Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Whew. Or, That's not a Nail, THIS is a Nail!
After more prep work than should have reasonably been required (the garage was on the heavily cluttered side... sigh), I got the Z propped up and ready to pull the wheel off. I grabbed my trusty multitool and pulled out the nail I'd seen a day or two before.
To my surprise and delight, the "nail" was a tiny piece of metal, maybe 3-4 mm long. It had not punctured the tire completely, leaving enough rubber in place that it didn't leak a bit when I pulled the offending object out. Hooray! That means no patch, and no having to pull the wheel off to wrestle with tire irons.
Unfortunately, the front tire is definitely on the cupped side, so it'll need to be replaced soonish. It's still acceptable, but that could explain some of the uncertain feeling I get from the front end.
It turns out that getting the Z750s's front tire in the air is no mean feat. The factory has access to this nifty adjustable "double" jack, which grabs both sides of the engine case, to support it very stably while leaving the inconveniently-routed exhaust pipes uncrushed. I guess technically I have access to it too, if I cared to spend a couple hundred dollars on the special tool from Kawasaki. However, between some cleverly-rigged tiedown straps and the slightly off-center jack from underneath, I managed to get the bike up and stable. Not really the way I'd normally choose to do it, but it worked in this case.
In other news, I got a phone call from someone in Florida(!) today, asking about the Le Mans. He sounded pretty interested, but it would involve crating up the bike and shipping it down there. He knows of some shipping company which will perform the crating as part of the shipping service, though, so that's encouraging.
I suggested to Nils (for that was his name) that he should consider flying up here to inspect the bike in person, relating my own bad experience with the R100 (in brief, it was Not in Advertised Condition). He seemed to appreciate the suggestion, but for all I know that killed the sale. Who knows. I'd rather not ship the bike if I can avoid it, although I'd also rather sell it and ship it than not sell it at all.
Posted at 12:46 permanent link category: /motorcycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater