[Camride]

Well I picked up my 2004 Z1000 last night. I ended up figuring out that my bike's original owner was a member of this site:

http://www.riderforums.com/showpost.php?p=432050&postcount=1597

I'm already planning out what to do to it, though most of it will have to stay on the inexpensive side as my wife wasn't thrilled about this purchase. So for now it'll mostly consist of blacking out panels and maybe modifying the stock exhaust. I also need to setup the suspension as Chris is a bit lighter than I am, so it feels a bit soft for me.

Here's a pic of it in my garage:

I'll get better pics once it's cleaned up. Now I gotta get it tagged/inspected/registered/etc.

 

[zxjosh]

Very clean. Congrats

 

[wakers3]

Welcome home and congrats!

 

[jsmith8008]

Tell your wife to blow it out her... uh, nevermind don't do that.

First of all nice bike, you've made a good choice my friend, good choice.
Second, there aren't many cheap upgrades. But I will say that a good aftermarket bar is one of he best bangs for the buck. You get yourself a nice wide one and that baby'll whip into turns easier than pickin up a hooker by the airport on Tuesday night.

I paid $100 for my Renthal. It came from the UK cause I wanted a certain bend in a gold finish, but you can probly get a cheaper one from a domestic shop.

 

[Black Sheep]

I already welcomed you to the other site... might as well welcome you here as well! :welcome:

 

[Z1000 Rider]

Congrats on the new bike and welcome!

 

[Camride]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

jsmith8008 - Chris actually gave me the stock bars as well some slightly lower/wider bars (not Renthals but something similar). It has the ZX-6R clip-ons right now and they're too low, so I'll be putting on those lower/wider bars tonight after I get the bike inspected. I've never swapped bars on a bike but I'm assuming it's pretty easy?

 

[03kraz1000]

:welcome: to the forum let us see those new bars when you get done . . . ride safe

 

[Camride]

New (old) bars are on. I've never changed bars before so it ended up taking much longer than it should (about an hour) because I didn't realize there was a hole that the little peg on the electronics was supposed to go in. :laugh: I couldn't figure out why the electronics wouldn't fit back on the bar, when I saw the nub on the electronics I thought (dur) that they were for the old bars so I cut the nub off. :nono: Right after that I saw the hole in the bar it was supposed to go into. Thankfully that nub has a hole in it, so I just put a very small screw in there to go into the hole so the electronics won't move.

Yeah, I'm a bike n00b. I never really worked on my old bikes, just rode them and changed the oil.

Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to ride it yet with the new bars, but just sitting on it the position felt 100x better than with the clip-ons. I'm getting a comp day tomorrow (worked a bunch of after hours jobs recently) so I'm going to get it inspected and registered so I can ride this weekend! Oh yeah, and I got it washed and polished the pipes last night as well, looks good. I'll get some good pics on Friday.

 

[AKSnowman]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

jsmith8008 - Chris actually gave me the stock bars as well some slightly lower/wider bars (not Renthals but something similar). It has the ZX-6R clip-ons right now and they're too low, so I'll be putting on those lower/wider bars tonight after I get the bike inspected. I've never swapped bars on a bike but I'm assuming it's pretty easy?

I just switched out my bars and found that it did something to my idle.... So if there is something odd going on either high or low just check your idle and adjust as necessary.

Welcome and very nice and clean bike you have.

 

[Camride]

Well I got the bars switched out fine (took a while though since I went slow) and it's way more comfortable to ride now. I had to use the stock bars as the ZX forks stick up above the clamps a bit and the lower handle bars would not clear. I may need to do some measurements at some point to see if the bike is sitting where it should since the original owner may have clamped it down a bit lower to get the clip-on's mounted.

Got it inspected and tagged on Friday and rode a little bit this weekend. Still trying to get the suspension dialed in and I found that one of the front forks is leaking just a little bit of oil. I don't think I'll tackle the fork seal myself so I'll start looking around locally to find a good place to get that done.

Other than that I just need to get comfortable on the bike. It's been 4 years since I've ridden so I need to re-familiarize myself with riding.