Hi all!

New to this site, just bought a 1989 Jap import NC30 in RWB. Has to be one of the sexiest looking bikes out there still!

Im English, living in France, right where the borders of Germany and Switzerland meet, so I have the Black Forest, Vosges mountains and the Jura mountains to play with locally. I think the NC should be the ideal bike for it.

The bike is a little bit tatty but the plan is for a restoration anyway.

I have a couple of questions:

1: When stripping the bike down I noticed the fuel tank rubbers (forward and side) were missing....is this a common thing? I've ordered the parts already from http://www.cmsnl.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (very useful site...David Silver Spares didnt have the front rubber)

2: The mileage is approximately 14,000. My concern is that the speedo has been changed in the past for a MPH one (probably to de-restrict it), I only have the last 2 MOT's which of course match up to the mileage but are there better tell tale signs of wear that give away the real mileage? Is HPI check the only way and how far back does it go?

3: I may have to change the speedo to a KMH one (for French law). Whats the best way to do this? full speedo or just the dial face? If full speedo, do I just find one with approximately the right KM's to my mileage??

4: The fairings have a few cracks and broken lugs. They've been strengthened on the inside but not touched cosmetically. whats the best way to deal with visible cracks? Is it ok to tackle touch up painting or is it really best to have a full respray?


I'll be riding it the 700 miles to France next week! My wrists will be sorer than when the Cindy Crawford workout video came out!

Thanks in advance!!

Dave.

papillon400 wrote:Hi all!

Im English, living in France, right where the borders of Germany and Switzerland meet, so I have the Black Forest, Vosges mountains and the Jura mountains to play with locally. I think the NC should be the ideal bike for it.

you lucky git, just come back from a euro road trip in the car and we stayed in Erstein just over the border. switzerland and austria are like nowhere i have ever seen before, the road coming out of como in italy into switzerland just blew my mind.
you are a lucky lucky lucky man to have all this and weather on your doorstep.

I may have to change the speedo to a KMH one (for French law).

i have a jap KPH face i'd swap you for the MPH one you have ? simple job to remove the speedo face,unscrew the MHP face and swop for the KPH. pm if your interested

Fuel Tank rubbers at the sides are no big issue, I've done without before or made some out of a piece of seat foam.
Speedometers that read in MPH usually command a premium here and the KMH ones sell on ebay for not much. Easy to swap.
I wouldn't worry too much about the mileage. Assess what's in front of you. If the motor is rough then it needs attention. If it sounds sweet, which it will do as V4 engiines are pretty bullet proof, then the milage is almost irrelevant.
And welcome to the site.

Thanks for the replys!

I'm taking some foam back with me to bodge up some tank rubbers until the real things arrive.

The engine certainly sounds fine, I rode it 125 miles the day I bought it. It seemed a little hesitant sometimes pulling away at low revs and sometimes at top speed, seemed to die a little (may have been windy day). I'm hoping its down to being sat for a while. I'll run it through with some redex and carb cleaner.

Im hoping its not because theres a Scorpion exhaust on it and it hasnt been rejetted (does it need to be?).

I think youre right about the mileage, I'll treat it as if its genuine and do the valve clearances in the next 1000 miles and a full service, then I know where it is from a mechanical point of view.

Thanks again for the help guys,

Dave.

Mate if your riding the 700 miles from the uk you MUST buy a cheap pillow from tescos about a quid otherwise you WILL have no arse left after about 250 miles belive me i did it with my nc from the uk to my house in france the same distance.
Good luck.

Hi again!,

Dammit, wish I'd read that top tip before I left! Do Tesco's do new arses??

Got back 2 days ago, 375 miles a day for 2 days with a big rucksack (too heavy but pulled weight off the arms for a bit).

The last 200 miles or so were through torrential rain and not far off from being struck by lightning at times! Did get to test my waterproofs though! Damn good investment!

The bike performed brilliantly through the whole journey and caught the eye of other bikers (and everyone else). And THAT sound!! Superb!

I've done the same journey on my 1999 Fireblade (when the cold and wet caught me out and parts of me turned purple!!) and a similar distance on a 1998 ZX6R.....and even with my heavy rucksack which must have made it a similar weight to 2's up, the NC30 still had more than enough acceleration and cruising speed to eat up the miles pretty quick.

A mate of mine had an NC30 in 1990, took me pillion and scared the hell out of me! I've wanted one ever since and am well excited to finally have it.

I've had bigger bikes, like the ZXR750 H1, but I wish I'd got into the NC30 a lot sooner!