fuel injected turbo katana

I got my first lithium motorcycle batteries today. I cannot believe how light they are. I bought the huge one with 270 cold cranking amps and 18amp/hrs.

It weighs 2.12 lbs and you can see the size difference between the stock sky scraper battery, a newer sport bike battery and the lithium in the middle.

You could say I like them so much I bought the company, but, I only became a dealer.

I was thinking about going lithium for whenever I redo the electrics on my bike. Are there any longevity issues, or any sort of known drawbacks to using the lithium batteries, other than the obvious price difference? Most of my small electronics around the house are LiOn powered, and dead reliable, but I wasn't sure how the tech scaled up into the motorcycle world.

Retrofitting new shiny electronics in place of old stinky OEM stuff gives me the tingles.

Lithium motorcycle battery

I got my first lithium motorcycle batteries today. I cannot believe how light they are. I bought the huge one with 270 cold cranking amps and 18amp/hrs.

It weighs 2.12 lbs and you can see the size difference between the stock sky scraper battery, a newer sport bike battery and the lithium in the middle.

You could say I like them so much I bought the company, but, I only became a dealer.

[psyguy]

I know iPhones are picky about the USB ports.

True that. Some Motorola cellphones are similar - won't charge off some USBs ports . I first though this had to do only with the port Amp rating but apparently it's more than that. Dunno what, though.

Rob did you ever sort the iPhone/USB issue? I'm trying an aftermarket powerport box I got run straigh to the battery on my ZRX and I'm not charging from the USB port in it. It's 5volt like it's supposed to be but I know iPhones are picky about the USB ports.

Got some more work done today. Was working on wiring, fuel pump, surge tank and rear brake master and reservoir. I am using a Ducati rear brake reservoir. They are nice and small, so easy to hide behind the side cover. I will be replacing the Tygon F-4040 fuel line with Tygon 2075 clear brake line. Acording to many as the best tubing made for brake fluid. You can't use it for the presure side just from the res to the master cylinder. I just don't have any at the moment.

Mounting was pretty easy off the custom battery box. I cut an angular spacer to get better hose routing. Avid katana enthusiasts my notice that the master is not off a GS. It is a GSXR master cylinder. I used it because I wanted something smaller and less in the way. It required cutting fabbing and welding a new bracket for it as it does not have the same bolt pattern. Since I had to do that work anyway, I moved the master up so the bottom mounting hole is on the original top mounting hole of the frame. I added the top mounting hole further up to get the master more out of site and to clean up that area giving it a less cluttered look.

Of course that meant machining up a new brake rod out of stainless. The one side is flat for clearance as the bandit 1200 swing arm forces some adjustment of the rear brake pivot arm. Also missing from that area is the rear brake light switch and spring. I did away with that all together. On previous builds I moved it under the peg stay running parallel with it, but this time I used a hydrolic switch that is incorperated with the brake banjo bolt. My new brake lines are ordered and should be here next week. Stainless steel with translucent blue coating, red banjo fitting and blue anodized aluminum banjo bolts.

For those who don't know, it is not recommended to use aluminum fittings with stainless steel lines as the two metals react to each other and cause corrosion. Especially in a salt water environment, like in a coastal city. That being said I have used them without issue for a couple seasons at a time. These ones are all stainless accept for the banjo bolts which have copper crush washers between them and the stainless so I am not concerned. More on that when they arrive.

Would that be Delrin - it's an engineering grade nylon

The figners don't always work as they should..

[salty_monk]

Would that be Delrin - it's an engineering grade nylon

bandit 1200 swing arm conversion

On thing I need to address is chain droop. With my nice new (expensive) gloss black bandit 1200 swing arm all mounted up and looking so fine, the last thing I want to see is two train tracks from my chian contacting the top of the swing arm. Remember the post about 530 conversions? This is where it comes into play. The bandit 1200 swing arm is much wider at the pivot than the GS or GSX swing arm is, so sprocket diameter plays a big roll. Also, the bandit swing arm is at a greater angle than the stock GS or GSX arm. Add to that the extensions and we are getting dangerously close the the pivot.

I will be running larger sprockets front and rear. My front sprocket will be 18 teeth and the rear 51 teeth. Sounds HUUUUUGE!! doesn't it, but, they are the same diameter as the stock katana sprockets. Physically they are the same size just more teeth on them. As you can see in the pics I also installed the chain slider. As it comes with the bandit 1200 swing arm it is much too wide so I trimmed it down to fit. Another thing you can do is drill and tap the swing arm, then bolt a strip of "DELRIN" onto it. I decided just to go with the stock one for now.

Stock .

