Page 5 of 5
Re: New Build Project - KR-1 with 421 Athena Banshee motor.
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2026 11:34 pm
by KwakOn
hi, thnx for sharing your excellent build, great pics and info.
love it, cant get used to the one sided swinger but it'll work great I'm sure. Awesome
Re: New Build Project - KR-1 with 421 Athena Banshee motor.
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2026 10:04 am
by RickNC30
I`m on the home straight now and it`s looking a lot busier under the tank -
The wiring loom is finished and everything works (phew!), Venhill throttle and choke cables are fitted and adjusted, all the fluids are in and nothing leaks, and the Autolube system is connected and filled with Motul 710.
The bike is somewhat dismantled again now as I`ve taken off all of my custom brackets and sent them away for anodising but in essence it is ready to run.
As soon as the brackets are back I shall reassemble everything and fire it up on the bench running on a bottle of 40:1 premix while I bleed the oil system and check that it all works OK, then I`ll run it through a few heat cycles to settle everything down before re-torquing the head nuts.
I dropped in to see the painter yesterday - he is still in the prepping stage with my bodywork but he is doing a cracking job, correcting all of the faults on the frankly pretty poor quality race fairing and seat unit and strengthening all the mounts and edges with woven CF tape. It will be a month or more before he can fit in the actual painting so I will have to set the bike aside and get on with another project but the wait will be worth it...
Re: New Build Project - KR-1 with 421 Athena Banshee motor.
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2026 8:37 pm
by RickNC30
IT LIVES...!!
I have now run one litre bottle of premix plus three of super unleaded through the bike while priming and bleeding the Autolube system and playing with carb settings to arrive at a fairly safe baseline. I have set up the programmable ignition with the stock Banshee map plus 4 degrees of advance - word on the US forums says that`s the way to go with the Athena 421 kit.
I`ve run the motor for about 40 minutes in total now, it starts first kick, ticks over and picks up cleanly and nothing has leaked, seized or fallen off so far - sounds crisp and fierce, can`t wait to get the bodywork back so I can test ride it properly...
Re: New Build Project - KR-1 with 421 Athena Banshee motor.
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2026 10:12 am
by JanBros
RickNC30 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 8:37 pm
IT LIVES...!!
good job, always one of the finest moments of a project
