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How to escape the SoCal heat, ride to a ski resort!

2K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  TheDoctor 
#1 ·
It was 97*F here in Los Angeles last weekend, me and my neightbor decided to ride up to Big Bear Lake about 110 miles away, where it was only 71*F. There's some amazing twisties for the last 40 miles up the mountain. Here are some pictures of my 2010 red/white 3rd gen I took up there. I just installed a new engine into it the week before and this was my shakedown ride. The bike was flawless. Also wanna thank my boii Trump for the new lens he bought me.

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Here's one from Angeles Crest after scrubbing off all of the road salt and cleaning the bike. Hasn't been this clean in a while.

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#4 ·
yes, I changed out the whole engine because my original engine lost 4th gear (the typical dog teeth getting rounded off from too many false neutrals), and instead of slowly rebuilding it and being out of a street bike for at least 1-2 months, I just bought a spare low mileage engine that I swapped in while I'm rebuilding my original engine. The swap took me about 8 hours to remove, including labeling all hoses, photographing and noting the wiring harness and hose routing, creating the wooden engine buck and studying the Haynes manual. Because of the good documentation I made, it only took about 4-5 hours to put back in. Now that I know where everything goes and since I have the engine buck that perfectly aligns the engine, I can probably swap the it in and out in maybe 5-6 hours max, it's really not as difficult as I originally though, basically a giant dirt bike, and everything is nearly as accessible due to the simple L-engine layout as opposed to the V of the modern superbikes.

As for the covid thing, I've never seen random check stops questioning where you're going, not in the USA, or at least not in LA county. On Sunday I went to Malibu and there were probably 2x as many bikers (both motorcyclists and bicyclists) as there ever were pre-covid times. Yes, there was a bunch of cops, I counted 5 just from Las Virgines to the Rock Store, but they were mostly pulling over supercars, not bikers. Big Bear I only saw one cop on the way up at Lake Arrowhead. It was absolutely a beautiful day up there, probably as many motorcyclists as there were passenger cars, mostly cruisers and dual sports though. Going back down into the 100*F Inland Empire heat and riding back home in it did suck a bit though.
 
#6 ·
I shot out a lowball offer of $450 to a motorcycle dismantler on eBay, and to my surprise he accepted it. He was located in Long Beach which is only about 30 miles away from me, and went and picked it up the same day. The engine is from a 2013 Ninja 1000 with a high 45000 serial number. My bike is a very, very early 2010 model with a very low 000109 engine number. Having both engines side by side, you can really tell where Kawasaki has cut costs over the course of the model years. Internally the engines are the same (with the exception of the timing chain, timing sprockets and guides), but externally the finish on the old engine is MUCH nicer. For example; every part is powder coated a high gloss black on the old engine, including both the upper and low oil pans, timing chain tensioner, and waterpump, while the newer engine has the same parts as either raw aluminum or anodized gray, and whatever is powder coated on it is not a high gloss finish like on the old engine. Also the castings are rougher on the new engine, where on the old engine, you can tell that someone has manually deburred or corrected the casting imperfections. Kind of interesting to see these differences.

I am planing on putting the old engine back after i completely rebuild the gearbox and upgrade a few other bits. Not only is it nicer, but it matches the vehicle title which in a weird way is important to me.

The good news though, in the last 700 miles I put on the new engine, I have never once hit a false neutral with it, whereas my old engine I would hit one maybe once every hundred miles on average. Interestingly, when i swapped over the slipper clutch from the old engine to the new engine, I saw that the new engine had a red colored shift drum spring installed in it, while the old engine had a normal metal unpainted spring. This is either an upgraded spring by Kawasaki to combat the false neutral issues, or the previous owner of this engine installed it as an aftermarket upgrade. I can for sure say that shifting gears takes more force/effort on the new engine than on my old engine.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Congratulations Mate!

You really know what you are doing.

What is an Engine BUCK?

Are you saying that the 2010 Z1000 engine is essentially the same as a 2013 Ninja 1000?

Is this the same relative progression over all the years ie; the ninja engine is identical to the z?

Is the Ninja geared differently?

Which pulls the hardest?

Now I am thinking I want to keep my Bike! Put $15k in it with Riding Gear, Upgrades, etc & only rode it for 700 miles.

