. The W650 001 W800 timeline.jpg The Kawasaki W650 (1999–2007) stands as a beautifully timeless naked motorcycle, masterfully blending the classic British style of the 1960s Triumph Bonneville with the renowned reliability of Japanese engineering. Its very name pays homage to Kawasaki's own W-series...

My “W1400” has been a faithful companion to me for over 15 years now; finished in September 2010 and ridden hard ever since. Some of you will remember the original build project that was lost to the ether; the Z650/1100 Bonneville hybrid. 007 opening pic.jpg She's carried me the length and breadth o...

Can be a rush to ride once that 1400 starts to churn.

The motor is old and tired and needs a rebuild.
Many thousands of miles later and it needs some attention.
I'm using it loads and I'm starting to fret that some of the rebuild parts are no longer (or soon will be no longer) available.
It's the same one that was in this:

Now looks like this.
Anyone want me to post the rebuild?

Some wondered if its still going?


Just before I took it off the road this year for a bit of a mid life update.

Looking really good and tidy-
just like a shop-bought one!

Like I said, my big front wheel was a pain- yours should fit it all in better.
At one point I thought the tyre might actually trap between the middle two exhaust down tubes under heavy braking. That would have been a surprise!

Always worth checking the oil cooler- that bugger caught me out.

Does that oil cooler fit on ok? There is not so much room between the frame tubes and the front mudguard at full compression as there is on the 1100 frame. The thing is, one of the reasons the 650 handled better was because the headstock is more compact than its bigger brothers, so on balance if you...

As Ginger Bear said..... very Woody!

What's happening with the project Roy?

Swing arm- I went 1.5" (38mm) longer on the swing arm, and that's fine even with my 1400- a bit of wheelie but nothing that slows you down. The standard 650 swing arm is pretty short but makes the bike turn nicely, I suspect that you don't need to change the length much with your motor. Don't b...

Cables are generally limited by “volt dropâ€￾- impurity/characteristics of the copper in the cable that resist the flow of electricity. Volts in one end don’t come out the other. Some of the electricity that is put into one end turns into heat before it reaches the other end. This heat will even...

Give it your best shot, you can only learn from it. Of course, I struggle with setting up suspension too. I'm not trying to be smart arse, I'm just saying ...come on guys, give your suspension some love- and share what you learn. We could all do with some encouragement to tackle this tricky topic.

Also in the real world it is far easier to upset the handling than it is to improve it. Why wouldn't you want to get it as good as you can? Ok, its not going to be brilliant- but there is a big difference between well set up and not set up. But this stuff is not rocket science, and certainly not bey...