what did you do with your fazer today ?

[Grahamm]

As mentioned elsewhere, I didn't have much luck balancing the thottle bodies on my FZ6, but, this weekend I have managed:


Refilling and bleeding the brake system after installing braided pipes (and that technique of a zip-tie around the brake lever to the throttle overnight does wonders!)


Checked the plugs without needing to drain the coolant and remove the radiator by taking out the bolts that hold the radiator in place and giving myself (just) enough room to do the job, although getting the HT leads out is a bugger of a job, but at least a drop of WD-40 helps get them back in place


Changed the oil and filter.


Fixed the instrument cluster as the LCD display was flickering again.


I did also start having a go at installing the 4 degree ignition advancer, but I wanted to read through a thread on doing this mod again and it was getting late, so I decided to leave that for another time...


PS I forgot: Whoever put the oil filter on the bike must have had really strong hands if it's supposed to be "finger tight" as I eventually had to use a cup socket and a breaker bar to shift it... 

Now the old filter is stuck *in* the cup socket and I'm going to have to take a hammer and drift to the old filter to get it out...   

[robbo]

Missed my Sunday whizz as the weather didn't want to play ball. Made up for that today with a 200+ mile trip to Essex and bordering counties. Traffic has certainly built up now as had to work quite hard to keep up,being tail end Charlie, as we threaded ourselves around the county's finest B roads. Finchingfield is becoming a regular stop off. A Portaloo was being delivered which will mean less leg crossing on my next visit. Plenty of bikes there today, enjoying the sun and high temperature. Could have done with some air con zips in my jacket.

[fazersharp]

Waited until the heat of the day had died down and the emerging post covid rush hour traffic to calm down and went for a quick 60 mile blat, roads were almost empty but quite a few bikes out. Picture 

[Grahamm]

Got the 4 degree ignition advancer fitted this afternoon by using an 8mm spanner to stop the timing rotor from turning anticlockwise as I undid the retaining bolt.

New timing cover gasket fitted and oil topped up to the proper level.

I was planning on trying rebalancing the throttle bodies again, but, even with both shed doors open (to avoid asphxianting myself!) with the engine running just for a few minutes it was *way* too hot in the shed...

I might try later this evening when it's cooled down a bit.

[Dudeofrude]

Took my daughter out on the back for her first ever ride on a motorcycle. It was also my first time ever taking a pillion so was a cautious ride.
She ended up loving it and I found it easy enough once we got moving so I can see it being a regular thing over the coming months.
I have to say it wasn't 'fun' having her on because I couldnt ride in my usual aggressive manner and was constantly working about how she was doing but was still a nice bonding moment for us both.
Will hopefully get to the point where I can start to bring her along to bike meets and shows

[fazersharp]

Same as yesterday, read that post for the description but I do have another picture from tonight

[Millietant]

Had a nice little ride out to Rutland Water today with my pal Jim on his Can Am Spyder. The Fazer behaved perfectly....as always !

[robbo]

Met up with Flooky at The Chalet. Managed to get a table in the shade. After a chinwag and a sausage baguette, it was off to explore Sussex and Hampshire. Came home via Loomies and the A272 as far as Billingshurst. Then home via Box Hill, which should be open properly this weekend. Another 184 miles chalked up on the trip meter.

[coffee]

Met up with Flooky at The Chalet. Managed to get a table in the shade. After a chinwag and a sausage baguette, it was off to explore Sussex and Hampshire. Came home via Loomies and the A272 as far as Billingshurst. Then home via Box Hill, which should be open properly this weekend. Another 184 miles chalked up on the trip meter.

just wondered if this is the same Flook who used to have a F800 BMW a few years back and was on the BMW 800 owners club,it's just that it's an unusual handle and I met this guy back when I had a GT800.

[robbo]

It is an unusual name, but the only Beemer he's has was an 1150GS. You may know the name from the race paddock in the 80's.

[coffee]

Thanks for that,different bloke,just curious 'cause of the name.

[Grahamm]

A few days ago, my girlfriend was taken into hospital with problems related to her severe asthma (not COVID-19, thank fully!)

Today they decided they're going to have to keep her in for a few more days, so she needed me to bring some stuff to the hospital, which meant I had to reassemble my FZ6 which was still in quite a few bits.

