The bike looked as though it hadn't turned a wheel since I sold it, all good I was thinking, put some fuel in the bugger and away we go. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. I'm not sure quite how it was possible but they had mentioned the carbs had been 'ultrasonically cleaned' I think by this they meant dropped on the floor and broken
Basically the brown plastic fuel 'T' piece on them had been snapped and 2 of the air bleed screw castings has been snapped off as well! The time came round for me to stop relying on my Brother whose a race mechanic to fix all my bits. Got in contact with GF Racing and he got some parts off to me very quickly, 2 new carb banks and a billet 'T' piece. All that and some new 'O' rings and I was good to go. I don't think the carbs had even been split so it took a while to carefully get then 2 banks I needed off. I made sure I took pictures of every part of the carb set up I could prior to taking them apart, and obviously the manual really helped.
Once they were apart I put all new 'O' Rings on all removable pieces and greased up the joining rods so if they needed coming apart again they could. This was the first time I'd really attempted anything like this, especially with the carbs. The ZXR's are far, far easier to work on IMO just due to the space under the tank to get my big Cornish hands in toe fiddle with stuff
this isn't the same on the CBR and one of the reasons I really didn't miss the bike too much, that and how small it is seat height wise compared to the ZXR. After a careful couple of evenings taking my time putting them back together (taking them apart again because I forgot to put certain parts back in 
) I was happy with my work. My brother was sceptical for some unknown reason 
I took it over to JHS racing on the weekend to see if the old girl would fire up. After a little fiddling with a few bits the carbs were on, dummy fuel tank set up and we tried to start it. Once the fuel got round the carbs it tried to go straight away. One of the floats did get stuck but a soft tap with a hammer sorted that. From the bloke I got it back off saying it needed a rebuild, it took 2 carb banks, oil and some water and it fired up, very rough at first but once we got the carbs balanced it idled absolutely fine, revved fine as well. I was proper happy with myself for getting hands on and trying to fix it and it actually working. My brother obviously worked his magic with balancing the carbs etc and he's now putting the finishing touches on the bike this week ready for its sale again
I did want to race it again, I really did. But when I sat on it I honestly didn't know how I raced it in the first place, my knee's were in my ears and I'm only 5ft 11. but I did very much miss the sound it made, the Diashin ally headers with a custom link pipe and micron end can really did make a lovely noise, far nicer than the ZXR I had.
Its almost like the end of an era, once the 29 has gone it'll be the first time in almost 7 years I haven't owned a 400! something I'm not too happy about but needs must. I have no doubt I'll own one again, but after winning the Newcomers and Formula 400 championships with NG Road Racing last year I fancy a move up to a 600, so the sale of the CBR is going some way to starting my R6 5eb build from the ground up, starting with the purchase of an engine (and to get myself out of debt haha)
Either way im super happy the NC29 is running again after she wasnt looked after too well by its previous owner. Its a strong old bike and hopefully it'll live on for many years on the race track once its out of my hands!
I cant even flat foot my 29, truely opposites..
it'll be going off to a new home as of next week, but it does mean the new project can start, so thats a plus at least.