KR-1S.co.uk Forum

Okay, so progress has not been forging ahead at a great pace, but that’s mainly because I was sitting down having my tea when the washing machine walked past sounding like the drummer from def leppard. Yep, it’d knackered it’s main bearings! I hope that’s not a bad omen. Many nights of lacerating my hands on all those horible little self tappers followed.

So, I’ve finally managed to get into the fuel tank which was a nightmare due to the cap being seized solid and the key being made from cheese.

but the all the water filling problems have become clear. The tank had basically filled with water, and which had leaked all the way down through the tap, the right side carb etc and filled the crankcase. Arse.
Anyway, the inside of the tank is in a shocking state, and surprise - the bottom of it has partially rotted through as well. Nothing one of those tanks seal kits can’t cure however.
I really need to take everyones advice though and properly clean the carbs out now, rather than the half arsed attempts I have doing up until now.

I attacked the forks with 600 grit and although the right leg looked really bad the left leg looks okay (bit like Heather Mills), and the seal doesn’t leak.(no jokes here please!)

A long standing forum member did the very great service of selling me some forks, a rear disk and a rear tyre at an insanely low cost. However, one of the forks had a broken axle clamp. Unbelievably, it was the left one, so the right one went on. Job done.
Tyre and disk will be pressed into service when I get to the back end.

Excited by the progress at the front it was dummy tank back on a a quick waz up the road to check that all was in order. Needless to say I'm going to be after some advice on setting the carbs up. It's great running without a tank on, you can watch the power vavles moving as you run. Not great for road safety as it can be rather distracting. I got hypnotised by a cement mixer once, but that's a different story!
But -a quick question for now:
The carbs had been coming on an off with such regularity that I've been running without the airbox off. Bearing in mind a totally std stage of tune, does running without the airbox upset carburation?
Also, I'm after a carb slide (mines a 1992 if that makes any differnence), anyone got one they'll sell me?

Okay – so I’ve just been speaking to my brother in an attempt to find out what he’s brought. (remember, project ditch salvage was born from a complicated sibling challenge). Unsurprising he’s not telling, well he is, but he’s lying because he told me he’s got hold of a sunbeam S7! Anyway, in order to deflect questions he spilled the beans on what my other brother has got.
He’s managed to pick himself up a GPX600 – year unknown for the princely sum of zero pounds! Apparently the product of some ebay deal gone bad. Money was refunded but the bike never picked up, so roll on a couple of years and the bloke just wanted it out of his shed. The reason the deal went bad was although the brought it from a dealer who claimed to have taken it in part ex and roadworthy, it was only when he got it out of the van at home that he found out the carbs were missing!. So there you have it. One GPX600 minus carbs. This means he’s got £150 left to get it on the road and he’s already got hold of a set of carbs for £25! That’s £6.25 each! Why aren’t KR1S carbs that cheap?
Anyway he’s got no hope for a number of reasons.
Firstly ( I need to be careful here as I think I remember someone on the forum had one at some point – and liked it) the GPX600 was, and still is rubbish. Depending on where you look it’s either 70 or 85 horse, pushing 180 to 200 kg on 16 inch wheels both front and rear with very limited tyre selections.
So he’s down to £125 left, and I can’t believe that everything else will be fine. He’s got to need a battery, he hasn’t had it running yet and it probably needs some tyres which he won’t be able to afford. I am the winner.

Used Bike Guide says
“Aged sport-tourer totally outclassed by modern 600s but still useful and a change from the spine-shattering norm. The frame bends rather too easily in crashes and the motor begins to give trouble after 60k, with knackered cams, shot camchain and melting pistons. Quick rot exhaust, Uni-track linkages, suspension, calipers, ignition units and speedos.”
How do you rate my chances?

Abel wrote: How do you rate my chances?

Winner without a shadow of a doubt
Cheers
AL

Hey Abel.
How'd the challenge go mate?
Keen to see how the bike came up considering the limited budget you had. What did the other brother end up getting?

Cheers, Scott.

Back by popular demand! (Well two people asked)

It won the challenge, but it wasn’t really a fair fight.