Fortunately I'd done all the major work on the rear of the bike (good job I hadn't decided to do the front fork springs today, otherwise I'd have been well screwed...!), so it was just a matter of putting the pannier racks and top box mounts back on, re-installing the instrument cluster and fairings (although this wasn't quite as simple as it sounds and took a few hours, mostly fiddling and faffing around to get everything lined up and in the right place) and then checking everything worked which, fortunately, it did!

So I ride it down to the garage to do the tyres and get some more petrol, then go around the block a few times to get used to the braided brake lines, new rear shock and 4 degree ignition advancer.

Not a problem, the feel was a bit different, but a little practice, a couple of trial emergency stops etc and everything was fine.

So I stopped off back at home to pick up the top box with her stuff in, put it on the bike, pressed the starter...

... Nada.

Ok, I've had this happen before, I thought it was a problem with the side stand switch (although I had taken it off and checked it and apparently it was working ok), I just put the stand down, flick it back up so it gives a bit of a jolt and it starts...

... Nope.

Try again...

... Bupkis.

Try switching off, switching back on again.

... Still nothing.

Putting it into first, flicking it out again, can work too...

... Not this time, sunshine!

So go back into the house, pick up the Haynes manual, check the fault finding... Hmm, I can hear the relay clicking, it's not buzzing, so the battery is ok, maybe it's the Neutral switch, although the green light in the instrument cluster is on.

Jiggle the gear lever a few times, put it into first, back to neutral.

... Our survey says: UH-UH!!

Ok, let's try bump starting it. Oh, bugger, the street has a pretty steep camber, so push it forward a few millimeters, front brake on, recover, push it forward another few mill... repeat several times until finally I'm on the flat part, try the bump start and...

It works!!

I finally get to the hospital, make sure I park on a *downhill* slope, drop the stuff off, then have to bump it again to ride home.

So it looks like the next thing is to check the sidestand, neutral and clutch switches to find out what's causing this problem.

Oh, and PS, with the new rear shock and braided lines, it does feel much nicer to ride

[robbo]

Traffic’s certainly back to normal now, which will no doubt curtail any more mid week ride outs, as just not so enjoyable today. Still managed 175 miles criss crossing Kent, shame the Chilham bends had a few mobile chicanes in the way though, but still good fun.

[Dudeofrude]

Traffic’s certainly back to normal now, which will no doubt curtail any more mid week ride outs, as just not so enjoyable today. Still managed 175 miles criss crossing Kent, shame the Chilham bends had a few mobile chicanes in the way though, but still good fun.

Well if the weather behaves then surely tomorrow afternoon and Sunday morning will be golden seeing as half the country will be in the pub and then hungover 😆

[robbo]

Yep agree, but got other plans for this weekend. Besides it'll save a bit of tyre wear for next Sundays trip.

[steve65]

Before my bike had even arrived I bought new Givi arms and monorack and sourced a used V46 top box (my first top box in 39yrs of bikes!) so I fitted that last weekend.  My first ride out with it tomorrow and I’m very much looking forward to having a boot!

[red98]

fitted new chain and sprockets to the boxeye, while i had the front sprocket off i cleaned and re-greased the clutch release mechanism, got a really smooth, light clutch now  . to make it a bit easier to remove the clutch cable at the bottom end i removed the clutch lever, lots of wear on the mounting hole    will treat it to some new levers...had a test ride up to the ACE CAFE, which is now open, and chain and clutch are super smooth, happy with that but another problem has come to my attention, i`ll start another thread for that...

[Grahamm]

Well, after about 7 hours, I've managed to fit *one* of the new Hyperpro fork springs on my bike!

I was hoping for two, but it was a lot of hassle, firstly because it's something I've never done before, so I spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what needed to be done and checking and re-checking to make sure I didn't get anything wrong.

I needed to get inventive at some points, for instance I had to remove the handlebars to get to the fork caps, so they're now hanging from the rafters of the shed by a whole load of cable ties that have been linked together! There's a similar set up with the brake calipers dangling from the mirror stems.

Then there was the problem of dealing with bolts that hadn't been removed since the bike was new :-(

I found that, to remove one of them, I had to daisy chain together a breaker bar, *two* adapters to go from a 1/2" drive to 3/8" drive to a 1/4" drive, then an adapter to let me use an allen key driver and THEN I discovered that this ridiculously long collection of tools was too big to get behind the front fairing, so I had to stop and take that off :-(

Also, about five o'clock I started to get dehydrated and my brain started to get fuzzy to the extent that I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and nearly managed to bugger everything up until, fortunately, I had enough sense to realise what was happening, stop and get a drink, after which my brain started working again...!

