Kingys web page

Kingys web page.

Kawasaki zx636 road bike (soon to be track bike!) ...

Having owned a Ducati 996 and realising that the v-twin riding just didnt suit my style - and having had some mechanical issues on the bike to the tune of £3000 !! - fortunately £2,500 was covered by warranty - I decided to trade in my Ducati for a 600cc machine. I decided against anything of larger cc after the track days on my Suzuki gsxr600 SRAD convinced me that a well ridden 600 will keep up with anything. (I just had to learn to ride well !!!)

I phoned some dealers and found a dealer in Reading (Pegasus) who dealt in Ducati and Kawasaki and they were prepared to do a straight swap. One hired van later and the deed was done for a brand new blue zx636 B1. The chaps at Pegasus were dead straight and gave the bike a five min inspection before handing the keys to the 636 over. To be fair, the Ducati was spotless and had full history, receipts etc. so they only confirmed what I knew - that the bike was ready to be rolled onto the showroom floor.

The Kawasaki will spend 2004 on the road and then 2005 onwards on the track.

So far she has had been fitted with ..... Harris Exhaust bracket, MRA Double Bubble clear screen, Kawasaki Seat cowl, R & G tail tidy. crash bungs, cotton reel swing arm bobbins and bar ends, Arrow Racetech can, power commander PC3 USB, Penske rear racing shock, Sprint steering damper and fitting kit. I've got hold of a (spare) tinted MRA double bubble screen have just finished preparing a full set of track bodywork for Flamin Bill to spray. With the Arrow and PC3 the bike puts 110bhp at the rear wheel with a nice smooth curve.

Spares waiting to go on - or on their way to me in addition to whats listed above ... Spare wheels with ABE fully floating discs and Dunlop wets. Spare Kawasaki fuel tank and Kawasaki front mudguard. GRP rear hugger, PP racing rearsets and PP clipons. Carbon frame protectors. HEL braided hoses. R & G fork protectors and R & G can protector, HRC engine casings (pair), yellow box, gear digi indicator, renthal front and rear sprockets, pattern levers.

On 9th October 2004 I took the Kawasaki along to Kais Suspension in Atherton and had the bike set up properly. I was very impressed with them. Will be going there again for any further work. They said the standard front Kayaba forks were spot on (once adjusted to suit me) and the Penske shock was a good upgrade and was correct spring etc. - It just required setting up. I enquired into whether it was worth having the front forks stage 1 Ohlins revalve - but they said that the Kayabas were track biased and a good set up to start with (confirming what all the reports say - the std front end is a belter) - so it wasnt worth the expenditure (£199) unless a specific problem arises at a later date.

This is the bike in fairly standard road trim before being sorted for the track over Christmas 2004 ...