<img width="200" height="118" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/With-a-Kawasaki-Ninja-ZX-6R-in-the-Rain_1.jpg" alt="" />Being honest, I haven't done a lot of kilometers this month. I've been on holiday and so I didn't touch the Kawasaki that much.

That's actually a real shit, as it's been raining through all my free time. I'm seriously thinking about some full wets for the road. It's not ideal pouncing round on semi-race tires in the rain, and I have a 'go fast or go home' attitude when I ride, so it would probably be the safest option for all concerned.

The lapse in weather has given me the chance to nip down to some of my friends, and fit my Maxton shock, which has been burning a hole in my parts bin for a while now.

Maxton suspension is so underrated. People jump straight to the big guns because of the name, and generally get ripped off with shitty service. I've ridden with Maxton for a few years on several motorcycles, and I love the feedback and vast adjustability you get, not to mention the friendly service and advice.

<img width="205" height="132" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/The-Kawasaki-ZX-7R-My-Dream-Bike_1.jpg" alt="" />If you'd asked me 11 years ago what my dream bike would be, I'd have said a Kawasaki ZX-7R. Back then, I loved the squat, wide, aggressive styling and the tales of the incredibly planted front end and awesome induction howl. And seeing this one on at a shop downtown, I realized I still wanted one! Its paint is pretty much the same as my all-time favorite of the blue Kawasaki ZXR750 J2, so it looked like my ideal bike.

The paint-job was done as an alternative to buying a new bike, not because it had been dropped. The price negotiating ended at a slightly higher than I hoped, I was very pleased to find it in excellent condition for an 11 year-old bike. I intend to keep it that way with a strict regime of applications of scottoiler's FS365 corrosion inhibitor throughout the wet season.

The first few rides were actually pretty disappointing. The steering was heavy and slow, and it required plenty of pressure on the inside bar to keep your chosen line around a bend without running wide. But half an hour with a spanner, and the adjustable rear ride height was set to its highest setting (the previous owner was obvious a small person) and the handling was transformed, the Kawasaki 7R carving corners as I always imagined.

Tuning suspension remains one of the great mysteries of life to many motorcycle riders. Lack of understanding or lack of wanting to understand often leaves suspension tuning destined for the too-hard basket.

The external adjustment dials on modern motorcycle suspension are very good and a bit of experimenting and understanding of what each adjuster does can help give you the ride you desire.

Keep in mind that any given suspension setting is not going to work 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. Every different track or road condition offers different surface and every rider is different, the suspension setting is very personal, what works for me will likely not work for you.

The owner's manual of most modern bikes suggests standard setting for suspension adjustment and this is usually a great place to start dialing in your suspension. Be sure to read the manual and when you do start making adjustments, do it in small increments and always write down what you have done. Ride the bike with the new adjustment and then go back to what you started with and ride the bike again. This will give you a better feel and understanding of the adjustments you've made.

<img width="210" height="153" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Six_Steps_to_Sorting_your_Front_Forks_1.jpg" alt="" />With a stand, support the front end slightly off the ground. Remove brake calipers, mudguard and front wheel. Note distance fork tops stand proud of top yoke - you'll need this when you refit them. Undo top and bottom yokes to release forks. Check stanchions for imperfections - stone chips, dead flies, etc - clean if necessary. Check for straightness.

With a big spanner, carefully unscrew fork tops. Pour out the black sludge masquerading as fork oil, and then remove the spacer, spring and washer within. Pump the fork up and down to release the last of the old oil, then allow draining upside-down for at least half an hour. You want every dirty old drop of oil out.

Choose new internals. Most bikes have a standard spring rate of 0.7 to 0.85kg/mm. If your new springs are slightly shorter then the originals, you don't need to worry, you only need new spacers to keep the overall length identical. It is also a good to suggest heavier, 15w fork oil for better damping.

<img width="200" height="174" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Replace_Motorcycle_Brake_Pads_Difficult_1.jpg" alt="" />When it comes to safety, efficient brakes are right at the top of the list so keeping them in tip-top condition should be high on your list of priorities. Working on your brakes can be a little daunting but so long as you take your time and follow the following steps-by-step guide, you'll be on your way to arm wrenching stopping power in no time.

Here we have an everyday, common or garden brake caliper. The one we look at is a radially mounted but if you own a bike with conventional calipers, fear not as all the steps are exactly the same. Note the amount of grime around the calipers: although pads are asbestos free now-a-day, it's still a very good idea to ear gloves when working on brakes.