I've always thought the stock Katana instrument cluster was the coolest of all. Regardless of make, model or year.

katana speedometer

Well, not sure which way to go on this one. I like the digital tach/speedo but I have this nice updated stock set of clocks. ONe I bolt on the other will take all sorts of fabbing. Like I don't have enough to do.

I will have to make a decision pretty quick I think. I am leaning towards the digital clocks with shift lights, 1/4 mile time, 60 foot and all the other bells and whistles.

Which one do you guys like better?

Usd fork brace

Hey Joe, thanks M8.
I love that fork brace you posted on your thread. I had to get one too.

Well, mounted the front forks today and re&re'd the wheel bearings. Bought 4 "All Balls" bearings and did not like they way they roll, so, bashed them out and replaced them with NSK bearings, that's how I roll.

Mounted some plastic to check fitment and had to change the mounting bolts for the cooler due to contact with lower fairing pieces. then I couldn't get the signals in so, more adjusting. Very happy to have rubber on though and will have a roller in couple days. Couple more adjustements out back with the swing arm. Looking for the best thing to use for the chain slider. My nice new shiny gloss black swinger would not fair very well with chain contact.

Having a stretched swinger adds to the chain droop so I am running an 18/50 tooth setup. That equals the same size as the stock diameter sprockets so don't think that they will look huge on there.

The 2006 gsxr 1000 fender needs some fabbing as well to mount. In the pic there is a bolt missing in the brace cuz the fender was on the wrong side of the fork mount. Fits much better with it on the inside.

Great find Joe. Cheers,

I got the wheels back today from powder. As usual, there is some clean up afterwards. The bike shop was very carefull not to mark the new rims. I don't know what you all pay for mounting and balancing wheels but I think $85.00 is a little excessive for two wheels.

The pictures do not do them justice. These rims are spectacular. They are powdered with "110% gloss black". That is what powder dude told my anyhow. All I know is, they sure are shiny. As usual all did not go as planned. I bought 4 "All Balls" bearings for the wheels from the local shop and they need to come out and be replaced. They are tight to turn and not smooth at all. Back to get some Japanese bearings.

Make sure if you powder or media blast wheels, you replace the bearings. I leave them in to protect the bearings surfaces and knock them out when the wheels are blasted. You can't leave them in for powder and 400 degree baking.

I protected all the rotor threads with rotor bolts because I thought may as well instead of painting them myself. As you can see in the pic that I had to refit the socket head to the rotor bolt. Remember, powder is thick. There are a million and one things to do on this bike, and if I was not already nuts, I sure would be by the end of this build. See pic, I had to turn down the locking nut on my lathe for the rear brake push rod. Its OD was a little large and to close to the swingarm. I turned it down until there was just a little flat surface left to get a wrench on it to tighten. There has been so many of these little details, sometimes it takes the fun out of doing it. I still have to do some more adjusting of the rear brake pivot as I don't want to scratch the new powder on the swingarm.

There are days when I feel light pushing it all to the curb and buying a brand new bike, but, I know it will all be worth it when I'm ridin her. Oh, yeh, the tires are Shinko Podiums ( I am sure some of you have comments about them), rotors are Galfer.

katana led signal lights

I was unhappy with my last set of signal lights. Not very bright, not many leds and a little small. I have found a new set that I really like. I haven't seen this shape before but maybe I just don't get around very much. There has been much discussion about getting led lights to work properly on a bike. There are expensive solutions on the internet if you have too much money and want to stimulate the economy. You can go the cheap route like me two seasons ago. I hid the incondescent bulb signals under the katana plastic in a way that they would splash the engine and rear wheel when activated, while using the led signal lights in the usual signal location. A bit of bling for no bucks. I may do it again, or I may just go to my local automotive parts store and pick up a signal flasher unit for led lights (10.00) The reason the led lights won't flash is they don't draw enough current to activate the stock flasher. At least that is what I was told. A few years ago the solution was not as simple as today.

The old oval signals only have 8 led lights, where as the new ones have 18. The new leds also light up the tips for warning anyone to the side of the bike. They are a little larger than the old ones, brighter and a better design in my opinion. Another reason I like them is they match my new billet mirrors pretty good. I should have them in a couple weeks from Hong Kong.

A side note, there are only two types of reg/rec controlers. One for lower output stators and one for higher output stators.
Mainly commenting on this sentence above.

I see, yes, I was not specific in that statement. I was referring to reg/recs of the era. I will endeavor to be more specific in future.

I have pulled stators both from OEM and electrosport models that have looked fine and I have pulled some OEM stators that were black.

I will look more into the "series" as oil temp is a concern for my 1260 engine. Thanks for the tip.