lowering links or lowering a GPZ

[Alan Nicholls]

Haha, that's funny man, I'm sitting at the Detroit airport about to fly to Denver



-- Sent from my Palm Prē
On Apr 7, 2010 11:01 AM, oldfr8dog at yahoo.com <oldfr8dog at yahoo.com> wrote: 

Randy, I'm sitting at the airport about to fly out for a few days. I didn't have a chance to measure the hole spacing on the dog bones so I'll do it when I get back. I'm in NE Tenn so shipping should be cheap, you're in VA, right? BTW, welcome to the list and congratulations on choosing the right bike. 



Dave in NE Tenn. '96 GPz. Black is Beautiful.



Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry



-----Original Message-----

From: Randy noneofyourbusiness <tuner_delorean at yahoo.com>

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 20:02:00 

To: GPZ List<gpzlist at micapeak.com>

Subject: RE: lowering links or lowering a GPZ



Thanks for the warm welcome.

 

I put lots of miles on those old Kaws, & honda 750s back in the old days.

 

for a good laugh, I still have my 1973 Nova, that was my first muscle type car, but it has sat since I parked it in 1993, I drove it to college from Martinsville VA to Danville VA for college for 7 years, from 1986 to 1993, I have several old muscle cars from my youth.  I been thinking of yanking the engine from the Nova, & refreshing the motor when money allows & putting that into my Toyota truck. it is a 307 with 350,350 cam holley aluminum intake, & holley economaster carb, it got 24mpg hiway cruising with 2.73:1 gears. I always griped about the toyotas lack of oomph when hauling with that underpowered 4 cylinder.

 

as for snow, whew, worst snow I ever had around here. it lasted for 3 months, it looks like it went from winter to summer. we are having 90+ degree days. great riding weather.

 

as for having room for a tire changer, I have mine on my covered front porch. wish I had a building, but unfortunately I dont have a garage either, but I just tarp the bike at night. & the ZX11 is double tarped with the good quality silver tarps.

 

as for my choices in the ZX11, when they were new I wanted one so bad I could taste it, but I cheaped out, local dealers had color I wanted but $800 more money, plus tax, while an out of town dealer had green only, but was $9,995 out the door, tax included, I watched from afar, but never owned, most of the time I was jammin gears on the old shovelheads I had.

 

I am actually taking Harley restoration class that cover 1936 to 1999 Harleys at a college in North Carolina, which is 105 miles away, I am on spring break & go back next week. hopefully I will have the Isuzu back on road, & will be able to drive that until I get the bike lowered, wife attends class too, & dont want to try to double her on the GPZ until its lowered. I have a decent background in old Harleys anyway, I worked part time at an independent shop for over a dozen years wrenching on old scoots, 

 

Harleys are just too expensive to maintain when you pile lots of miles fast! plus plenty of breakdowns. I lived that life, & now that I am more settled want an easier riding bike for long distance, & something easier to keep going. 

 

from the exhaust reading I guess my Muzzy is one of the louder ones? which to me is great!!!!!!!!!!! I am one that says, loud pipes save lives!!!!!!  my old Harleys ran without mufflers, but I wore ear plugs on trips. today I would have to midasize it if I was still riding that old beast. but have it loud enough to be noticed, but the muzzy has a good note & its loud enough to be heard so people maybe will hear you if they dont see you???????????? HOPEFULLY???  

 

Later,

Randy

 

 





--- On Tue, 4/6/10, John Soliday <johnsoliday at msn.com> wrote:





From: John Soliday <johnsoliday at msn.com>

Subject: RE: lowering links or lowering a GPZ

To: "'GPZ List'" <gpzlist at micapeak.com>

Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 9:16 PM





Heh Randy welcome to the GPZ list, glad to read your intro as it's getting

ready to snow tonight again out here and I put the GPZ outside to sort parts

in the garage and with the 60+ mph wind gusts we're getting I'm leaving it

outside tonight!



Sounds like you got yourself a good bike for dependable riding and several

of us on this list can understand the $$$ situation, that's why divorce is

worth it (not you, but us!).



You have good taste in first generation sport bikes.  I started the Honda

SOHC750 Owner's Group, you can google it but I'm not there much anymore as I

moved on, bike-wise.  Used to actually have in my garage one of every F

model 750 Honda made, 75, 76, 77, and 78.  Later I raced in WERA and AHRMA

on a '76F Superbike (actually an 836 WISECO engine) which had all of the

goodies they had in the day.  I sold that to a collector ~ 2 years ago when

I moved from Boulder, CO to Longmont.



You also have good taste in later model Kawasaki's in that you picked up

that ZX11.  I'm talking to a guy out here that has a cheap low miles D model

engine that I might harvest the cams out of, sell the head and seal up the

bottom end for later use, just like you.