Before you remove the caliper from the fork leg, it's a good idea to loosen the brake pad retaining pins, particularly if they're the threaded type. Even if they're not, removing things like R clips and Clevis pins with the caliper held in place is a lot easier than wrestling with a loose caliper and risking damage to the fork leg.

<img width="200" height="150" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Our_Never_Ending_Quests_for_More_Torque_1.jpg" alt="" />What elements of power can we call-on to help us in the never ending quests for more torque. We talked about big bore and camshafts before.

One of the other factors include air/fuel mixtures. Most stock motorcycles run lean at part throttle to meet emission regulations. This leannes inhibits roll-on performance; how-ever, it is simple to correct. A simple needle change and re-tune of the stock carburetor or slight re-tune of an EFI system are required to correct the emission-related air/fuel mixture problem.

Beware, a number of aftermarket kits are available for the stock carburetor that mostly claim your money. Some of them reduce mileage substantially and get so rich with altitude that the engine may misfire. Some also begin to wear and perform even more poorly within a few thousand kilometers. You only need to change one part in your stock carburetor to correct the lean mixture problem; use carburettor needles from a source you can trust.

Most motorcyclists who bought the obvious aftermarket engine performance replacements like sportier air-filters and exhaust-systems believe that the next step to increasing performance is to replace the camshaft by a high-performance cams.

High-performance cams, ported heads, larger carburetors, or modified injection systems, and wide-open exhaust system add little useful power below 4,500 rpm. They can and often reduce power below 4,000 rpm. This may go against most of what you may have heard about cams, pipes, air-filters and so on. But what I say has been verified many times on dynamometers and on the street: Displacement and compression are your best friends when it comes to getting more power between 2,000 and 5,000 rpm from you motorcycle.

<img width="200" height="127" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Corrosion_is_the_greatest_enemy_1.jpg" alt="" />What should be the biggest worry of all motorcyclists after the raining season has finished; corrosion. Corrosion is the greatest enemy of the outside of any motorcycle, and atmospheric oxygen is the most plentiful corroding agent. It corrodes paint, tires, aluminum, plastic and so on. Oxygen must be kept away from as much of your bike as possible or practical. This is accomplished with various barrier materials.

All the bolts, washers and nuts should at least be plated with metals that are much more resistant to oxidizing. Most motorcycles bolts are zinc plated. Zinc does oxidize slowly and the gray layer of zinc oxide that forms on the surface slows further corrosion. If you polish the gray film off various bolts to restore their original luster, you remove the protective layer of zinc oxide. Do this enough times and you'll polish through to steel and create a more serious corrosion problem.

<img width="200" height="121" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Working_on_the_Suzuki_GSX-R750_Project_1.jpg" alt="" />It's been a month of well-fettled highs on the Suzuki GSX-R750 along with frustrating lows, which means the Suzuki's more than earning its keep as any project bike should.

Starting with the highs, this Suzuki GSX-R750 is not revealing its true sharp-handling colors once more thanks to some judicious, yet simple tweaks. This is nice because although all looked well when bought, the Suzuki GSX-R750 handled like a shopping trolley with a broken wheel.

First came a suspension tweak as the forks were set up hideously with loads of compression and naff all rebound meaning they barely used half their stroke on the brakes and then pagoed back as soon as you got back on the gas, leading to unpleasant running wide mid in a corner. Cost me 10 minutes in the garage to fix it.

<img width="200" height="166" class="floatleft" src="https://motorcycleinth.com/images/articles/Thinking_inprove_your_motorcycle_power_1.jpg" alt="" />Readers often ask us for guidance on getting more performance from their motorcycle. Most are looking to improve top-gear acceleration from moderate speeds, like passing a car or riding safely on rural roads. Riders in the North Thailand need the same sort of power to comfortably climb mountains. Most motorcycle owners refer to this mid-range or mid-rpm power as torque. Almost-everybody with a stock motorcycle wants more torque.

Torque is relative easy to improve, and it need not be expensive to do so. And while it is possible to increase power across a engine's rpm range, that isn't what usually happens, at least not without massive engine rebuilding and modifications. Almost all bore-up and performance kits and services are directed at the top third, which is, depending on the engine displacement size, around 5,000 to 7,000 rpm for most motorcycles. In many cases, the resulting engine is sluggish in the middle third, where we do most of our street riding. Adding power in the 2,000 to 7,000rpm range is the key. Below 2,000rpm is for parking lots where good balance is more important than acceleration, and above 8,000rpm is where few of us ride our motorcycle in city traffic anyway.