Purchased first FZS 600 new in Easter 2001.
Liked the look of the bike but always wished it was un-faired.
The reason I wish it was un-faired is because in my day only race bikes and police bikes had fairings, and I’m neither a racer nor a copper. In 2003 I took the plunge the bike had only done 4,800 miles at the time but has now clocked 69,000 miles, and I’ve had no problems with the modifications I did.
Modifications:
Seat modification
Had the seat re-shaped so it rose up where it meets the tank Reason: I always felt like I was having to push myself backward on the seat to get to a comfortable riding position.
Removal of the front fairing
Once you’ve taken the front fairing off you encounter the following issues:
1) There’s nowhere to mount the clocks.
2) There’s nowhere to fix a headlamp.
3) There’s nowhere to fix the indicators.
4) The clocks don’t have an aesthetically pleasing back on them and you need a small screen or cover to protect them against the rain.
Clock mounting
After a lot of piss-malling about I concluded that the best way to mount the clocks was not from the forks but from the yokes. The handlebar clamps are bolted through the yokes.
I removed the existing nuts and had new nuts made. These have 10mm internal thread all the way through and are around 30mm long. You use these to tighten back up the handlebar clamps whilst at the same time you can screw a bolt into them to fix the clock mounts. The mounts for the clocks were made out of mild steel approximately 18mm wide.
They’ve got a hole for bolt to fix them to the yokes and a hole to fix them to the clocks.The hole for the clocks needs to be over-sized to allow the clocks to be rubber mounted like they were in the fairing. The brackets have to be bent to an angle but that’s easy.
Headlamp and mounting.
I like conventional round headlamps because I’m an old bugger.In any event sourcing a headlamp was the easy bit (M & P accessories) Mounting the headlamp was also relatively straightforward, I used the unfaired Suzuki bandit headlamp mounts, but I made my own triangular aluminium bracket to connect the headlamp to the bandit fork
Indicators
The aluminium headlamp bracket gives you a point to mounted the indicators. I wanted to retain the original fairing indicators, so I cored out the centre of them and cast in araldite a piece of threaded bar to fix them. Had no problems with them and they’ve been on the bike for 65,000 miles like this. You can of course simple use after market indicators.
Protecting the clocks
The clocks don’t have an aesthetically pleasing back on them, and will be exposed to water penetration unless you protect them in some way.
I made a small aluminium cockpit type cover and brackets, but there are no doubt many small fairings and coverings that you can buy.
Other issues
You will come across other issues, such as that horrible rubber flap over the top of the cylinder head. My solution to this was bin it, but I have experienced no problems having got rid of it.
