, new oil filter, new spark plugs and because they were looking a bit worn, some new front brake pads. I bought all the bits I needed from Wemoto and proceeded to get the work done.

Draining the oil and replacing the filter was relatively simple – I managed to avoid spilling oil all over my garage floor and although it was fiddly, changing the filter was not a problem. The front brake pads came out easily and before fitting the new EBC items I had to gently work the pistons back into the caliper, which was no fuss. Changing the spark plugs was probably the most annoying thing, simply because access to the front two cylinders is so limited. I unscrewed the crusty bolts on the seat unit, removed it and then lifted the tank up and supported it with a piece of wood to get to the back two cylinders and remove the plugs with a 13 mm long reach socket.

Getting to the front two plugs means taking off the smaller middle fairing panels on each side and then slackening off the screws that hold the top radiator in place. Lots of people recommend removing the top rad but I found that loosening the bolts enough so that I could pivot it out of the way was enough to get my hand behind it and only skin my knuckles a little bit.

Next time: FB’s resident mechanic Moby sorts my brakes…

Pip

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Supporting the main frame on the bench and a crate I was able to manoeuvre the back wheel into position which is where I hit my first snag. The powder coat was too thick for the rear spindle to go through. Therefore using a coarse sand paper and Stanley knife I chipped through the coating until the spindle could move in and out freely. From there on the back wheel was pretty much a doddle, given plenty of Moly and some careful persuasion.

Before: Nearly fully stripped

Spinning the bike around I then slid in the forks, the spindle and the front wheel was in position, the clip ons followed and aye voila! I could sit back and ponder the next move which will take some time, and a hell of a lot of degreaser – the ball ache that is cleaning parts with a considerable build up of crap over their years of service.

Now: A beautiful rolling chassis

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Now that my wheels have new bearings and new rubber I can put the final pieces in place before setting out on the frame. Stripping down a bike to the very nuts and bolts tells you a few tales on what has and has not been done in the bike’s lifetime. What I can say for sure is that the brake discs have never been removed from these wheels in 20 years, not domestically anyhow. All of the nuts still had the Kawasaki famed “red” locking paste on them which almost seemed a shame to clean up – and I thought Kawasaki’s bled Green.

As the discs have never been removed they were due a thorough clean, no need to replace them, just give them a good rub down as they will have new brake pads to bed into, now was the perfect opportunity. Brake cleaner of course came to great use as I removed the build up of grime and finally got each disc back to a shine with a pure steel wool. There are lots of brake cleaners around but fortunately my sister’s fiancée works for BMW so, if he wants to marry my sister he can supply me with brake cleaner which he duly did– thank you Glenn.

Once all parts were cleaned it all went back together relatively smoothly, with the help of the manual for the ZXR I had down loaded online. Thank god I had put all the different parts in there own nicely marked out bags. Now, I have two completed wheels and can start putting together the carriage that they will carry – at last, I am getting somewhere.

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The obvious way to start in the rebuild is from the bottom up. With my newly powder coated frame wrapped back up and awaiting my attention my focus is the wheels. I was nervous coating these, stories of cracks due to the pressures of powder coating in modern bike wheels is not uncommon, how would my 20 year old runners fare? Beautifully.

Obviously I needed to get rubber on but prior to this was to replace the bearings. The ones that James from JHS (0117 986 8844) had yanked out for me were not in bad nick considering 24,000 k’s but I am not scrimping now so decided to replace the lot. I got straight online to Wemoto.com (0845 029 2929) and found everything I needed, it’s a functional site for those that know what they want, place your order, pay the cash and two days later I had a brand new set of bearings front and back in the car with my wheels heading for Moby Mansions.

There is a temptation to grab a screw driver and gently tap these in yourself but it really is not a great idea. With a tapping set that only a man who continually works on bikes would have, all was done in a flash and meant that I could now source the rubber get the tyres balanced as the inners were built.

Big man Moby lubes the hole up before ramming the bearing home

Tyre choice is tough when you don’t actually know what you will use the bike for. I therefore went for a set of Avon Storm ST’s – a good hardy all rounder that will help me make up my mind. The 120 / 160 is not the most common of size combos at FB Towers, so I was lucky these were on the shelf. Mark at JHS “handled my wheels with care” protecting the new powder coat against the machine with cloth. Again this was a nervy time as with some powder coating the tyres do not want to bed in.

All the luck has run my way so far, but there is a long way to go.

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