Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by w650 on Nov 3, 2015 17:21:43 GMT -6
I warned my wife a few weeks before she passed away that if she did I was buying another bike and would take a long ride when everything settled down. Today I picked up the first part of the promise. A 1983 Kawasaki KZ750-N2 Spectre. It's a big bike, weighs 500 pounds and has a mere 80 horse at the crank. It belonged to the Uncle of the local Kawasaki dealer and has been serviced over the years. It needs a little dusting but it runs great. But. When I went to vote this evening I took the CF Moto.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by jct842 on Nov 5, 2015 13:21:08 GMT -6
Nice bike. If I had found one like that I probably would have gone for it or at least took a test ride. I like shaft drive on bikes and the upright seating position. Seats can always be raised, being old and full of arth. there are a lot of positions that are not comfortable for me. Tried several sizes of shadows and felt cramped on all of them, the 1100 was better than any of the 750s but still cramped. A bike like that should have at least 100k miles left in it for you.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by w650 on Nov 5, 2015 17:52:46 GMT -6
I'm sure it has several miles left and reminds me of my KZ1000st with the way it runs. I was riding home from the place I picked it up and noticed that it was spinning 4,000 rpm at 60 mph. At first I thought "Holy Crap"! Then I looked at the tach to see where redline was. It redlines at 10,000 so I guess a mere 4,000 is nothing. This engine was the basis for their AMA Superbike effort in 1983 so I guess it's pretty beefy. It is basically the same as the '83 GP 750 except it doesn't have polished ports.
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Post by cyborg on Nov 6, 2015 8:23:48 GMT -6
A great score on a great bike,,,stinky fast with decent mileage if you take it easy,,,,,good luck with that one it's hard not to ride fast on a machine like that,,i begs to fly
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Senior Clinician
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Post by trashtruck12172 on Nov 14, 2015 10:44:02 GMT -6
very nice bike, makes me miss my goldwing
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by richardv on Nov 14, 2015 15:10:15 GMT -6
I miss my '86 Aspencade. Not so much the '95 1500 or the '03 1800.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by jct842 on Nov 14, 2015 17:29:25 GMT -6
I also had an 86 aspencade. I had some expensive problems with it. Poor dealers. Had the alternator/stator fail. there was a recall and 3 honda dealers told me they wanted mega bucks. Had the rear wheel spin a bearing and ruin the wheel, that was almost a grand with a new tire. It was nice the first few years though. For a long time I was looking for a naked up to 83 wing and gave up and bought the KLX. Don't think a 1200 would ever temp me again unless an aftermarket stator had been installed, That is a down right nasty job to pull the motor and replace one.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by richardv on Nov 15, 2015 5:41:07 GMT -6
In '85 the rear wheel bearing issue was taken care of. As far as the stator we replaced it with an automotive alternator driven by a pulley on the front of the crank. The alternator was hung up inside the left side fairing. I drove it that way for 7 years. Along with 3 small city sized bikes.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by jct842 on Nov 15, 2015 18:55:24 GMT -6
Any way the three dealers in the chicago area that told me I would have to pay when there was a recall turned me off honda for a long long time. In fact now that I think about it I have never bought a honda product since. The last few years I would have liked to find a naked wing in my price range and almost did but was too slow to respond, it had a skinny banana seat but other than that was stock and I could have tossed the seat and got another!
edit: I think honda was paying a bunch less than the going rate for replacing the stator is why all three quoted in the neighborhood of a grand.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by w650 on Nov 15, 2015 19:29:31 GMT -6
Why they put the stator behind the engine is beyond me. Every CX-500 and 650 had that and they all fail sooner or later. Since you have to remove the engine to replace it they all get scrapped. No one wants to pay more than the bike is worth to have a stator installed. Dumb, very dumb.
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Doc's Anything Goes
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Post by jct842 on Nov 15, 2015 22:51:14 GMT -6
The 1100's and 1000's seemed to have a much better track record for the stator failing. A cop I knew about the time I bought the aspencade new had just picked up a naked 78 or 79 wing. I wished I had got one like it right after I came home with mine. He had a big motorcycle and I got a 2 wheel car! The 3rd owner after me on the aspencade stripped off the plastic to work on the engine and his kid had a leaf fire the got out of control and it ate all of the plastic and a shed. Last I saw of it was naked and had a giant harley/tractor type seat on it. I would have liked it a lot better that way.
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