First new big bike EVER!

[Skub]

You're intending to put the first Brembo caliper into space?

Bungee power!

[Scuffmark]

Some titanium disc bolts. A direct result of January lockdown,I'd say!

Shiney

[Skub]

Cool stuff arrived today from SSR suspension.

It's gonna be a while yet before there is any road test report,but something to anticipate anyway.

[Skub]

This is what the stock big piston fork internals look like on the Z1000. In the pic the bottom is the left fork leg with preload only,the top is rebound and compression only. The K-Tech kit gives preload,compression and rebound in each fork.

[Skub]

For whatever reason,Mr.Kawasaki decided to use a different rear shock linkage to lower my model and while this makes for a lower seat height,it's also payback in terms of turn in and ground clearance.

Fortunately the linkage of previous models of Z1000 and Z1000SX fit straight in,giving around a 20mm lift at the rear.

I bought this one off the bay for 30 quid. It was a bit crusty,so I gave it a lick of primer and satin black,then sprinkled it with some new titanium bolts and nuts

[Scuffmark]

20mm seems like a large change.....was the only reason to lower the seat height ?

Its going to feel like a different bike , in a good way of course

[Mr. Dazzle]

then sprinkled it with some new titanium bolts and nuts

Which could very well be weaker than the steel ones you took out.

Do you have a picture of the old ones? Have they got anything written on the head?

[Skub]

then sprinkled it with some new titanium bolts and nuts

Which could very well be weaker than the steel ones you took out.

Do you have a picture of the old ones? Have they got anything written on the head?

That occurred to me too,so I may use the bolts off my own bike,if I can't be sure.

This is the head of the stock bolt,if the symbol means anything to you.

[Bigyin]

Finally someone has swapped more stuff on their bike from standard than Weeksy

[Mr. Dazzle]

That occurred to me too,so I may use the bolts off my own bike,if I can't be sure.

This is the head of the stock bolt,if the symbol means anything to you.

THB I'm not sure what that is...for obvious reasons I generally deal in European metric bolts with occasional Yank aerospace thrown in.

That could be a grade 9 bolt, in which case it would be a fair bit stronger than Titanium. I had a quick Google and grade 9 is generally more obviously a nine.

TBF half decent Steel will be as strong as Ti and high end Steel will be quite a.lot stronger. Even a high strength Steel bolt will still only be a couple of quid (economies of scale innit) so don't be fooled into thinking fancy expensive Titanium bolts are automatically stronger than cheap Steel ones. Ti is also more sensitive to notches/scratches and has a finite fatigue life. It requires much more careful consideration than Steel.

Put it this way: I design high performance structural parts for high performance vehicles for a living. I'd stick with the steel bolts in this application if it were my bike

[Skub]

Cheers Daz. It's a lightness trip I'm on,but I'm not willing to sacrifice strength for that alone.

Because I have no definite knowledge the titanium bolts are strong enough,I'm not willing to gamble. I know the stock bolts are rated for their application,so it would be daft to take a chance. Stock bolts it is.

[Bigyin]

Cheers Daz. It's a lightness trip I'm on,but I'm not willing to sacrifice strength for that alone.

Because I have no definite knowledge the titanium bolts are strong enough,I'm not willing to gamble. I know the stock bolts are rated for their application,so it would be daft to take a chance. Stock bolts it is.

Paint them with some shiny silver paint and tell the locals its unobtanium, they'll never know

[Taipan]

Didn't someone post about the shear values of Ti disc bolts on TRC showing they were okay? Also, places like ProBolt sell Ti disc bolts, which I assume they wouldn't if they weren't safe?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Titanium bolts aren't intrinsically unsafe, as with all these things it depends on multiple factors. Theres a lot more to a bolt than sticking it in a hole and doing it up. A lot more!

The big thing to know is that Steel bolts are often stronger. I think that is what would surprise most people.

[Mr. Dazzle]

You certainly could think about using Titanium bolts in an application like this and you can mix Titanium with other metals. As above though, Titanium is more susceptible to fatigue, has different corrosion properties (both in isolation and in combination with other metals), different stiffness, different strength etc.

I've used Ti bolts in structural applications at work loads of times. I've also NOT used Titanium bolts too IYSWIM. The key thing is though, in all those situations it knew everything else that was going on in there too.

Disc bolts are actually reasonably benign. You'd think they're super critical, which in one sense they are, but there's also a very high degree of redundancy and you're screwing into an aluminium wheel (I.e. weaker than the bolts) generally. In a suspension link the bolts are loaded very differently and there's no redundancy.

If I knew everything that was going on in that link and I knew why Kawasaki had made the decisions they made I would consider Ti. I don't, so I wouldn't.

Generally speaking, if you're not sure about something in a safety application steel is best. It's super forgiving.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Its not just the raw strength. Titanium and Aluminium will both fatigue eventually whereas steel often won't. Steel is generally nice and ductile too, so you can knick, chip and bend it a bit without consequence whereas with more exotic metals you can't.

For example it's not unusual to take steel driveshafts off high performance cars and find they're "wound up" by a few degrees. Try that with aluminium.

[Skub]

Dry,salt free roads today,so I had a little opportunity to try out the new K-Tech cartridges fitted by Mark at SSR suspension.

Not enough grip to be really pushing on,but I wanted to see if that harshness over crappy road surface had improved any. Even on a cold day there is a compliance and feeling of damping the bumps rather than feeding it straight back to me. I didn't exactly scratch the surface of adjustability,but I'm pleased to feel a difference in normal tooshing about. Box 1 ticked.

It was 7 degrees and the heated grips were set at 50%,which was just nice. When I stopped,they switched themselves off (so far) too!

It was really nice to get out,even for just 30 minutes. I may have enjoyed it a while longer,but I've had toothache for almost a week and the helmet didn't do me any favours. I'm paying for it now.

Gratuitous bike pics.

[Skub]

I managed a couple of hour riding today,man the state of some of the roads is crap. Flood debris,gravel and potholes abound. Take it handy for a while out there folks.

Further observation shows the front end of the bike to be much improved,those teeth rattling roads are now suddenly much better surfaced.
I'm aware of the forks working and feeding back information,but they are filtering out all the tiring harshness.

Aside from backing off a little preload,I haven't started to adjust any damping yet,so all indicators are good. Well pleased with Mark @ SSR suspension's work.

[Skub]

Bike booked in for a Woolwich ecu flash and dyno setup on 30th March.

[Skub]

Flash day!

I leave the bike off this morning and collect it tomorrow.

I'm like a wean at Xmas.