Getting sideswiped by a car doing 80mph when I was puttering around at 30mph being a Good Covid Citizen really threw me for a mental loop - used to be me doing 80 & someone else doing 30.

I might even join you for a ride up there soon - investing another $500 making the bike perfect for the new owner but now.

Is there ice on the roads even now on Angeles Crest - do you have to pressure wash it off?

Last time I went to Malibu, the weekend the bike was finished The Snake was closed - this was that day, big sign saying Bicycles & Pedestrians only with a long gate.
 

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#10 ·
All Z1000, Ninja 1000 (Z1000sx) and Versys 1000 engines are identical for the most part. 2010-2013 it's the exact same engine in all bikes with the exception of very 2010's which have different timing chains. The 2014 to 2016 engines are also largely the same as the previous engines with the exception of the intake camshafts which have different cam profiles, so you can put a 3rd gen engine into a 4th gen bike, but you would have to retune the ECU to accommodate the cam profile differences, or maybe not. Gearing should be 100% identical, between Z1000 and Ninjas. Power is also the same. The reason the later bikes have 141bhp is because the aforementioned cam difference and ECU tuning.

There hasnt been snow on the side of the road on ACH for 3-4 weeks now. And there hasn't been ice since February. Me and my buddies like doing the run past Newcombs Ranch because there are almost zero cars that far up, though there is still some de-icing agent (this red cray stuff, don't think it's salt) on the road if you go off line. I have a Karscher pressure washer but I mostly use the hose.

The Snake is closed and probably will be for the next decade at this rate, but I have the keys to the gate. I don't recommend running it during the weekend, but I may or may not sometimes go during the week with my supermoto.

Which prompts the questions....

If you strip the motor - will you get it re-coated? (Xylan, cerakote, powder coating?)
Tuning....while youve got it apart....any head work planned....very easy thing to do...

Also, i wonder, anyone managed to graft a zx10 motor in??
The machining on the intake valve runners is terrible, I may try to smooth that out if I end up pulling the head. I've been looking for off the shelf aftermarket high compression pistons, but haven't found any (yet), and I'm not willing to pay several grand for ones to be made to my spec. My old engine only had 17k miles on it, so I may only end up replacing the worn parts in the gearbox and leave the upper half alone. Got any other "while your in there" suggestions?

The ZX10 motor has completely different motor mounting points. I did see someone swap a ZX10r rear swingarm into a Z1000, but the shock mounting tab needs to be machined off and relocated on the swingarm.
 
#9 ·
Which prompts the questions....

If you strip the motor - will you get it re-coated? (Xylan, cerakote, powder coating?)
Tuning....while youve got it apart....any head work planned....very easy thing to do...

Also, i wonder, anyone managed to graft a zx10 motor in??
 
#11 ·
Interesting - youve got some good knowledge..!

Easy stuff i would do...whip the head off and polish the exhaust and intake ports....there was a company here in the uk that sold aftermarket pistons...see if i can find them...

I genuinely thought a zx10 motor would slot straight in....! frame loos the same from all the pics ive seen...the frame looked the same...
 
#15 ·
No, I have not been riding the Kawi this weekend, trying to save my rear tire for my track-day at Chuckwalla in 2 weeks. These Michelin Cup2's are soft as puddy, might get maybe 1500 max miles out of the rears if you ride somewhat spiritedly. But that's kind of what I've been expecting.

I've been riding my Husqvarna this weekend, I've been on ACH both today and yesterday, going all the way up to the tunnels, past Newcombs Ranch. Pretty quiet up there currently.

Here are a few more pics I took at Mt. Wilson Observatory last week. This is the place where Edwin Hubbell discovered that the universe extends beyond our Milky Way and that we are in just one of the many billions of other galaxies in the universe.

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Any another from the week before from the top of Stunt Road with my two neighbors (675R and HP4)

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#17 ·
It's a DSLR camera, which I got new lenses for recently thanks to the stimulus checks, so it's kind of like a shiny new toy again. It's a Canon 6D with Simga 24-70mm, 50mm-f1.4 and 70-200mm lenses, and I recently got some preowned 12-24mm and 85mm-f1.4 lenses with the stimulus payment. 😇

I know modern phones take good pictures too, but I still have an iphone 5s because I like it's size. That engine removal picture was taken with the phone, I'm sure you can tell :poop:
 
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