Introduction from far off places

[treedragon]

Hi all

I just thought I would briefly (ha!) introduce myself as I have recently become an XZ550D owner.
I live in the land of the best motorcycling roads in the world  ;D   the “Land of the Long White Cloud” aka New Zealand.

When I got back into biking in early 83 I bought an XZ550 to go see my girlfriend who was 1100k’s away. The dealer assured me it would be ideal for the job (as he would) and it made sense to me then ie water cooling, Vtwin, great styling, cutting edge and light years away from the XS650 I had some years before. I still remember that morning of perfection in the wilderness, cool, slightly misty, surrounded closely each side by steeeep forest clad mountains, and a bike that just refused to slow - speedo needle fixed on the stops way past the indicated 180k top speed......... sigh  ;D  ;D
The other memory that has stuck with me was seeing a fully faired model in a magazine and liking it a lot.

However I only had it for a year or so but the seed was set. It was followed by a XJ650 Turbo (which had styling similar to an XZ fairing), an FJ1100, and a FZR1000 which I had up until 3 years ago. Never being one to leave well enough alone the last three bikes I modified the styling and performance, I am a sculptor so tend a tad creative at times.

I have a very good friend who is a motorcycle mechanic, specializing in Ducati these days, and the only person I would trust with my bikes, and he has always had a bunch of XZ’s floating around - Why?  because right from their introduction he has recognized the huge potential in these engines and a pure race bike is in the works.......... sometime. I have ridden one of his tuned XZ’s and the difference is like chalk and cheese, awesome torque and very surprising acceleration.  Hmmm this is getting a bit long winded.......... anyway he noted my like for the marque, (and disappointment when the tuned one got sold), and turned me up my current bike basically in return for some work.

It is New Zealand new and apparently one of only 4 fully faired bikes bought into this country, the steering head has 25R -004113 on it. It has done around 50,000 K’s. It is black with gray red and gold graphics, for now anyway.

My first impressions (after years of intense performance biking), was how easy it was to punt it through the corners, the department NZ specializes in, and how well the fairing worked. This is a keeper!!  and it’s time I slowed down, maybe, if for no other reason than to preserved the viability of my wallet. The serious lack of brakes compared to my last bike is having a slowing effect as well.......... it was good thing the rear brake did something at the moment of discovery  :o

The bike did have a stumble which I tracked down to a very sloppy YICS hose and the tuning  being a touch off,  easily fixed. It has the flapper valve completely removed..........  Next job is to run through the bike in light of the wonderful knowledge present in these forums - Thankyou all - and THEN I will see what tuning/timing etc secrets I can extract from my friend, offer to be a testbed for the race bike maybe...........  ;D

Anyway enough of the verbiage I am glad to be a small part of these forums, the friendliness reminds me of a certain Linux forum, warm, co-operative, common interests that bind and very useful.

Thanks for reading, I will attempt brevity in future posts  ::)

[Brian_Matthewson]

Welcome to the forum! Not likely you'll be able to join us on any of our rides but you'll enjoy the family and it's vast technical knowledge.
Small world...I have a cousin in Paekakariki on the north island...about the same latitude as you and not too far away.
Brian

[Lucky]

Welcome Tree,
Your are not the first here from New Zealand, but possably the happiest, lol.

the Front brake (yours have single or dual disks?) can be Vastly improved by installing braided steel lines.  & if you think corner carving is fun now, try installing a fork brace & roller steering head bearings!

I'm surprised you had sucess removing the flapper, these bikes are overcarburated & the flapper helps cut stumble a lot...

the colors sound interesting, i'm sure we'd all like to see some pics.

--Lucky

[h2olawyer]

Welcome to the ROV family!

When posts are well written - as yours was - they aren't too verbose.  I get a bit long winded at times, too so don't worry about it!   ;D

I'll second the request for pix.

Always great to have more international input - despite the language barrier.   ;)

H₂O

[YellowJacket!]

Welcome to ROV Treedragon!

Your post was very eloquently stated.  ;D

I'll third the request for some pics too.

David

[Lucky]

Always great to have more international input - despite the language barrier.   ;)

H₂O

H₂O,
I know your probably distracted watching the game & all, but you do know they speak English 'down' there right?
;) ;) :D

[Tiger]

 :) Hi and welcome to our ever expanding "family"... ;D :D :D :D... 8) Great to have another member join us. When you need help/advice/part's or a rant...Just dial us in ;)

                    8).......TIGER....... 8)

[h2olawyer]

Always great to have more international input - despite the language barrier.   ;)

H₂O

H₂O,
I know your probably distracted watching the game & all, but you do know they speak English 'down' there right?
;) ;) :D

Just a take off on the quote that, "the British and the Americans are peoples separated by a common language."  Thus, the winky face.   ;D

H₂O

[treedragon]

How to feel WELCOME in one easy lesson- join ROV  ;D  ;D
Thankyou.

