Katana Owners Club U.K.

Hi there folks, I just bought a Kitten ( well a GK77A GSX400S is hardly a big Kat), and she should be just right for the roads down here in Cornwall,UK. I've had most bikes over the years from Aprillias to Yamahas......I know Zundapps rounds the alphabet up but nope,never owned one of them there wierd beasties!
My last bike on the road was a 2000 ZX12R-A1 but powerslides down blind mud encrusted roads with hedges that hide dry stone walls is NOT a great mixture, and since my modified GPZ900R is still a work in progress, the Kat just whispered in my ear and the deal was done
Anyways, with a wealth of engineering and race experience behind me, worked for a couple of Yamaha dealers and Dream Machine as a painter looooooong ago, if anything I've learned over the years is any help to anyone, just shout and I'll give you any advice I can .
Soooo, nice to meet you all ( metaphorically of course) and keep the blue bit at the top of the picture!
Mark

Hello my lover.....ha ha! ( West country greeting....i dont really know him)


Welcome on in! ......................Did you say you used to be a painter for dream machine!


Enjoy the Kat!

We ALL do!

Bobster

Bobster you smooth talker you ;O)
Time to fess up-I'm a northerner really lol, moved from Derby to Fowey only 5 years back so once in a while the border patrol allow me back over the Tamar bridge for jaunts ooop norf.
Yeah, lost my license in 1987 so had to use this thing called a.erm.....train. Yep that's the fella, a train and had it not been Dream Machine I'd have not bothered . It was a cracking environment to work in, and I started out as a 'stripper/primer' ( answers on a postcard guys.....), but the loss of my license meant I couldn't go fetching bikes in. It was terrible I tell you...I had to sit in a room by myself and strip bikes down all day YEHAAA ;P ahem, well eventually they let me loose with the paint guns having realised I could already paint, but I left when Andy Smith left and he set up a rival company called 'Mirage'. Ho hum, many happy memories and I learnt a few new tricks too including plastic welding, so any of you guys need any advice......it comes F.O.C.
Talking of advice, being a newbie here, I desperately need a CDi box for my lil kitten so any pointers would be greatly recieved!
Watch them Cornish hedges ;O)
Mark

Welcome aboard the Madship Katana

Hey Mick B,
thanks bud that's kewel . I found a web site called http://www.400cc.ru" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and over there in Japan they have everything I'd sell my kidney for,, but sadly even Google Chrome's translator program couldn't make enough sense ! For 13,000 yen I can have an ignitor box , but I grew old n grey trying to figure out how to buy the little sucker and gave up. Nice pics on the site though and it's all a learning curve.
I'm certainly interested in the luverly man who can find and buy what I can only drool over the pictures at, and if I sell someone else's kidneys also.....KR32 carbs for £1,795 ! A full class 'A' Yosh pipe for £978 ? It'd be cheaper for me to buy a GSX1000S motor and squash my bike over it haha.
Any tweaks you know of gimme a shout, I've played with a theoretical to get 134mph out the bike but first things first......give her some sparks ;O)
Cheers for now
Mark

Hey Blix,
thanks for that info, much appreciated. I wrongly presumed the restrictor would be in the CDi set up so is it possible the worries I had over buying a CDi from a 33bhp restricted bike are unfounded? If so its 1 less hassle to watch for. The speed restictor in the clocks from the wheel sensor is a new one on me but then I'm no sparky so could a stand alone speedo/tacho bypass it or is that wishful thinking on my part? I know what I'm doing with engines but pointless gaining power you can't use due to electrickery lol.
Anyway, lovely looking bike you have there, mine's the dark grey but it looks the business in silver with that pipe mate! Nice one ;O)
Many thanks for the info, seems I have a learning curve to climb with this model.
Cheers,
Mark

Hi 'n' welcome, fastasfowey.

Little Kitten instead of big Kat, haha.
Kendo stick instead of Katana sword.

Hey Pedda,
thanks for the welcome and you bet she's a Kendo stick ;O)
In my Jack Russel kind of way, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy nipping at the heels of GSXR1000's and ZX10R's on my little kitten mate. Call me a kid, but wasn't that what we did on our tweaked to explosion point RD125's a hundred odd years back?
Count me in.......then call for an ambulance haha ;O)
Cheers bud,
Mark

Watcha Mark, welcome to the nut house Nice bunch of blokes here (apart from one or two ) look forward to hearing more from you. I started on here without even having a Kat. Got a (cough) GSX400X Impulse. Had to steal my kids xmas money to buy a 550 Kat just so that people would talk to me

Pete

Hey there Pete ;O)
thanks mate, I have a feeling I'm going to fit in quite nicely here bud, oh hang on........nope , it was just wind ;O)
Thanks for the welcome and a bike's a bike to some people, but to share a love of a legacy like the Katana family makes the version you ride pretty much irrelevant in my book mate so good on you! I ought to be riding a bloody Bergman for all the prangs I've had so the light weight and short arse seat height suit me luverly juberly of the Kitten. Nice bike the Impulse too, let me get you drunk so I can run off with your CDi ! Have a cracking weekend and chat with you soon, gotta go stand on the shed roof crow at the moon ;O)
Mark