Waking up from winter-sleep with a new stable mate

[OhCrap]

Hi guyz 'n girlz,

it's been a while, but the weather has been lovely here the last week and the biker inside is starting to wake up again finally. Has everyone started riding yet or are some of you still covered in snow?

I had to put the dear old Hawk to rest temporarily last February because of scary cam chain noises, but i got semi-lucky a few weeks ago when this black beast landed on my sidewalk.




The PO tried to make it look like an FZ for some reason, but it's a '93 YZF750R with almost but not yet 20.000 miles on her. I traded it for an old project-Porsche 924 I've been trying to get rid off for some time now, with the intent to sell it, but she's actually a lot of fun to play with. Comes in handy now anyway, with the Nighthawk out of commission for the time being. It does need some work though. The valves sound like at least some of them need some adjustment, she spits out a bit of coolant from time to time, one of the front forks leaks a bit, and the temp sensor doesn't work (haven't checked if it's just a wire or the sensor/dial yet). Not sure if I'll fix her up or leave that to her next owner, but at least she gets me around for now and it takes up way lesser space to store then the Porsche :)

[DesignFlaw06]

Nice looking stablemate. Hope you enjoy it. Though you said it needed some work, cosmetically, it looks like  its in good shape.

[JB1290]

That's a really cool looking bike. 

[gammer]

That's a neat looking bike OC 
How does it compare to the 700s?

[OhCrap]

Thanks guys.

It's a completely different animal then the 700 Gammer.

The front tire is almost as wide as the rear tire on the Nighthawk (120) and the rear is a huge 180 wide, so it grips absolutely phenomenal in the corners. But you can tell by the way this thing attacks a corner it is much more designed for it then the Nighthawk. It makes everything so easy and smooth that you just want to turn around and go back to try and go through a corner faster and faster. Although, I should mention I still haven't replaced the steering bearings on the Hawk so it could probably be a bit tighter then it is right now. Power is amazing too with 125bhp (113 at the wheel), I clocked 250(kph, of course) the other day and she seemed to have a lot more left at that point. It stops pretty fast to though, with a total of 6 (!) pistons in the front brake calipers The craziest thing is the acceleration though, it's simply mind blowing and something I know I will miss when I get the Hawk back together.
It's not to uncomfortable either. My buddy has a '94 Honda Fireblade but it's way more uncomfortable then this bike. I always feel stretched out on the Blade, but I can do a 100 miles without problems on this one. That's about as far as I would go on this one though, I just don't like the weight on my risks and lower back for too long. Plus I can't bring anything on this thing unless I carry it on my back which I'm not to fond of either. If I had a track nearby to fool around on I'd probably keep it, but I'm afraid I'll be without a license soon if I'll just keep riding this on the road.

[hppants]

I don't remember ever seeing this bike in the States.  Can anyone confirm that it was not sold in the U.S.?

Nice looking bike O/C - I'm sure that horsepower is pretty hard to resist.  Do you have any luggage thoughts for when you take another European tour?  I can't wait to see your ride reports.

[TDodge7]

pants , it's your standard fox eye yzf , from before yamaha started calling it the r6/r1/r7, they came out in the US shortly after the fzr did . In england they stopped production of the fzr that we got here in the states (1993 or 4 ish)in favor of the updated yzf version and they called it the thundercat , I've always kind of wanted one , but sport bikes are too uncomfortable for me to ride for more than 30 minute bursts .

[OhCrap]

What Tdodge said Pants, it's basically a R750. I'm pretty sure they were sold in the US as well, at least from the '95 models and on.

I'm planning my next trip as we speak. The goal is to travel through the Czech republic and Germany for the entire month of Juli, most likely solo again. It is possible Czech is to small to please me for an entire month (it's gonna be my fist time there, so I have no idea what to expect just like I like it) so I might take a little detour through Poland on the way back or possibly France if I feel like it. I guess I'll just leave that up to where the good weather will be.

I won't be using this bike though, I'll probably put her up for sale as soon as the Nighthawk is back on the road again. I still got the used saddle bags I bought last year and they look like they have at least another year in them so I'll be using those again + the old top case that came with my bike. And I want to buy one of these cheap baggage-rolls:





I'm just debating if I should get the 40 or the 60 liter version. I think I'll end up with the bigger one so my sleeping bag and other stuff will fit in there as well. But I do want to try to travel about ten kilo's lighter then last year, so perhaps the 40L one will do. I found a place not to far away that sells 'm so I'm gonna check them out in rl soon and decide which one's best for me.

I'm also looking around for a bigger tank bag. I don't really like using them but they're such a convenient place to put the navigation in. I had a small one with me last year, but I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab to accompany me on my journeys as a navigation and entertainment system, so I'll need a bigger one now.

I also want to go on a short trip along the cost line of North Germany next month, but that's still a bit uncertain right now. It mostly depends on if my buddies wife is gonna keep their baby in her belly for another month or not, haha.