Date: 28-03-24  Time: 10:06 am

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Messages - AyJay

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26
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Vfr800 pre vetch v Fazer 1000
« on: 01 March 2017, 09:38:57 am »
Yes, PieEater, I take your point. I'm just kind of baffled how some can get so few miles out of the same tyre as me. I find it very interesting.


Most of my commuting is on the motorways where you're rolling on and off the throttle and not accelerating hard, but as an ex-despatch rider, I'm one of the fastest through traffic so it's not like I'm a dayglo Derek afraid of the throttle. I love nothing more than searching for the limit of grip coming out of corners but I rarely thrash in a straight line, so maybe I wear the shoulders of the tyre rather than the centre.


I also once got 9500 miles out of a set of Avon Storms on my ZZR1400, a big heavy bike with a big heavy bloke on it.


I also wear out the front at around the same time as the rear. Mind, I do take them down the last millimetre as well, so I guess all of these thing add up.

27
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Vfr800 pre vetch v Fazer 1000
« on: 28 February 2017, 08:46:23 pm »
Both brilliant bikes, though I too favour the fazer. Downside if it's a do all and you commute ( as I realised this afternoon checking my not long fitted tyres) is the big feller gets through rears pretty quick....


That's interesting... what kind of commuting, Ogri? I do 120 miles a day (70 motorway, 50 town and country) and get 8000ish out of the rear BT 023.

28
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Vfr800 pre vetch v Fazer 1000
« on: 28 February 2017, 08:41:41 pm »
I've had two VFRs and they are excellent machines, and a lot of character for a Honda. However, check out the servicing costs.... VFRs are more expensive if you're doing a lot of miles as the valves need checking more often. The single sided swingarm is a major twat if the adjuster seizes too.


Obviously, the Fazer is somewhat more powerful but the handling is not quite as good, the riding position is more upright but the VFR has a full fairing and the Fazer is better built even though it doesn't seem like it. It feels cheap compared to the VFR, but apart from the EXUP they go on for miles with oil and filter changes only. I just checked the valves on mine after 100,000 miles and they're all in spec. That's 100,000 miles without a single valve going out of spec. Discs go for that distance, as do the swingarm bushes if lubed. And the Fazer is a doddle to work on compared to a VFR.


If Honda had bumped the VFR up to 1000cc I'd have bought one in a blink of an eye, but it just got left behind as a weird middleweight whilst all us old fogeys got on with litre bikes. I test rode the Kawasaki 1000sx and Multistrada 1200 a couple of years ago... neither would make me get rid of the Fazer.


I dunno, it's a tough one, but as alway, ride both and one will stand out. I do love V4s though. I followed a red pre-VTEC 800 out of London this evening, loud pipe blaring away, and I was jealous...

29
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: exup cables
« on: 12 February 2017, 04:33:19 pm »
Hi,


I got Slinky cables from Wemoto, they look good. A few others have said they are good.


I got 50,000 miles out of a pair of Slinkyglides. They work and they're, what?, less than half the price of standard cables. OE cables do come up on eBay from time to time though. If time's tight get the Slinkyglides, otherwise wait for a pair to come up.

30
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Not starting crazy symptoms
« on: 11 January 2017, 07:53:48 pm »
Way back when, I had several instances where the bike just stopped dead and wouldn't start again. Turned out to the Throttle Position Sensor was way out of alignment. Well, so the dealer told me. Certainly, once adjusted it never happened again.


On an old CBX550 (cor, remember those?) a similar problem was tracked to the coils breaking down at high temperatures, but modern bikes have way better build quality these days and the Fazer has two coils but something else may be breaking the connection as it heats up as has been suggested above. There are a number of white connectors all over the bike and they might be corroded. Start with the big white one under the tank on the near side. It's known to a be a problem... I was stranded for hours.