You had an early modern Truimph, too bad, but probably fun none the less.

The newer triples are pretty neat on the low end as well as the high end.  A

buddy of mine has one and let me ride it, pretty sweet!



Wish I had the room for a tire changer.  That was one of our breakfast

discussions on Sunday, the cheapest place to get tires put on, go figure.



Ask anything you want on this list, eventually you'll get an answer but it

can be slow at times.  New blood like you get's the post level up!



Cheers,



John



-----Original Message-----

From: gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com [mailto:gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com] On

Behalf Of Randy noneofyourbusiness

Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 6:37 PM

To: oldfr8dog at yahoo.com; GPZ List

Subject: Re: lowering links or lowering a GPZ



First of all Hello everyone, I am Randy, & I reside in the mountains of

Virginia.

 

as for the links you have, sure, if they may work I would be interested, & I

will measure what my length is, as soon as I have some daylight.

 

also to answer another question, I am new, not to motorcycles, but to the

GPZ, I bought it in January & had to do a few things, & just put it on the

road Friday, April 2, & I am under 20 miles from hitting 300 miles, & by

tomorrow night I will probably be around 400 miles, if not over since

Friday.

 

money is quite tight right now, but looking for the least expensive way out.

it has been a couple of bad weeks, well pump was hit by lightning, & my

Toyota truck blew its engine & my other truck broke down, & I am 2 wheeling

on the GPZ until I get my Isuzu back on the road.

 

right now I want to lower it, plus I need to put a new chain on it as I have

2 tight spots & 3 loose spots, sprockets look reasonably ok, & bike has

25,000 or so miles on it. chain is looser than I am comfortable with. but I

cant tighten it as the tightest spot is about right for adjustment.

 

I bought the handle bar risers from Dave Daniels, which I will hopefully

install in a couple of weeks, a Corbin saddle would be nice but will be

looking for used one as soon as money allows.

 

The GPZ is my second sport bike, my first was a 2000 Triumph TT600, which I

was very unhappy with, it had no torque down low, which is what I need for

these mountains. I am not canyon carving, I might drive a little spirited at

times, but not hard. 

 

I am an old school Harley rider, & have rode old Harleys in 25 to 30 states,

never owned a Harley newer than 1973, but also hate the upkeep that goes

along with riding 20,000 to 40,000 miles a year. & I rode several Kawas when

I was young before I got hard into Harleys, & loved the reliability, wife

asked me what kind of bike I wanted & I said something either in the likes

of an old pre 1977 honda 750 or old Kawa 900 or 1000 or a zx11 or similiar,

but it was either a Kawa or 750 sohc hona only for me, & as everyone sees I

wound up with a 1996 GPZ1100e in the faster black...... lol... 

 

 I still love a hand shifted, ape hangered Harley. but for riding some

serious miles my wallet cant afford that kind of riding, & I hope I can

afford to ride the GPZ that much.

 

my goal is to put at least 20,000+ miles on the GPZ this year. & for my

birthday wife bought me a coats 220 tire changer that was on the local

craigslist for $150,, I figure that will same me a little pocket change. 

 

while money was better we picked up a 5,000 mile, trashed, slid, & left

outside & rusted,  zx11d for the tune of $600, figure the motor will be a

decent bottom end for this bike in a few years. not sure what other parts

will fit, but was worth it to me for a running low mileage engine.

 

what kind of gas mileage should I expect?  I averaged 49mpg, which is city,

hiway, & mountains.

 

Later,

Randy

 

 

 





--- On Tue, 4/6/10, oldfr8dog at yahoo.com <oldfr8dog at yahoo.com> wrote:





From: oldfr8dog at yahoo.com <oldfr8dog at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: lowering links or lowering a GPZ

To: "GPZ List" <gpzlist at micapeak.com>

Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 7:56 PM





I've got a pair of brand new dog bones that have 2 adjustment holes. I don't

know how much they'll lower it but if you're interested I'll measure the

hole spacings and let you know. I'm never going to use them so maybe you can

get some use out of them.



Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry



-----Original Message-----

From: Randy noneofyourbusiness <tuner_delorean at yahoo.com>

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 14:45:22 

To: <gpzlist at micapeak.com>

Subject: lowering links or lowering a GPZ



What is the best way to lower the GPZ?

 

I got it on the road Friday April 2, & I have already managed to get in

right at 300 miles, but my 26 inseam I am vertically challenged, I need to

lower it a little.

 

right now I can only get 1 foot flat on the ground at a time, or both feet

tip toes, so for safety, it needs lowering so I can get both feet flat on

the ground. I am having problems turning it around on my driveway, which is

like an old country dirt road with tall center hump, plus my driveway is up

side of a mountain nearly 1/2 mile long.

 

what is recomendations? anyone have a used lowering link? or? 

 

Thank you,

Randy