[jaydub77]

hey everyone,

Well I have the old girl back up and running, actually right now she runs pretty good, but I still have some tweakin left to do, but we'll get back to that later...

...soo, the new jardine RT One exhaust is on and man it's loud!!! Sounds really good though. I have also carved into the front fairing (not wanting to buy a new one), so now the bike looks kinda naked but with a small 1/4 fairing up front, kinda like the Z (oh I will be posting pics). I have also ditched the old turn signals because the old one's had nowhere to mount to anymore. So now i've got some el cheapo's mounted to the radiator of all places, again I will have pics up soon so you can check it out. Other than that I've pretty much left the bike the way it was aesthetically. because of the huge 2" wide open exhaust, I have had to play around considerably with the carbs, but I have NOT had to rejet!!! I have done the FOG airbox mod and I am quite pleased with the engine response, there is still something amiss with the carbs but I have a vacuum gauge to check things out and get things dialed back in.

Because of the way bigger exhaust outlet it also seems that that I have to do a bit of valve work as well to get the motor dialed in. At higher RPM's i'm getting some significant popping from the exhaust, and I have a feeling it is because the exhaust valves are staying open just slightly longer than they should....it's been long overdue for this engine to have it's valves checked anyways!!! (it is an 87) Oh, by the way, I have also swapped the front springs for progressive's and I have found that they are stiffer, but the 500 front end just likes to dive, though i've also been used to riding cruisers before I got this bike, maybe just a sport bike thing?

Taking it out for a ride is pretty exhilirating compared to the old honda 400 I used to have with half the horsepower, but it's still really manageable, next year I am going to move up to a 600, but i'm still gunna keep the 500 for a possible track bike!

I'm also all set up to take and MSF course at the end of the month with a friend, and it's the best school in all of Canada, so i'm pretty stocked, and I also get to ride on a ninja 500! talk about getting a good deal...anyways I will have pics up by the end of the week, hope you all like the end of stage 1 for this bike, stage 2 may be farther off but I will make it some day!