31
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Advice on buying this Fazer?
« on: 09 January 2017, 11:26:37 am »
I picked up a 2002 FZS1000 for £1500 last year. 32k miles. It was a dealer who'd taken it as trade in didn't want the hassle of bringing it up to resale condition because the silver engine paint was getting a bit flakey and the EXUP was rattly.  Apart from that it had mint bodywork and was in otherwise great condition. Discs, suspension, forks, chain, all the expensive stuff was A1. Even the tyres had a few thousand left in them.


If you're prepared to put some work into a bike like that, you can achieve your dreams. My older Fazer's now done an interstellar mileage, so that's not an issue.


One thing though, some 2001 bikes do have a manufacturing fault on the 2nd gear dog which on the part catalogues shows as an having an updated part. Just like early R1s in fact. It is essential to get a test ride and see if it pops out of 2nd gear. The safest thing to do is though is go for a 2002 onwards machine.


If you've got the time, ring as many dealers as you can and see if they have a trade in that they don't want to put in the showroom. You might get lucky like I did.


Good luck.

32
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: R1 engine swap
« on: 25 November 2016, 07:59:41 pm »
Testify!


(as the born again types in the US often say at congregation)

33
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: R1 engine swap
« on: 24 November 2016, 11:36:45 pm »
A pasteurised Gen 1. That's exactly what the Gen 2 is. It's a Gen 1 with all the fat boiled out of it. That's the metaphor I was after. Well found, Tommy!


(Apologies to all Gen 2 owners)

34
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: R1 engine swap
« on: 24 November 2016, 11:11:33 pm »

Not the same because the character of the Gen 2 engine is that of the 2006 R1 (might be a bit earlier), not the brilliant carb'ed original.  The 98/99 R1 has more grunt everywhere than the Gen 1 Fazer despite Yamaha saying the latter was 'retuned for more torque'. 

I realise that, Mike. Toothy grin. I was just mixing it up a bit for the fun of it! I rode both the 2004 R1 and Gen 2 Fazer (matching architectures, in the same way the 99 R1 and 2001 Fazer architectures match) when they came out and the power deliveries of both are very different in character to the preceding models. I'm trying to think of a metaphor to describe it, but all I can come up with is the later models feel like a 600 with 40% more top end but only 10% more torque. Wildly inaccurate in the face of the actual power and torque figures, I know, but they don't feel like litre bikes, somehow.

They don't have the same gravitas and solidity as the older engines, the delivery feels thin and reedy rather than solid and robust. Something went missing when they started chasing revs to increase the power, probably the midrange. Midrange doesn't matter if you can pile on the revs really fast, you just gear the bike down a bit, which is also a 600 trait.

Have you ridden an MT-07 yet? That engine feels just like a Gen 1 Fazer's younger brother. Lovely power delivery.

A 4XV R1 motor in a Gen 2 frame ... now that's an idea! ;)
Mission impossible. Can't be done.
Arf!

35
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: R1 engine swap
« on: 24 November 2016, 08:30:29 pm »
The problem with the written word is that it's very difficult to get a sense of the tone of voice from the words on the page, and one person's reading is often different to another's.


Anyway, I have a Fazer 1000 engine sitting in bits in the garage. I was going to rebuild it after the second gear went west, but even a pattern gasket set was 300 quid plus when I was thinking about doing it a few years ago , so financially it's not worth rebuilding if you can get a complete unit from a breakers for 4-500.


It's the same thing with the R1 in a Fazer chassis - it's not beyond engineering knowhow, but if standard R1 has 150bhp and the Fazer has 143, there's a law of diminishing returns. It really isn't worth it, bar inquisitiveness.


It'd be really interesting to ride an R1 engined Fazer though, wouldn't it?


Or did Yamaha more or less do that and then called it the Gen 2? Which didn't sell as well and hasn't the same reputation as the Gen 1 for rideablity...


Jus' sayin'.


Oh look, there's some pigeons and a cat...

36
I agree Ricky, it's that ability to pull from 18 to 160mph that makes Fazer's so usable. I spend a lot of time lane splitting on motorways and it means I have the time to focus all my attention on the traffic, not the gearbox. The technical aspect of riding the machine gets out of way and you just ride. Want to go fast, get it past 7000rpm, want to potter through a town, just do it, want to over take in a 60 limit when you're tired, just open the throttle. It's simple and accessible.


