Hello everyone - 4XV owner from Lincolnshire

[LincolnDan]

Hello everyone, I've lurked on this forum for a long while, thought I'd finally say Hi!

Have owned my '99 model R1 since 2014...still love it, I really wouldn't change it for anything else. Always wanted one when I was in my 20's and they first came out, but could only afford a GPZ600R before finally really stretching to a ZX6R at the time! Had had a few years away from bikes when I bought the R1 (due to moving away to Florida, where the roads are boring, its too hot for bikes and driving standards are sh!te - there was just no point having one....I cringed when I saw the amount of belters with extended swinging arms and lowering links on sportsbikes and chicken strips half a mile wide lol) but when I started coming back to UK more a mate of my dad's offered it me for 2 grand I couldn't resist. Over the years, I've upgraded a few things - most importantly was a fork revalve/respring using the Ktech 20SSK pistion kit along with a Nitron rear shock I bought off a local lad for cheap - really transformed the handling of the bike versus the knackered and undersprung stock suspension. As I'm now 50yr old, more recently I've fit a set of helibars - absolutely brilliant for road riding, I can now do extended stints without the wrist ache and the different angle even makes pulling the clutch lever easier. Tied with that, when I was in America I also managed to bag a used pair of Corbin seats for very cheap. Was a bit skeptical, but find they really do help my old arse on longer sports touring type rides although the shaped riders seat makes hanging off a bit awkard when bezzing around Lincolnshire's finest B roads....I have found myself adopting more a Mike Hailwood style these days . Bike is otherwise stock although I put some 5JJ mirrors on as I found they let me see past my shoulders a bit better than the originals.

Had a prang back in 2018 - an old biddy towing a caravan flashed someone out a driveway while I was filtering, ended up smashing a fingertip flat when I run into the side of him, must have got caught between my brake lever and mateys wingmirror as I was hard on the brakes as I knew something was amiss even though I couldn't see past the lady's caravan....I've become a lot more cautious filtering these days. Busted my headlights, brakelever and top fairing/bracket/indicators as well as my finger (which is now a good 10mm shorter than it was before!!) and a couple of scuffs when the bike tipped over but that was it thankfully....could have been a lot worse. Promptly fixed up mainly using used parts bought from Ebay for a few hundred quid and a bodyshop mate patch repaired and resprayed the top fairing good as new. My insurance company wanted to write it off as they of course couldn't source new parts for the old relic...I thought get your hands off ya buggers lol. As it seems the case when filtering it went down as a 50/50.

I do all maintenance myself, recently been through the bike replaced all bearings etc - with the suspension it really does ride better than it ever did. I plan on keeping it till I really can't ride it anymore, hopefully a good few years yet! I've also become a bit of a parts collector over the years, buying up stuff while its still available and reasonably priced, got a partial selection of colour matched body panels, spare forks, tank, good condition stock exhaust and plenty of other odds and sods. Couple of pics below, pleased to meet you all!

Dan

[2002r1jon]

Hellooooo

[Deltabox2]

Hi Dan ....... That`s a great looking bike ........ I`m 69 , and I intend to keep riding the 4XV for as long as possible as well ...... At just 50 you`ve got ages to go yet ...... !!

Interesting point about the 5JJ mirrors ...... I might see if I can get hold of a pair of those .....

Cheers , Tony

[LincolnDan]

Thanks Tony - that's brilliant to hear and hopefully I'm still at in when I'm that age too! Yep, I find those mirrors give you just that bit more scope past your shoulders and elbows. I'd recommend if you can stretch to getting OEM mirrors (or good used OEM off Ebay) then do that - at first I got a cheap 30 quid Chinese pattern pair off Ebay, but they would start to fold themselves down when you got cranking on a bit!

[Moise]

Welcome to the forum. There's a few 4xv owners here... I probably hold the record for the highest mileage - almost 100,000 miles now. I've done many trips on mine - it's surprisingly comfortable with higher bars.

The engine is pretty good as standard, but the suspension does need some help. I fitted a low mileage, 5pw shock, which made a big difference, and had the forks serviced by a motocross guru who was recommended to me. He said all he did was change the oil, but whatever he did transformed the forks! The shock does need a service though.

[LincolnDan]

Thanks Moise. That's a cracking mileage you've run up there, nice to hear its still running well!

Yes when I first bought the bike the worn out (and for me at 15 stone the very undersprung) suspension made it hard work on the bumpy B roads I typically ride on, it was an effort to even hold the bike in a straight line at higher speeds. I got the shock first; its only the base level Nitron NTR R1 with the combined rebound/compression damping and without the separate external reservoir, but it made such a huge difference (and made the forks feel even more sh!te). I whipped the forks off and took them to JWR Suspension in Louth (brilliant bloke - he did a couple of decades at Honda Racing before setting up his own shop where he still supports a lot of racers and is now in league with Peter Hickman who is also based round the corner). He recommended and fitted the KTech SSK piston kit and also drilled out the stock compression adjusters at the bottom of the forks and replaced with the Ktech FCV ones. I spent a good bit of time riding round and setting everything up just how I wanted it but the end result is brilliant. Range of adjustment is massive on the Ktech kit, as it will accommodate any weight springs you care to put in there and allows very fine tuning; night and day over the original.

The helibars in conjunction with the Corbin seat have made the bike as comfortable as it can be. As mentioned above the seat isn't perfect for everything and as its sloped lower than standard, when I first got it found my bum would slide backward on hard acceleration....I thought I couldn't be doing with that and almost binned it off. Although I then found some horseriding tack-spray which took the shine off it and stopped that - don't know if the seller had been polishing it previously! For good measure I also put some Eazi-Grip knee grips on the tank, which helps stay locked in. But when not full on it, that reduced slope on the seat is partly what makes it so good - stops the constant forward sliding to right up against the tank as I found with the stock one. The foam in the Corbin is a lot more dense than standard and thus seemingly harder which again made me skeptical, but I get none of the numb bum and inner thigh ache I found with the standard one so it surely works.