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I'm three days into becoming the new owner of a 2004 XJR and it's the first time I've owned a Jaguar or any other sort of big capacity car. (I've been a motorcycle enthusiast for over 40 years and still am). But I need a car that I can actually feel something for and have a mate who convinced me I could love this one! Ha ha. Still at the start of finding out all there is to know about this vehicle so I'll probably be on here a lot over the next few months if it proves good in answering questions and advice. I'm a moderator on a few motorcycle forums so know the score and will try not to ask too many newbie questions that have been asked a million times before. Hope that the search function on here is good and then I can use that. Took me quite a while to find the right car at the right price so I did learn quite a bit about XJs in the process.
Current bikes are a 2007 KTM Superduke which I have had since new. Probably the best all rounder I've ever owned and it's a keeper. I have so much time and money in this and there is very little left on it that is factory OE. It's got a full-titanium system with custom airbox and many mods to the fuel injection and electronics to release more power and achieve the optimum dyno readouts. Big V twins are my thing really after years of owning Ducatis. All the suspension is upgraded because I used to do a lot of track days so it's all infinitely adjustable and easy to set up for conditions. All the bodywork is carbon which I painstakingly matted down (F1 style) with fine wet and dry because I hate the shiny bling look. Although it's now nearly fifteen years old it can still hold its own against much more modern machinery, especially on the road where it's still up there with anything really.
My other passion is a 1975 Kawasaki H2c. I grew up on 2 Strokes and this was my pin up bike on the bedroom wall! I've had it for about 8 years now and it's a very different bike to the KTM. Totally mental power delivery - I have about three different sets of exhausts and they all deliver a different ride and limit ground clearance in different ways. Currently running a Japanese design which tucks underneath and is impossible to ground out. This bike gets a lot of attention when I'm out on it because they are so rare and have a bad reputation from beck in the day. They were known as 'Widow-makers' because of their violent power delivery and dubious handling. The Japanese back then could make engines but their frame and cycle parts were still very rudimentary. I have replaced the OE rear suspension and fork internals with something that looks retro but is a bit more capable and fitted a double disc brake set up from a Z900 because it just wouldn't stop when I first bought it! I have all the original parts but for the last five years it's set up in cafe race trim with clip-on handlebars, rear-sets, race seat, all indicators removed etc.
My last bike is a 1999 Suzuki TLR which I've had for about three years. I bought it as a bit of a wreck from eBay and did a complete nut&bolt restoration on it. I have a spray shop, compressor and all the kit so I did all the bodywork myself over a few months. This is a bike that is very like the XJR really. It has a massively powerful V Twin 1000 engine but the bike itself (although cutting edge at the time) is big, heavy and cumbersome compared to modern sports bikes. It's a bit of a barge and on race tracks you really have to muscle it round as it wants to understeer all the time. But it is fun because it's so powerful and fast. I've just put it up for sale though because I don't really need it and I could do with starting a fund for the XJ so I can undertake the inevitable start up costs of owning this car and ironing out all the niggles over the next few months. I'll probably double or triple the money I bought it for but no way recover the investment in the time and effort i've put into it!
I understand where you're coming from with the love of the 2-stroke and the Kawasaki. Back in the mid to late 80's I had a 1976 Suzuki GT750 A. We used to call it the "water bottle", but you'd be more used to "Water Buffalo" in your neck of the woods. The smell of these things is kinda intoxicating if not sometimes suffocating. I remember spending about 3 weeks one winter polishing the all the alloy on that thing. It was always a bit to tall for my short *** and I nearly dropped it a bunch of times in basic carpark type maneuvers. Such a good sound at 8000rpm. Sold it to a work mate for an amount barely in 3 figures. Imagine what it would be worth I'd kept it
The bike I has before that was a Honda CB 550 Four Super Sport and it suffered from terrible braking performance too. I just had one floating caliper disk on the front, drums on the back. It turned left corners really well and right corners very reluctantly. I suspect the frame was bent, but never really figured it out. One time coming back from town to my rural abode in Little Akaloa, Banks Peninsula, I was 200m from my gate and I cam over a rise to find the road full of my neighbours dairy heard. The brakes were absolute crap and I ended ditching into the mud narrowly missing a lamp post. Spent a lot of time cleaning muck out from the cooling fins. A rumor got started that I had "shocked the cows" to stop milking and I thought I was in the shisse with my neighbour, but it was all just a hilarious joke which I didn't think was funny at all.
It's been a few years since my last bike, a Moto Guzzi V50 Monza and there has been so many before that. In a weird twist, My motorcycle learners license that I've had since 1985 is due to expire in Feb 2022 so, I have to go and sit my restricted license test sometime in the next wee while. Don't ask.. I literally rode around for my whole life with a learners license and managed to avoid any trouble. Stupid I know, but stranger things happen at sea.
07-02-2021, 07:12 AM
Newbee XJR