As for pics I hadn't really considered that as the bike is starting to show it's age a little, at least on one side, and..... ahem, I might have to clean it first. However one of the first things I did was organize a suitable tankbag for my camera gear as I tend to hang off it quite a bit these days so here is a legal excuse for more of the same, thankyou.

Lucky
It is a twin disk model and has stainless exhausts, (either that or my magnet has gone flat), shame about the brown slightly bubbly looking lump joining it to the engine. The braided brake lines I am already looking into. Re: the flapper it came to me deflapped, and I had note it didn't seem quite in alignment with the forum experience............ It is all to do with those little blanked off adjustment screws I'm told, and careful tuning.

H2O re: the language challenged
just maybe just are confusing us here in the land of motorcyling perfection with with our cousy bros across the big ditch in the land of OZ where it seems they speak strine or a version thereof these days......

Well it's a crystal blue morning here, late spring, everything in bloom, lemon tree smelling divine, the gas station...... well not so,  it is time down the coffee and fire up the little thumper and do some k's, catch you all later.

Thanks for the great welcome all.

[ironb12s]

Wilkommen, TreeDragon.  Any good writeup is never too long.  You should see the ones from LDRiders sometime...    ;)

Have your mechanic buddy sign on with us, too.  If he has a stable full, then he's another Lucky, DaveTN, Tiger downunder.

No, the rest of you multiple visionaries aren't chopped liver, I just couldn't remember who you all are...memory, ya know.   :D

[YellowJacket!]

Nope, I'm still a single visionary.  ;D

David

[ShaneSpring]

Hi Treedragon,
Your not alone in this neck of the woods.... I'm located in Nelson too. Although I am without a XZ for now(have owned 3 different), currently on the hunt for one in my price range.

[treedragon]

Well.................. I'm a tad speechless, another ROV in Nelson  ;D  ;D  ;D
Call around sometime, Ph 545 8279, there is a possibilty I can help re the bike search.

Okay I have posted a couple of pics for those interested here http://www.martin-rusholme.co.nz/index_xz550.html It was easier for me to create a page on my website to host them as i have plenty of space.  Depending on how long the string is between here and there they might take a moment or two before arriving. All a bit last minute, a balance between image quality and not letting too much show as to the state of cleanliness  ;D but they will do for now.

[Lucky]

fixed your ink:
here http://www.martin-rusholme.co.nz/index_xz550.html

[ironb12s]

Funny, the owners always see the worst when showing to others, it looks just dandy from HERE!   :)

There are half a dozen more Visionaries in Kiwiland, and another will be coming to join you from the USA.  His bike may have to stay here, but that can be fixed once he gets to New Zealand.   ;)

It would be great to see a NZROV ride report sometime... You have a gift for writing, I for one enjoy it.   :D

[treedragon]

lucky
thankyou. I have fixed mine now also, I have to admit I looked at it for a while  ??? reminiscent of the rear indicators on an XZ when it leapt out at me, and they are not easy to miss, (might have to refine those just a touch methinks  ::)

ironb12s
thanks for your welcome and invitation I can see it's uses already.... "Sorry everybody but I can't get that done for you today I have a ROV report to research."   :)  Ha!! what a gift  ;D  ;D  ;D thank you.
My mechanic friend wouldn't be keen re: joining the forum, has enough on his plate as it is, however I will relay anything of value I learn as time goes on.

[GT @ oh.]

Very nice V treedragon....I like the paint scheme... how many miles or kilometers probably

[Night Vision]

I've always liked the paint scheme on the xz550D the best... the D is the JDM version of the Vision.

way cool paint...
alloy pegs....

however, you seem to be missing the OEM seat w/strap ... see the pic on the home page
http://www.ridersofvision.net/

very nice example... complete and looks good from my back yard...
welcome to the forum!

[treedragon]

GT @ oh
as for mileage it is hard to tell. The speedo was trashed internally, had a broken cable and when I did try it the reading was out by 20k's at 50kph, slowest 70k I have ever done. The official records are not much help as they note "inconsistent readings" at the warrant of fitness checks. Best guess is 50,000k's or so.

Night Vision
The seat was trashed and that is a recovered one I picked up.

I will probably stick with black and red trim when I eventually repaint. The original stick on's are not up to standard so will have to go at some point, it's safe enough for now as we have summer just about here and there are a number of rides I want to introduce some rubber to meantime.

[h2olawyer]

I like that color scheme as much as the white / red found on some of the XZs sold in Canada (and maybe elsewhere).  While Star Silver is the fastest  ;D  There are nicer looking schemes like yours.  Thanks for the photos!

H₂O