It’s a really good design (thought needs a tank bag!) and tucking down behind it gives you a genuine wind-break when highway cruising and keeps you surprisingly dry when that unexpected rain-shower hits.  But like all polycarbonate it yellows and develops fine crazing over time. Just UV I’m afraid, and in Australia we get that in spades!

I regularly use the ‘toothpaste’ polish trick to clean it up, but I would love to replace the the screen.

Plenty of acrylic replacements available, including some specifically designed for competition.  But I’ll be honest for the road I prefer the strength of polycarbonate.  But I haven’t found any after-market suppliers (Vstream don’t have anything for the GPz900r) and secondhand scrfeens are ridiculously priced – ranging on eBay from $500 (with stress cracks around mounting holes) to over a grand for a pristine example.

Maybe I should make my own replacement – with both clear (winter) and tinted (summer) options.  I know enough about plastic manufacturing techniques to think this could be a pretty simple process, the time-consuming part is creating a nicely finished timber vacuum-mould.  But this type of process requires multiple parts to be made and it’s just not economically viable for a production run of just a few parts – you might as well buy the one listed for a grand.

Obviously it wouldn’t have the fancy black edge finish of the OEM Panlite screen – but this is purely cosmetic and paint, or acrylic stickers or just tape would be more than effective and still look fine.

Anyone else be interested?

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FYI I sourced the higher flow airbox intake for my A8 however it’s not a simple task to replace – the rubber between the carbs and the airbox) is hard and in-flexible, and even with new ones getting all of this back together is not for the faint-hearted.  In the end I decided that along with the cost of purchasing A1/2 carbs it just wasn’t worth the effort at this time – I’ll ponder it later when doing more work on the engine.

‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!’

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Sid Young explains how to rebuild the rear suspension back to factory.  Recommend you track down a copy of his book on how to restore classic japanese motorcycles.

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Great information from z900collector regarding one of the ‘oh no’ moments of a GPz900r engine – when the starter clutch won’t engage.  Not for the faint-hearted but it’s all there with great images and notes if you need it.