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Hi Andrew, welcome to the club. Good choice of bike. I had two back in the day, but I'm not sure whether I'd be able to go back to one again. Why not tell us a bit about yours

Useful to know, cheers

Hi Snakebite, yeah the front brakes are fine, but after the full strip I did on the rear I can notice a slight lack of initial bite compared to the rear, so will definitely be doing a strip on them too. I'll let you know how the clutch goes. It seems a lot more accessible and easier to dis/reassemble than some I've seen. I'm mainly doing it to see if I can improve on the action and also selecting neutral once stopped. Mine hasn't shown any tendency to slip either. I find the rear shock on original factory settings is surprisingly good for the road. And if it's serviceable then I'll put it on the list to get done along with the front forks and rear linkages. The ZX10 shock idea likely wouldn't be an improvement anyway. Hopefully my linkage won't have the same fault as yours.

Btw don't let your age put you off. I'm 63 and still enjoy the riding. Only issue I'm just starting to find is the big bikes are getting a bit too heavy to push around the garden, but actually riding them is fine

Hi all, since my last post I have rebuilt the master and slave cylinders on the clutch and the front brake master cylinder. HEL lines fitted all round and rebuilt the rear brake caliper completely. New SBS pads front and rear. The results were the clutch is much better, with an easier pull, though as the bike warms up neutral is still difficult to find (I now click to neutral just before stopping). The rear brake is now really good, and has great feel. The front brakes are good but I think they still need the caliper seals changed out to reach their full potential; one of the jobs for this year. I think I'll take the clutch plates out and see what condition they're in and clean/replace as needed. Also going to get the front forks rebuilt and check the rear suspension linkages. Has anyone tried fitting any other rear suspension units? I saw a bike on Ebay listed with a ZX10R rear shock fitted, but I'm not sure which year it's from nor if it's any better than stock. Cheers

Ok My wife won't ride on the big bikes, so I don't have that problem to cope with. She's more comfortable on the back of the scooter with its top box as a back rest. Obviously a complete contrast in riding experience to the litre bikes, but it makes for a relaxing ride

Thanks for the replies Yes still got the original levers and I adjusted them to setting 3 as that suits my span. Looks like it's on the original hoses so after what you've both said that will be the first thing to try and new fluid obviously comes as part of that. New brake hoses as well I reckon. Might be a while until I get to do it though. Just had a small op and I only have a garden to work in, so waiting for a spell of weather above freezing Once I can get out again I can get more of a feel for the riding position too. Snakebite, I take it you didn't swap your seat covering from standard then?

Mr B. I just got a 97 Thunderace with the heavy clutch problem. Did you solve your issues and if so what cured it? Cheers.

Hi, I just joined the club as I bought a 97 Thunderace. After an initial ride I can confirm the seat is certainly slippery and I spent a lot of the 30 minutes up against the tank. I would be interested in any opinions on improving the clutch. The bikes only done 15k miles and the clutch engages a long way out, nearly at the end of travel. Then later in the ride it got very heavy and back home I had issues selecting neutral as Mr.B said in his post. My hand was aching after that short a ride, though it was up and down the A4 in West London to get a feel for the bike, so plenty of gear changes. Is new plates, bleeding the clutch, rebuilding the master cylinder going to make a significant improvement or is this simply down to bad design? I have a Honda CBF 1000 with a hydraulic clutch and its way better than this. Apart from that it seems like a good bike, though I'm not sure how the riding position lends itself to the sport tourer tag the bike allegedly has earned, and it's very pretty