Newbie from France

Hi all,
Just like to introduce myself. My name is John Surr and although I live in France near to the French alps I am actually a true blood Yorkshireman from Sheffield England. I have been into bikes since a very young age but due to family commitments have not had one for the past 15 years. Now the kids are grown up somewhat so ......
Last year I managed to obtain a Z650 F4 from 1984 that had been stood for the past 18 years in a dry garage at a very reasonable price from a workmate.

When I collected her she was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs the tyres were flat and everything stiff. It took two of us to push her onto the trailer. On the way home the cars behind me gave me lots of room as all this crud was being blown off and I was leaving what looked like a trail of smog all the way up the motorway.

The poor beast had suffered a bit at the hands of the previous owner ie: tyres shot, the chain and sprockets were totally dead, I mean no teeth left (well hardly). 1 side panel missing, the carbs totally gunged up, cables solid. The steering head brgs had flat spots etc etc etc. She had been dropped at least once but luckily wears engine protectors although the clocks and tank have a little damage and I think the bars are not quite right.

Well after a year of tinkering she is now running again new tyres,new chain and sprockets I even managed to find some new side panels (from an earlier model but once resprayed they should look just like the originals) and as for the badges I have done a drawing and am getting them machined from some brass plate and will paint them up as per the original one I have. The cam chain tensioner was solid so was dismanteled and cleaned. the carbs have been totally stripped and cleaned, cases polished and the rest of the bodywork cleaned. I also changed some of the cables. I am still waiting for a taper steering head kit to improve the handling. The forks were completely overhauled and new seals fitted. The rack has been removed and grab handles obtained and fitted. I am still on the look out for the passenger grab rail as an alternative but as yet have not seen any for this particular model. It would be interesting to see if any other models grab rails would fit.

Once I had done most of this I got her started and she was running pretty sweet for an old lady but just the other day the membrane failed in the fuel tap so now she is not to happy at low revs probably due to lack of vacuum suction. At higher revs she is still OK but I have ordered a repair kit from Z-Power in the UK and hope that this will solve the problem.
I intend to run her this summer to shake out any problems and if all is well next winter money permitting I will strip her down and start to get the frame and bodywork back upto something like original.
I would love to get hold of some original silencers for her but they seem to be as scarce as the proverbial rocking horse droppings.
Attached is a picture of her the day that I brought her home and actually in the picture she looks better than she was in the flesh.

Post edited by: tullins2004, at: 2006/05/15 16:35

Sorry couldn't get the image to load.

Post edited by: tullins2004, at: 2006/05/15 16:37