The DCT VFR could have been like this but even with its auto mode, it just wasn't as controllable. It seemed to have it's own ideas of how it should be ridden. Fazer's don't. They do the rider's bidding.

37
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Scottoiler positioning on swing arm gen 1
« on: 10 November 2016, 08:37:09 pm »
I asked the dealer to fit mine decades ago and they drilled a hole in the underside of the swingarm and tapped a 6mm thread into it. The Scottoiler is mounted behind the number plate and tubing is run down the frame rail to near the swingarm pivot, then through the chain guard and runs along and under the swingarm so it's out of sight. A perfect and simple solution, I think, it never gets in the way and being screwed in is properly secure. It's been on there for 150,000 miles and it's still working perfectly. I'll be doing the same on my new Gen 1.

38
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Fork springs
« on: 04 October 2016, 12:36:54 am »
Yes. But I barely notice the difference between my two Fazers, one with and one without Ohlins forks springs. With the Ohlins springs, I'd say it's slightly better, but it's the compression damping that's the big problem. There's not much control compared to an R1 of the same age. It feels crashy and harsh but the forks still dive like a submarine. An Ohlins rear shock makes a much bigger difference, and it does change the way you ride. Bury the front end on the brakes on the way in, turn it hard and get the weight off the front end and drive out. It's unstickable with an Ohlins rear shock. It's a very different style of riding to my other bike, a ZZR1400, on which you scythe round corners smoothly. Fazers are much more like point and shoot machines.


Fazer forks are a problem and not cheap to improve, unfortunately.

39
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: carb drain question
« on: 30 September 2016, 09:20:33 pm »
If you want to be pernickety, most petrol sold in UK stations these days has a percentage of ethanol in it. 5% and it's going up to 10%. Ethanol will separate out over time and it is definitely hydroscopic so a rusty tank is definitely a concern.


Practical Classics did an article about it a year ago and they left a gallon in a plastic container and it separated out and they then syphoned off the petrol from the top leaving the ethanol. Having said all that, I've laid my ZZR up for 4 months a couple of times and it's been fine. That bike is fuel injected and the tank is pretty much airtight which I suspect helps, but the Fazer certainly isn't.


You can get fuel stabilisers if you're going to lay it up for a long time but I wouldn't worry unless you're going for more than 6 months.

40
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiators...
« on: 29 September 2016, 08:18:51 pm »
Yeah, I saw your pics on another post, kebab, and I've had a look for anything leaking onto the collector, but I saw nothing. The water was coming out of the silencer/muffler, so I thought water must be getting into the combustion chamber to be burnt suggesting head gasket, but as the bike shop said, if that was the case it wouldn't tick over nice and smoothly, which is does. It was sat there humming away smoothly at 1200 rpm, not a cough or a splutter.


I'll report back when I've had it fixed. I just hope it isn't 700 quid... I could get a 2nd hand engine for less!

41
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiators...
« on: 28 September 2016, 08:23:59 pm »
I hope the pump gets fixed too. It's bloody strange. Like you I had a couple of snapped exhaust studs, so I whipped the engine out and took it down to the dealers. It was also a cheapish second hand buy and was working fine. I repainted the engine, fixed the EXUP, found a cheapish Ohlins and rebuilt the rear suspension, blanked off the AIS, Ivanised the carbs, greased everything, slapped the engine back in and on first start there were clouds of steam and water leaking from the drain hole at the bottom of the silencer. I mean puddling on the floor leaking.


Very weird. I'm not sure what's gone wrong, but after several weekends work I just couldn't face taking the sump and clutch off, so I'm getting the dealer to collect it and sort it out. The dealer said that water pumps seals are known to fail if a bike has been stood too long and this one has only done 30k miles in 14 years so who knows. Damned annoying though. Just as well it was cheap to buy and I hope I haven't connected a hose to the wrong part of the engine. Which is unlikely, as this is the third or fourth time I've taken engines out of Fazer 1000s. I dunno...

