Thought I’d do an intro since I’ve been lurking on the site for a while and there seems to be an abundance of time these days. My bin picture is in my avatar, until @El Toro switches it out for me. I always liked the 999 from when it first came out, but back then I ended up with an ’05 GSX-R 750 instead. Anyhoo – I’ve always kept half an eye open for a 999 and in January I found a nice ’04 999s with under 4,000 miles on the clock. It had aluminum DP rearsets, a cracked FBF acrylic windscreen, PI half clutch cover and mc reservoir covers, aluminum DP gas filler, aftermarket clutch slave, and was serviced (belts, fluids) two years and less than 1,000 miles ago. It’s got a DID 525 chain, 15 tooth front and 39 tooth rear sprockets. First off I bought a set of Exact Fit timing belts but after pulling the covers and inspected the belts (and seeing a video of how strong these things really are) I’m taking a calculated risk and will replace them next winter at three years. Next I replace the cracked windscreen with a clear SSR Lexan windscreen with no running light (and made a custom molded piece from Kydex plastic to black out the headlight housing underneath, which worked well – perhaps I’ll post a photo or two and do a quick post on how I made it). For the sluggish starter motor, I fitted the famous @Exige battery cables. Super nice product with nice attention to detail on the kit (heat shield washers, cable ties, alcohol wipes). Yeah, it’s a bit of a pain to fit and the heat shield kinda sucks, but it wasn’t all that bad. I thought about relocating the fuel pump relay while I was at it but the bike is so low mileage and clean, and I don’t ride in the rain, so I left it alone. I also noticed the band clamp on the lower radiator hose was leaking, so I replace both engine-side band clamps with Norma clamps, and after reading way too much about coolant, settled on using Honda Type 2 coolant. The DP rearsets were a bit strange. The “barrel” on the shifter bolt is too short so that the shoulders of the bolt pinch the shift lever if it’s tightened. It didn’t have a nut behind the rearset bracket, even though the pivot stud is long enough for one. The bolt was loose when I bought it and the shifter was basically seized on the bolt with what appeared to be gasket maker. The shifter only rotated by the pivot bolt rotating in the threaded hole of the bracket. Not good. I picked off the gasket maker (petrified grease?), which was actually hard and brittle, and cleaned it with solvent. I “machined” a stainless washer on my drill press with a file to the right diameter and used it to lengthen the barrel of the bolt. A little grease, a locknut behind the bracket and it’s back the way it should be. Similar situation on the right side with the rear brake lever binding. Anyone else run into this with these rearsets? Originally I was going to put the bike back to stock gearing and I got ahold of new AFAM 15 tooth and 36 tooth 525 sprockets. After riding it a bit, however, the 15/39 gearing feels really tall so I’m going to leave it as is. The bike has the infamous cast grey swingarm, which I kind of like. Problem is lifting the bike to deal with the chain and tire. I ended up buying the Pit Bull rear stand for the cast swingarm. It works well and is very secure, but is a bit fiddly to line up. I’ve also got a ¾” diameter stainless steel rod to lift the bike with a traditional rear stand through the hollow axle, which is fine for dealing with the chain but obviously not the tire. I’ve since located a set of Gilles adjusters for the cast swingarm, and bought a set of lifters for them. If those hadn’t become available I probably would have bought one of the @Jamie Clare sets or just stuck with the stock adjusters. Honestly, the Pit Bull rear stand for the cast swingarm works great, but since I park the bike on the rear stand at home it’s nice to have something you can just shove in the general vicinity and lift . I’ll probably end up using one of the shimming remedies I’ve seen on this site for the side stand, but for the time being it seems fine. At some point I’ll try to locate another ECU to get rid of the immobilizer, but for now the bike’s pretty well sorted and fun to ride. Thanks for all the info from the site and I hope everyone stays well, pandemic- and economic-, and other-wise.
