Yamaha FZ Project

[raYzerman]

Hack is gonna be all over me for changing underwear...... ha, it's no change, it's just an addition. This thing jumped into my trailer today and made it's way here. 2013 Yamaha FZ8S (Fazer8), 800cc inline four, 105 HP (96 at the rear wheel). 29k kms/~18k miles. Well taken care of but needs a little help over the winter.




First thing was give it a wash to get the dust/grime off.... the blue accents are a nice touch, yes?

[FjrVfr]

Ray you know the first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem, right?

Good lookin' ship there.

[Hack]

I swear... I was over there just a few days ago and he said NOTHING about "acquiring" another "project"...

Obviously an impulse control issue

[raYzerman]

If you had brought TWO coffees we coulda talked longer, lol.

[escapefjrtist]

So Ray, what's the long term plan? Sporty, light tourer, hooligan?

~G

[blind squirrel]

So Ray, what's the long term plan? Sporty, light tourer, hooligan?

~G

Yes!

[wheatonFJR]

So Ray, what's the long term plan? Sporty, light tourer, hooligan?

~G

Everybody knows you can't tour on a chain.

You know...all that chain lube that gets everwhitchaway!

[FJRPittsburgh]

That's a beauty Ray! I love the blue accents. Nice bike for sure.

[Road Runner]

What he ^ said.
Nice

[raYzerman]

So Ray, what's the long term plan? Sporty, light tourer, hooligan?

~G

Well, I wasn't sure I even wanted it, however, the PO was asking way below market value due to some cosmetic issues (had an oopsie on some wet leaves, went down on the left side). When Hack showed up with coffee, I hadn't given it a lot of thought, then later decided I at least had to go look at it (half hour drive). It's a 2013, and all the ones for sale here are 2011's and asking a lot more money, plus this one has the adjustable suspension the others did not. 2013 is the last year sold here, wasn't sold in the US, but the naked version was. Should be worth more in the end........

So I went, all is easily fixable, would make a nice winter project, and if any good to ride, might even replace the VFR?? Felt good to sit on, but of course, nobody lets you do test rides.... bike was dirty (not washed), rash on nose fairing, smaller side panel below it, signal light, mirror. PO already replaced the frame slider, shift lever and clutch lever are slightly bent....... Do I need another project, lol, I keep saying not, but this was too tempting......

When I went to see it, the PO and I hit it off, had some nice conversations while seeing he is transitioning into quads and behind it in his garage is a DR650...... obvious to me he had not checked other prices, just wanted it gone before winter..... skip to the end, while I was OK with the price, I offered him even less than he was asking and after a short hesitation, he said OK. I left him a deposit, went to pick it up a few days later. We're both happy with the deal.

All is good, if I don't keep it, I can still flip it and make a few bucks. I looked into prices of the two plastic pieces, looked a little closer at how to fix without buying plastic.... doable if I can find the two slightly differing shades of gray. There are 50, right?

[raYzerman]

I did test ride today, more later. You want a wee test ride? Try this run on the track... skip to 1:45 after he checks in at the gate... I'll just confirm the bike has a linear power delivery, with a nice transition to another level at 7000 rpm with plenty of power on tap. Max torque at 8000, max horsepower 106.2 at 10k.

[BikerGeek]

You needed this, Ray.

[wheatonFJR]

You needed this, Ray.

Yeah, stay away from that Honda shit.
That FZ is where you wanna be...

[Hack]

..That makes four bikes currently residing at casa del Ray's shop..?

There ain't gonna be room for Large coffees man!

[raYzerman]

Was getting ready for a test ride, and remembered the bent shifter...... took all of a minute to fix with my prybar while the bike was warming up........ tweaked the sidestand post a bit too.

Haven't had time to dig deeper into the scratched plastic... I'm not ready to start working on the bike yet anyway, so that will come later........