If you remember the date had been set, and although my brothers and I had rescheduled for a full three weeks later in order to allow MOT’s etc, one of them did at least have the decency to phone a few days before and admit he’d failed.
He’d set his heart on a X7 for some bizarre reason, either that or a jawa outfit!? eh?. Anyway, it seems that the little suzuki has gone the way of RD’s though – prices gone through the roof no matter what condition they were in.!! Not wanting a fully restored item, and not wanting a basket case at £800 meant he’d held off, and so was going to have nothing to show at the challenge. He’s still looking though – looks like the idea of returning to a 2 stroke is calling him.

My other brother was suspiciously quiet.

My mighty KR1S was ready for the fight however. I even T-CUT the tank that I got from RedDevil and tailpiece to a dazzling finish to phsyc out the opposition.


The faring was still in a million pieces in tesco bags, and I haven’t bothered to find a new one in case I ended up buying one of that dangerous Danny Harris chap, so it was going into battle naked.

The majority of the carburation leaks were cured, but the inlet rubbers looked in such poor condition that I daren’t subject them to any further agony by refitting the airbox. I looking in my old moped racing spares box for some K&N filters, but only found one, which alone looked stupid, so the carbs stayed open.
I’d previously checked that the autolube system was working correctly as the service manual read, and it was do no more running premix.
Before I decided that I wasn’t going to be ready for the MOT, I had been struggling with the back brake. I didn’t want to buy a new disk (remember the budget) but all the rears I could find 2nd hand were really badly worn. The ridges on them were huge, really attracting attention to the wear. I’ve never seen an MOT tester get his micrometer out though, so I put the disk in a lathe a work and skimmed the ridges off it, then shot blasted it. Made a bit of a noise cutting over those drillings but looked good when finished if a little thin!
I changed the rear tyre, put a new chain and sprockets on it, some new pads in the rear and that was that.

For reasons of legality I trailered the Ditch Salvage to within a mile of my brother’s, unloaded and then conducted a selection of top speed runs past his house early one morning until he came out to see what all the noise was.
He looked slightly depressed to see the fairingless beast smoke rattle and roll it’s way past.
He perked up slightly when he saw the petrol soaked inner thighs of my jeans where the poorly set up air-boxless carbs has been spitting fuel back out. He cheerfully pointed out that the battery looked like it was melting.
His GPZ was clearly not ready for the challenge. When I asked where it was he said it was in the sheds. “Sheds?” I enquired.
Yeah, half’s in that shed and half’s in the other! Sounds like his “gasflowing” hadn’t gone quite as planned.

He pulled out a “back on the road” Ex-CB500 cup machine that he’d picked up cheap, but not cheap enough to qualify for the 750 (pounds + cc’s) challenge. He fired it up a proceeded to rev the nut’s off it in neutral so I could sample his home-made exhaust. This went on until his neighbour came out waving her jam making spoon at us in a threatening manner.

Anyway, the victory was clearly mine, but despite the fact that it runs (really quite well at high rev’s) the Ditch Salvage is clearly in a bad way. I’m going to have to go a bit further back before I can progress any further forward and so I really need to have the crank out and check it’s condition. (remember all that sludge.)

In total it stands me nearly £200 pounds, but it’s probably time I got rather more realistic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to stay thrifty, but some things you’ve just got to pay for.
Doubtless engine removal will cause the crumbling loom to disappear and so it’ll need rewiring.
Doubtless I’ll cock that up and burn out the CDI or something equally as horrid.

I’ll not post any of the boring stuff that you’ve all done yourselves before, not unless something weird and wonderful happens or if I find myself in the depths of depression, needed some encouragement.

What I have noticed from the forum is that we’re all very different. I’ve certainly not got the same skill set or patience as Waki, and sadly this KR is never going to look like one of his. But, as I say, we're all different - variety is the spice of life - and the question you’ve got to ask yourself is can Waki make a raspberry meringue?

Nice article =D>

Abel wrote:and the question you’ve got to ask yourself is can Waki make a raspberry meringue?

Of all the questions that could have been posed on here that gets my vote for most obscure.

Brilliant write up, glad you 'won'. Now if you need i) airbox rubbers, ii) loom, iii) cdi when you do fry it! Yours for the asking.

Anything that runs has got to be better than another broken one.

Brilliant topic, my favourite so far! =D> =D>

If you need any parts, just ask

cheers,
Charles

=D> =D>

well done champ

=D>