1990
YAMAHA FZR600
51,000 Miles
$2500.00
* 00' YZF600R front end (suspension, brakes, and wheel)
* Fox rear shock
* New tires
* Jetted and dyno tuned (summer of 2002)
* New Sharkskinz lowers (Primered, Need to be painted)
* New chain and sprockets
* Solo seat cowl (replacement pilon seat included)
Compression test results available. Just picked up from yearly maintainance,
this afternoon (1.23.2003)
Well it's time to sell the old girl. She's been a great learner and commuter. Still very stout in her age and milage. To get started, let me talk alittle about this classic...
(click on the highlighted words for their respective pictures)
I bought FZR #161, back in May of 1999, as a quick answer to mycommuting problems when the engine of my car blew (for the first time). The second owner was and still is a very close friend of mine, so I was already familiar with the bike before I became the third owner. From what he told me this FZR had originally been bought by a Navy officer from the L.A./Irvine area (parking tags on the stock forks confirmed this). He seemed to have treated it well, but unfortunately he had laid it down once. I am still unsure as to why and what extent the damage was, but it did not seem to effect the bike at all. The only physical damages I've seen was and still are, the scratches on the Yoshi pipe and right side blinker. The original right side lower was acratched a little but was not broken or cracked. I believe the right-hand peg/muffler bracket was bent then too, as the pipe hits the swingarm every once in a while, but looking at the mounting point and the U-bracket itself... I see no damage what so ever. Plus, I am still unsure that this pipe was really designed for this bike, or a completely different model. At any rate, to counter act this rubbing of the swingarm, I've shimmed the muffler mount to bring it out .5 of an inch.
So, about a year goes buy an I start working on her and noticing that the rear shock is getting really spongie. I looked around and talked with some of the local shops, and even on the internet, and all agreed that the FOX twin-clicker rear shock was the best thing for the FZR. At the time, the $450 unit really was the best thing available and brought the already outdated motorcycle, back to life with features found on current models. Fully adjustable rebound, compression, and pre-load, were all set to carry 400lbs (me and a passenger, I was pretty hefty back then). I've also found that the 18 inch rear wheel is NOT barred with carrying a 140 section tire. Infact, some really good rubber can be put on that thing. Right now it's mounted with a 150/70-18 Metzeler ME-Z1. So much more stickier than the Bridgestone Battleax BT-504s that came with the bike when I bought it. I fitted the front with a 110/70/17 ME-Z3, which was Metzelers top of the line street tire. I figured that it could use alittle more grip up front since I was going to be banging around the twisties.
You will also notice that the bike now sports square YZF mirrors. The advantage to these... they clear my elbows so I can see the cars behind me. I am convinced that the stock mirrors were made for short people only, since round mirrors and short stalks would only allow me to see what was on my stomache. Another thing I've changed since I bought it was the seat I actually when out of my way to make the bike less comfortable. The one piece corbin sadle that was on there was VERRRRRRRRY comfy, but was torn to shreds, and even if it wasn't, they look ugly (IMHO). So I went down and popped for the $150 at the dealer for some brand new factory seats, and I gotta say, they look so much better, and really don't feel that bad at all. I can ride for a good 2 hours, steady, before I start getting uncomfortable, and by then, it's break time anyways.
The next change was a minor one... cutting the rear fender off. The stock fender was just bugging me. With all the new sport bikes, and racing FZRs I've seen on the internet, the factory FZR looks out of place. Big black bulky plastic with long stalk turn signals, and reflectors all over the place... who designs these things? So all I did was remove the plastic from around the frame, this way, there is still the inner fender to direct water, dirt, or whatever up and out the back, and still keep the underseat compartment, clean and dry. Since the mount was gone, I had to relocate the license plate as well, so what I did was zip tie it to the frame, just below the taillight. It worked out quite well, and saved me $80, for an eliminator kit. Everything was cool, and I was happy with the bike... the way it was running, the way it looked, everything was perfect. I decided one day to take a solo trip out to San Francisco and tool around the coast line. Up at the Precidio, I thought it would be cool to follow acouple of the back roads to the old barracks that over look the bay. Well some retard had put in rather large speed bumps on those roads... It wasn't long before I took one just THAT much too fast and cracked the left lower fairing.. I mean CRACKED. I'd go so far as to say I broke it. The long skinny part that goes behind the kickstand and up to the generator cover, was now it's own section. I tried my hardest to salvage that fairing, but all my glassing and bondo skills could not help it. Into the trash it went.
Enter: Sharkskin competition lower #1. This this is the badest piece of fiberglass I have seen on a bike. A high-quality replica of the original fairing, though, there are two holes that I do not use due to the fact that the glass is so thin. But that is OK becuse the second owner lost 2 of the the fairing bolts. Now I was in the position to have the bike repainted. I had seen the old-school racer, the Yamaha FZR750R (OW01), and instantly fell in love... I'd still like to buy one if I can get my hands on an original. I had to paint mine this color... so I got the bright idea to strip the good right hand side myself. I grabbed the paint remover and glopped it on there and waited to see the paint start bubbling off.... BAD IDEA, the remover worked so well it started removing the plastic. Within minutes the once pristine lower was a cracked contorted humk of black plastic... Never before had I felt so stupid... well there was this one time, but I won't go into it. Oh well, we learn new things everyday, and I was learning how to order parts with ease over the internet... enter: Sharkskin competition lower #2.