[raYzerman]

Hope you enjoyed your test ride, because it runs smooth all the way through the rev range, just like in the video. I went for a short ride, a little loop with a couple of chicanes, pushed it but not too hard. The gearing is such that it revs, and it likes it. At 70 mph you're spinning 5000 rpm and has torque if you just twist more. Kinda like a sport bike, and I don't think I'd change the gearing.... more power comes when spinning over 6000 with a nice transition... drop a gear and you'll zoom. Overall, nice power train and enough of it, really liking it. It will outrun the VFR I'm betting.

Handling was great, just point it to a corner and it goes there with confidence. While only 470 lbs., it feels very planted. It has a fixed Puig aftermarket windshield, taller than stock but is similar to the VFR, air hits your upper chest and clean air in the helmet. A good bike to go play in the Appalachians for a few days.

Lots of good news, lots of fun can be had.... but the bad news is the footpegs are slightly rearward and a tad too high for these old bones. Limited options for lower and more forward pegs, but it can be done. No centerstand, but no biggie. The brakes, OMG just touch the fronts and you have instant brakes. The rear brake works well too, both lever and pedal were quite firm (and recently bled). No ABS... I tested locking up the back wheel only... not too hard to do if you don't use fronts. I can guess why the PO went down on some wet leaves.

So it is more sport than touring, but a perfect alternative to a sport bike, if you like bent knees. It's winter project to spruce things up....... but methinks I won't be keeping this. Putting it away for a bit, might not touch it until the new year.

[Hack]

Putting it away for a bit, might not touch it until the new year.

So what are you saying... You "acquired" another machine you'd rather work on first..??

[raYzerman]

Nope, we're on a shop reorg project..... that could take months at the rate I go and the distractions........

[raYzerman]

A little update as I spend a little time on the resto. Among other things, the side panel had rash, signal kinda beyond repair, and the left mirror was rashed up.... replica not readily available, although I can get from Florida for U$45. OEM Yammie here is roughly C$100..... at my $20/hr. self-paid rate, I'll give it a resto effort.....

No before pic, but here it is after smoothing with a file, progressively down to 400 grit sandpaper. Needs more obviously, so a partial repeat of the process.....



Done as much as I want to, hardly seen anyway, settled on this after going over the wounds wet sanding with 600 grit...... I did try some 1200, but actually came back to 600, as I want to leave some texture to match the existing.



The next step is to carefully apply a heat gun to smooth out the sanding marks, and yet the little fuzzies will turn into a fine pebble texture like the original.... careful to heat evenly, and not too hot or you'll get way too much gloss.... problem? Just sand it again with 600 and redo, the beauty of it being plastic. Came out good enough for me, again, not that one is going to notice it much at all unless you know it's there.

Total time spent, likely an hour and a half......

[raYzerman]

Had some other stuff on the go, moved the bike onto the lift..... a few days later, got onto the side panel problem.... so the rash on the mirror was very similar to this.......



The signal is not worth spending time on, new one was C$40.



So here we go, new side panel part is C$100 + $30 decal +$15 FAZER decal + Yammy logo (which I know I can re-use). The only question here is can I match the paint and satin gloss with rattle can... got a selection of grays (from the 50 Shades of Grey of course ), checked them in daylight, etc. and settled on two... returning the others. I have to fix the nose panel too, and the two grays are slightly different shade... but since I can't match perfectly, there will be 3 shades.

Without going through all the prep, final sand with 600 wet, laid on a prime coat, then 3 nice wet coats, allowing an hour between. Masked off the decal and top part with 3M #2093 blue masking tape, which is an auto body grade tape that is thin, and leaves nice clean edges. Paint is Rustoleum, does not need primer and has a nice spray trigger and best rattle can nozzle ever. Not a perfect match, but given where it is, it doesn't matter much.





Here it be with a new signal light, tabs on the rear repaired/beefed up with Permatex plastic epoxy, Yammy decal back on with new 3M tape. I could point out a coupla things, but nobody's gonna know given the panel is down low, bike on side stand, partly obstructed by mirror/bars... from the top while sitting on the bike, you see the original colour.



Here it is, back on the bike. Ha, the Yammy tuning fork is supposed to be pointed straight up.... if OCD doesn't kick in, it's staying that way, you can't look at both sides of the bike at once, lol. ~G will be disappointed with me though.