Strictly speaking not an FF but the hacksaw practice had to start somewhere!
Ariel 650 Huntmaster with Goldie clipons a bit too low really......

Well as you can see in comparison with the previous incarnation in image 2009 9 this is the August 2009 build based on a later 'R' registration 1998 Kawasaki Gpz500s, lightly damaged but only 18,000 miles instead of 34,000 miles, but raring to go to France next month I hope, mainly because it is my only bike on the road this year!

The previous £150 bike did so well I was encouraged to buy a replacement donor for £450 in much better condition and transfer all my bits to it. As it is a Kawasaki and was plain Red to start with I have called it KawaRouge or KR for short since that also embraces the German KawaRot and matches their national flag colours.There are subtle improvements since the last build, the seat is actually Volvo foam and cover on a much lighter garden seat frame and the rear shock is new with much stronger springing.

Inspired by Philip Wakeham's 'Anything is possible' attitude to engineering art I woke up one morning and decided to implement Royce Creasey's aerodynamic improvement hints (see his technical paper on this site) and cut the fairing into three pieces, chopped four inches out of the middle, and reassembled it!
The narrower fairing has little impact on comfort, reduces frontal area a little, but amazingly has made the bike much less susceptible to side winds and the turbulent air behind large lorries, it is more 'indifferent' as Royce puts it.

This is my second attempt to calculate the frontal area of my KawaBanana and this time I remembered to put the rectangle of white card of known size back near the rider's hip where the perspective would not make it look larger than life. So, cue roll of drums, the more accurate measurement of frontal area including rider is 10.9 square feet, which seems, quite a lot! But it does explain why strong headwind gusts were able to reduce my speed from 55mph to 45 mph at whim on the way home from Wales after 680 miles.

He went mad with that roll of reflective tape off ebay...now we dazzle everybody!

Yes I went miles too......those Feet Forward fairings will all land up here too, you'll see Phasars and all of them.......we never rot you see!

Someone loved me once!

We went miles too......until that sports bike came along which already had a fairing.

Yeh it's a racing crank mate!

We fink it's orf a factory racer actually......anti-foaming prototype.

What? Yes I 'ave got a drill as it 'appens!

This is not Wales! Robin Thomas told me that The Classic Show and Autojumble was at Stafford and encouraged me to go - luckily pensioners get in for £8 instead of £9.....

Andrew Gibbens deserves a prize for the lines of that box, no apparent aero faults at all.....cheapest wind tunnel in the World!

The dirt will all wash off for the part exchange deal......note the chain oiler, too afraid to use it in case oil gets on the back tyre and brings him off at the next roundabout, he has already surfed over the white muddy lines in the road and frightened himself to death that the front will wash away.....and that was at only 40 mph!

Coffee time!

Did you notice his bald head reflected in his crash helmet in the last shot. Hee! Hee!

Mind you he was a bit hot wearing overtrousers over overtrousers over trousers - Too mean to buy Goretex you see.....

Hey look you can see Bobbe's bald head reflected in his crash helmet!

I tend to cruise at 52 mph - Don't laugh!

I am only a 500 and have to drag all this 222kgs around. Mind you the Honda version of me had 300kgs - Whew!

Wait until the GSXR1000 version arrives......

Of course I am dirty, I get ridden!

And with the factory second air intake remade in the airbox I no longer run rich, 8 and a half UK gallons to travel 680 miles this trip is 80 miles per gallon, I cannot do any more, I shall seize up if you try!

Will I be in the Fast group, the Improvers group or the Novice group then?

What do you mean we didn't book so cannot race!!!

The secret of not losing the centre stand to a constant blasting of wet grit from the back wheel, spray wax coating, excellent!

As long as the exhaust does not set it on fire that is.....

A brief interlude with nobody examining me....

It must be fast, did you see all those policemen looking at it earlier?

Faster than our Toyota MR2 Turbos do you think?

Never seen anything like it before, must be experimental.....

Wowee! I had heard that there was a 'significant police presence' in Wales in addition to the speed cameras every 3 miles , but not for me surely! I am slow! Honest!