Alright... so another year passes and I see on the FZRARCHIVES(.com) that some guy had swapped a set of 94 YZF600 forks onto his machine. I couldn't believe it.. that WORKS? Well the stock units are crap... hands down, and I was not going to pop to ship mine out to have new springs and compresion emulators installed... so I wanted to do this.. I want to find a beat up P.O.S. YZF and put those kick ass forks on my bike. I ended up finding a set of Y2K YZF600R forks on EBAY for $250, and came with a complete triple tree, ignition switch and key... only, one fork was bent. What to do, What to do.... answer... "the Frame Bender" of Sacramento. COOL! I got the set of forks for really cheap... bought a new tube for $90, and he reinstalled everything and polished them up for another $125.... so that's $465, for a set of forks that would have cost me $900 new, or possibly as low as $600, if I would have found a good parts bike that was not thrashed in the front (HAHAHAHA, yeah, like that ever happens).
Now is when it starts getting really good. All sorts of ideas start coming into my head... powdercoating the generator and clutch covers, and intake tubes, getting the wheels repainted, and curing that annoying squeek that developed in the swingarm from having dry bearings. Things were really shaping up for this bike.. only I'm missing one thing.... Hmmmm... Oh crap, I need a front wheel and brakes. For $20 I got a 2000 YZF front wheel, and a few more dollars got me new SEALED bearing for it too (the fzr front wheel uses exposed ball bearings that you have to re-grease every so often). I could have used the stock FZR brake calipers, but I had gone so far out of my way already... shoot... why not buy YZF brakes? I was able to locate a set of low milage calipers and rotors... where else... EBAY, for something like $75... just to get them off the guy's hands. They are as they were then I received them... emaculate. Everything, even the blue annodized piston plugs, looked like they had never been used... they even had fresh pads. Disasembled them, inspected them for good measure, put them back together, and slapped them on the bike. All the various nuts and bolts that are used to install this stuff... everything... I ended up buying from EPowersports.com. Yeah, I overspent alot on things I could have just gotten at OSH, but the bike is worth every penny I spend on it. I bought new handlebars and handle bar bosses, new brakeline stays (using the original FZR brake hoses and master cylinder), new screws to hold all that stuff on, a new speedo regulator, and cable stay, and... the most expensive of them all... a brand new front fender (2 pieces), and of course... bolts for the fender. I can't even begin to quote how much I spent on this stuff... but it WAS a better deal from here than going thru YAMAHA themselves. The front of the bike now carries a 120\60-17 Metzeler ME-Z3. The wider grip as well as the updated forks really do wonders to the handling characteristics of the FZR. The angle of the rake is a bit less than stock, so turning is more precise and crisp. I've also pulled the tubes up in the trees 20mm, which in turn lowers the front end, and improves steering response. You really have to ride a stock bike, and this one to appreciate what I've done here... but if you can't, you can certainly enjoy the tunability of this revised suspension.
In working on the swingarm, I decided to have the exhaust scratches filled and have the whole thing powdercoated, since I have a really good connection for that sort of thing. New needle bearings were pressed in and tons of lithium/moly grease was globbed in there and that squeak was GONE! The final modification to this bike was the tail. I got really bored one day and took a look at the rearend. I don't like that brick of a taillight that sits back there, so I too a look on the net to see how the other Yamahas of that era look Yuk, most look just like mine up until 1997, and I didn't want to pop for tails off other bikes... cause it's an FZR.. not an R1.. or a CBR900RR, or my favorite... a GSXR. Nope, this bike is old and square, just like the OW01... hey, wait. I wonder how that looks? Well, it has a different style to the pieces under the seat, but all in all it looks the same... So out came the hack saw... a few chops here and there, and viola! An almost perfect match. Just removed some plastic... nothing major, or can't be changed back. Simple. now what about that taillight? The FZRs in Japan had really evolved into some nice bikes... especially the 400, which in 1996 was dubbed the FZR400RRSP. These carry similar taillights to the 1995 YZF600/750. So I thought I'd try it... As a test bed, I have just glassed in the lower portion of that center piece, and cut the necessary hole for the YZF750 taillight that I got off EBAY (man, I love that service). Ehh, it didn't come out too bad, in my opinion, and will probably look tons better if I were to modify an aftermarket single seat rear fairing. Since they come with zero holes, none of my sloppy fiberglassing is required. Just zip zop cut the hole and poke the light thru. If the buyer of the bike is not happy with this mod, I do have all the original parts for the stock taillight, so he/she can change it back.
Below are a few more pictures with captions, I felt necessary to throw on the internet.
Thank you for visiting.
If interested, you can contact me at:
(925)785-4413
or
[email protected]
This is
to show that this pice if plastic trim is missing. I never had
it, and have never been able to source a new one. LP makes a set of
flush mount turnsignals that will probably go in there depending on how long
it takes me to sell her.
50,225
miles and still kicking hard. I can't believe I've put on over
15,000 miles in the last 3.5 years.
A boo boo,
from picking her up from her last service. I was about to leave,
and she fell over in the back of my truck. Only damage was a broken
mirror, windscreen, and this little square in the side of the tail. Not
to sure what to do wtih it. May buy a solo tail after all. This
also shows my wanna be OW01 mod to the tail. If you compair this
pic to the pic at the top of the page... you will see the difference.
My modified
YZF750 taillight. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder... that's
all I have to say. As you can see, she is registered till NOV.
of this year... License is a bit crooked, ehh?
One of
the drawbacks of learnig fiberglass... sometimes it doesn't work well. I'll
fix and re-paint this before I hand the keys over.
