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ZX10R Rebuild


NateBob
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Man I'm glad to see you are putting her back together. I remember passing you immediately following the wipe out and thinking it looked pretty bad.....but after pushing the bike down the road and taking a closer look I felt pretty sure there was a lot to work with as far as getting her back on the road. Glad to see that is the case.

Good luck with the build and hope to ride with you again this Summer. I'm glad I haven't had to rebuild mine (yet) but I envy the knowledge you'll gain by doing so.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This project is definitely taking longer than expected, and costing more as well. But I'm not cutting any corners and hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

The tank plastics are all back on, which is pretty minor. I ordered a Hotbodies race seat and tail section body work to cover the seat with lightweight foam to stop me from sliding around in the seat. I'm also packaging up the steering damper to have it sent out to be revalved for more damping.

Come the end of this I think I'll have to reward myself with some lightweight forged aluminum wheels :)

I'll post up some pictures once I get some more parts in.

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good luck with your project! Remember even a wrecked zx10 is faster than a Honda!

Looks like we found the next one that isnt going to listen to the "at your own pace and leave your ego at home" speech. Suzuki's and Kawi are all I ever seem to haul the wreckage of away from our rides. :nono:

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If you're on the ZX10 forums PM the Riders Discount screen name on there and Mike will hook you up as much as possible. He knows the Gen4 like the back of his hand. Just be sure to let him know I sent you over there from O-R.

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Thanks Nathan, I'll send him a message today.

Attackpainter, I sent you a PM. I might need your advice for integrating this race bodywork with a functional tail light and the aluminum subframe.

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So I read the thread that was posted about the carbon vinyl that people are putting on their tanks and I was inspired. I NEED to cover my tank in carbon. Fortunately, I am a ballistics engineer at a composites company, and I can get my hands on just about any sort of carbon fiber prepreg that I could want. So in prep for this tank project I went and got a scrap gas tank from a junk yard in decent condition and sand blasted it.

Practice%2BTank%2B1.jpg

Practice+Tank+2.jpg

For this practice round, I've got some plain weave prepreg that I am going to lay up over it to see if I can get it to lay without creases. The stuff I will actually use will be a unique tri-directional q-iso carbon that will give it a look that most people haven't seen in woven carbon. I'm going to try to mix some red into the final clear coat to give it a nice reddish hint to it when its seen in the light. Here's the PW:

Carbon+PW.jpg

It's nice and warm in our work area which is bad because it makes the carbon sticky, but good because I can stretch the fibers in the adhesive.

Getting ready to lay it up now. Looks like I'll need 2 plies in order to get the total coverage I want. I'll bake it on monday.

Tank+and+Sheet.jpg

Anyone with experience doing this I'm all ears for advice.

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Who were you with?

Coshocton claims anohter one. At least you didnt get a shingina like Udell

That must be pretty close to where I went down on OH-60 a couple years ago - Looking at the photos in the other thread it almost looked like the same corner but I think we were closer to Millersburg. There seems to be a lot of black sandy stuff on some sections of that road that isn't very good for traction and is tough to see.

Glad you're ok. That looks like it was pretty nasty, and the bike can be fixed or replaced.

Seriously. I wasn't on that ride, but I saw photos of the aftermath. I still think about that photo everytime I consider 'pushing it' a little more on the street.

I wasnt with him either but he wrecked into my cousins yard. Udell come down on more then a few rides after that and made it home ok!

I used that little spill as a learning experience. And ultimately became a safer (and faster) rider.

But yeah..you don't want a shingina. It's just now getting to the point where the nerve endings aren't causing severe pain whenever it's touched.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Even though this is taking forever, I figured I would post some progress pics. I pretty much have everything purchased with the exception of a tail light and a method to mount the license plate. I'm working on the tail section and seat right now. I really wanted to cover the tank in carbon fiber but I didn't have sheets wide enough and I didn't think it would look good with seams so I decided to do the tail section instead.

Because my sheets are still pretty small (about 15" in width) I'm doing the tail in sections. This was the first part that I did.

2012-07-23_18-07-12_930.jpg

I ended up using a dry fabric and doing a wet layup with some awesome epoxy called MAX CLR. It's super clear, wets the fibers great, has a good working time, flows really well (almost too well).

2012-07-23_18-07-48_523.jpg

I have since cut off the excess on the front portion of the tail, and its in the oven curing the right side. I'll post up some pics once I get the whole thing covered and then comment on how the second and third coats work out with some sanding. For my first time doing a wet carbon layup I think its turning out pretty well.

In the meantime I need to get the headlight assembly and front fairings on but at least all the parts are here.

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