So I finally got the first one sorted out, then had to figure out how to get sufficient oil into the fork such that the level was 140mm below the top of a metal tube.

I eventually ended up using a steel ruler like a dipstick. I put a line at 140mm, then lowered it into the tube to see if there was any oil on the bottom.

If there wasn't, I topped it up a bit more and tried again until finally I got it right.

So, anyway, that's one done, at least the other one should be easier now I have a better idea of what needs to be done.

I also have ordered myself a new battery, because the I installed the current one back in 2014, so it's no wonder it's a bit dodgy and the ECU is throwing error codes...!

[Dynspud]

Fitted a pair of LED bulbs (thanks again Mr kebab19) to the mighty thou, to replace the OEM ones.
What a difference - fantastic.

Also replaced the standard turn signal lamps on the clocks motherboard with green LED bulbs.
Absolutely vast improvement.
Don't think I'll ever be caught out leaving the indicators on again 

These are the turn signal bulbs (in green) I bought from FleaBay - £2.99 for a pack of 10 - bargain!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-x-LED-Dash-Board-Bulbs-Car-T5-73-74-286-Light-Bulb-Lamp-CHOICE-OF-COLOURS/360975710313?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=630319454937&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[fazersharp]

Don't think I'll ever be caught out leaving the indicators on again 

Think you need your eyes testing mate

Postage: Item location: Barnard Castle, United Kingdom
  

[Dynspud]

 

[ogri48]

Fitted a pair of LED bulbs (thanks again Mr kebab19) to the mighty thou, to replace the OEM ones.
What a difference - fantastic.

Also replaced the standard turn signal lamps on the clocks motherboard with green LED bulbs.
Absolutely vast improvement.
Don't think I'll ever be caught out leaving the indicators on again 

These are the turn signal bulbs (in green) I bought from FleaBay - £2.99 for a pack of 10 - bargain!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-x-LED-Dash-Board-Bulbs-Car-T5-73-74-286-Light-Bulb-Lamp-CHOICE-OF-COLOURS/360975710313?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=630319454937&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

i leave mine on loads as Dynspud will verify lol, yup gotta get these

[Grahamm]

Am I foccing cursed or something?? 

I get the second fork spring installed (a lot quicker than the first one, now I know what I'm doing) and put everything back on the bike.

My girlfriend needs me to bring her some stuff in QA Hospital (she has severe asthma), so I decide to take the bike around the block a few times to check I've got everything back together again and the bike still handles ok.

Unfortunately I still have to bump start it because of the fault code that I can't fix at the moment, but that's no big deal.

It all feels good, so I pull up outside the house to pick up the top box (it's difficult to bump it with the box on), back into a gap between two cars, side stand down and I'm about to get off when the bloody bike falls over on top of me, pushing me onto the bonnet of the car on my left!!!

Fortunately one of my neighbours (whose car it is!) sees me and helps me get the bike off me and upright and I look down to see that the foccing side stand has snapped

Now I need to figure out if I can ride the bike up to QA, get off without the side stand (I have short legs, so I'm usually on the balls of my feet at a standstill), get it onto the centre stand, then drop the stuff off, then bump start it *again*, get on and get home before having to wheel it backwards into the shed and get it onto the centre stand again...

I decided that this was *not* a good idea!

So now I need a new side stand and a new left mirror as the stem broke when the bike went over

Fortunately there's only a little dent in the car's bonnet which should push out. He even gave me a lift up to the hospital and back, only for me to be told by some bloody jobsworth receptionist that the Drop Off service closed THREE FOCCING MINUTES AGO and there's nothing she can do, because if she made an exception for me, she'd have to do it for everyone so I'll have to come back tomorrow...   
I can do without this shit...

[coffee]

'kin hell mate,the way your lucks' running I'd shut the door and don't venture out for a while.

[Grahamm]

'kin hell mate,the way your lucks' running I'd shut the door and don't venture out for a while.

Problem is, there's a market in Brighton on Sunday that I really want to do for the extra income

Yes, I could get a train there, but it's a slow journey followed by a bus trip and a total PITA...