A good day with the feelers; plus the Missus and VFR

Discussion in '5th Generation 1998-2001' started by Cherryriver, Nov 13, 2022.

  1. Cherryriver

    Cherryriver New Member

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    I got my '00 a year and a half ago with 30,000 miles showing on the clock. There were some things undone in terms of maintenance, and I gathered that the seller had sort of not ridden it much in recent years.
    When I inquired as to the age of the coolant, for example, the answer was, "maybe never..?"
    And the steering head bearings were quite notchy. I think that may also have led to a lack of interest.
    So last weekend I finally, finally got around to doing a valve clearance check (at 44,000) and was overjoyed to discover all were nearly perfect. A good day!
    I was so enthused that while I had the bodywork off I went ahead and flushed the brake lines. The stuff that came out was halfway bad-looking, and the levers did firm up a little.
    Now, on the home front, the Missus has been riding her own bikes for five years. Her eighth, a near-new Ninja 650, has accumulated nearly 11,000 miles in fifteen months of ownership. It wears a full set of hard Givis and a tall windscreen, but she's learned she doesn't care for the upright, or standard, riding position. A bicycle racer in the olden days, you know.
    The 650 isn't really an optimal tool for Interstate blasting, especially around here in Chicagoland, where 80mph often isn't really fast enough to earn respect from the car people. And longer days, getting on towards 300 miles, get wearying.
    She insists on modern bikes now, considering some of her past rides, and while I've often suggested giving the ol' 5th Gen a try, she just plain didn't cotton to it.
    The topic of a Ninja 1000 has been floating, and she missed two Demo Days opportunities to give one a try.
    I happened to mention the Yellow One is virtually the same size, weight, and what-all. At long last, she began to give it a try a week or so ago, right after the valve check.
    It's wearing near-new Michelin Power GPs- a long story, but not a tire I'd normally mount on a bike I expect to travel with and ride in the wet- but good heavens, they sure are nice to ride on (while they last).
    Yeah, so she kept at it and racked up a little more than 200 miles over the course of a few days.
    She didn't like the "heavy" clutch pull- everything is heavy compared to a new Ninja 650- and that I have my Heli Multi-Tour Sport handlebars too high for her, but somehow she suffered it all and decided that well, maybe that Ninja 1000 might be a tolerable fit after all.
    We went and looked at one Tuesday. '23s are quite scarce, but a good dealer in Barrington has one, and only one, and it's $16-five out the door, no sidecases.
    Very interesting.
     

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