fireblade

[GIXXER KID]

bit late but i just brought a T reg fireblade, anyone riden or owned one befor?
if so what you think of them?
cheers.

[graham22]

Yep, owner 2 1993 & 1998, the latter same as yours, I bought brand new & kept it for 6 years, 30k miles.

Tyre sensitive - I liked Avons or Michelins. Hated Dunlops, Pirellis went 'off' after 500 miles.

Easy to maintain but carbs do go out of balance, well worth getting them done regularly. Don't blip the throttle as you shut it off otherwise it could blow the carbs off the rubbers or blow off the balance gauge take off rubber & make it run rough.

Otherwise Honda reliability, just get on & ride it.

[GIXXER KID]

ideal, thats gunna be well wierd cus i always blip its as i drop through the gears.

wots the deal with fiting a 17inch front wheel ??
was reading a few things on them said alot of people stick a vfr front wheel on them and get rid of the 16.

cheers

[deej]

What happened to the KTM

The 17" front gives you a better variety of tyre choices as not all manufacturers make their performance tyres to fit a 16" wheel anymore. I'd check to see what else you need besides the wheel - I'd guess at spacers and maybe discs depending on if yours fit

[Bladerunner]

I've owned a few over the years, I managed 78,000 miles on my 1995 'blade, and worked at Honda dealerships for over 7 years. Never encountered any serious issues at all with any of them, and I always blip the throttle on downshifts. Gearboxes often find false neutrals or jump back out of gear when clutchless shifting, and as I found out to my cost the big end bearings on the 3rd cylinder don't take kindly to long distance wheelies...........

Tyre choice is rapidly becoming more limited for the 16 inch front. Up until last year there were still some good sports tyres available, but it seems to be leaning more towards sport touring tyres only now. Which tyres to choose is very personal, I loved Dunlop D208RR's as the steep profile on the front made it fall into corners beautifully - but rears only ever lasted me about 1500 miles. Personally I hated Michelins, but like I say, it's personal choice. I have carried out several 17inch front conversions using VFR front wheels, you will need new spacers made up, but it's not rocket science. You will also need to drop the forks through the yokes by about 5mm if I remember correctly to make it handle right afterwards.

All in all they are very good bikes, but finding a good un-molested and un-abused example is becoming harder.

[GIXXER KID]

deej, the ktm was too unreliable tbh, kinda just got fed up with taking it back every week to be fixxed.

and bladerunner cheers for the info, would you say the 17 front wheel is worth the hastle? id have to have the wheel powdercoated orange aswell lol

cheers

[deej]

definetly worth the hassle if you want decent modern tyres
do a quick search and see what tyres are available in a 16" if your unsure

did the warranty run out on the ktm ? and did you ever take it to swampy

[Bladerunner]

Up until last year I would have said no, it's not worth the hassle, but then the last few manufacturers stopped making pukka sticky tyres in 16inch, so now I'd say it is definately worth the hassle. I was planning to convert mine until I smashed it to fook, and then when I recently bought my replacement the reason I didn't go for the same again was because of the 16 inch front.

It is a very limiting factor if you want to run decent sports tyres.

[graham22]

ideal, thats gunna be well wierd cus i always blip its as i drop through the gears.


cheers

I didn't mean not blipping throttle when down shifting. I meant don't blip throttle as you turn ignition off/hit kill switch. I know alot of people do it but on the 918cc models it seems to fill the intakes with fuel & when you start next time, they backfire through the carbs. I knew of 4 blades which did this & they all stopped it if you just hit the kill switch when the bike was ticking over.

[GIXXER KID]

right the issue is then how much dus it cost to get the wheel to match the same colour as the rear and what has to be done with the front fender.

and nah they were still covering the ktm cus it was an on going problem, but i never realy got to enjoy it as i owned it 5 months but only had the bike for like 2 months worth in that time.

was loads of fun butnot when you walking everywhere due to oil leaks

[deej]

That's not good at all then,didn't think I'd seen you hooning around it much

As for the wheel allow about a 100 quid for repainting, there's a place in wadebridge but I can't remember their name at the moment

[billinom8s]

That's not good at all then,didn't think I'd seen you hooning around it much

As for the wheel allow about a 100 quid for repainting, there's a place in wadebridge but I can't remember their name at the moment

just get it powder coated, u can do a pair for about £60 and it'll last longer than a spray job

[ZXR400Lee]

just get it powder coated, u can do a pair for about £60 and it'll last longer than a spray job

Where?

[billinom8s]

first choice in exeter, might even get discount if you ask.

details are on the site somewhere, also in yellow pages, can send them by post but will cost a little extra

[TLS-Moose]

Is a blade easier than a KTM to restrict to 33bhp .........