42
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiators...
« on: 27 September 2016, 08:15:32 pm »
Smart. They're ok for what they are, aren't they?


Did you give a couple of extra coats of paint whilst its off the bike? Well worth it if you're going to be riding in winter.


Turns out mine has just done what your's did - dumped its coolant into the sump. It's off to the happy bike dealer next week.... I couldn't face ripping the water pump out of the sump...

43
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiators...
« on: 20 September 2016, 09:11:16 pm »
Yeah, by thinner I mean the aluminium seems thinner everywhere. Flick the core with a fingernail and it rings rather than thuds, the tangs to which you fit the fan are visibly thinner and the fins aren't as dense. As I said, mine's been on for ages and no problems, but it feels an 80 quid part, not a 400 odd Yamaha part.


But hey, it works well, no overheating, hasn't fallen apart. I'm happy!


As for the fastenings, it's the little clamps for the fan mounting I was talking about. They'll be a twat to get off if they were anything like mine, but they're standard fixings so loads on eBay and the like.


And no probs about the searches! This site is amazingly full of interesting facts and fixes and you'll be missing out if you don't search for stuff.

44
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiators...
« on: 19 September 2016, 08:16:11 pm »
Try the search function.. I've posted at least twice about this very radiator.


http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php/topic,20717.msg238700.html#msg238700


It's very much thinner than the OE version, but I've had one on my bike for 14,000 miles no problems. I gave it several coats of paint extra before fitting it and it's in tip top condition still, so I think it'll last several years yet.


You will need the fixings from the old radiator though (or buy new), so good luck getting them off...you'll need it. And a lot of heat from a blowtorch!

45
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiator Fan woes
« on: 25 August 2016, 08:30:06 pm »
Nice one. I might have a go with the old radiator. It's still in the garage somewhere!

46
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiator Fan woes
« on: 22 August 2016, 09:32:59 pm »
I repaired a snapped off lug on my Gen 1 radiator with Technoweld but like you I found the pencil blowtorches just don't get it hot enough to get the weld started. The whole radiator is a massive heat sink so it soaks a lot of heat up. Use a proper blow torch and go easy. It works like a charm when you get it right and you can reheat it and move it if it's not in the right position.


If the weld doesn't hold, it will be because of corrosion. Mine eventually became so rotten it just wasn't worth the effort - you can't weld corrosion! So I bought a cheap radiator on eBay


Radiator Cooling Aluminum Replacement for YAMAHA FZS1000 1998-2003 99 00 01 2002


Definitely not as well made as the Yamaha OE (it's 80 quid, not 400) but it's been on the bike for 20k miles now, so it works. Luckily, there are many more fans than radiators on eBay, so it's usually not a problem. And R1 fans are the same, you just need to keep the original mount/surround and bolt it on, but again, when the bolts are so corroded, it's very easy to snap the surround.

47
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: MT10 Vs FULL MONTY'd Gen 1
« on: 15 August 2016, 09:13:39 pm »
Not bad for a bike that was discontinued in 2005, eh? :D


Yer darn tootin'. And probably designed in 1999, which is even more amazing.

48
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: MT10 Vs FULL MONTY'd Gen 1
« on: 15 August 2016, 08:15:05 pm »
Interesting. It's got a very short wheelbase, same as an MT-07. Mind, the Gen 1 will whip the wheel up in second just on a roll on too.


As for the MT-10/R1, well... I had an amusing moment last week. I was pootling into work, and a hundred yards after leaving some traffic lights I heard this MotoGP sound and this blue R1 came past me on the back wheel and he kept it perfectly balanced and rock steady, front wheel 5 foot off the deck, for the next 300 yards. Absolutely perfect control. He was wearing combats, trainers and is almost certainly going to experience gravel rash or the biggest bollocking from the police of his life one day! He wasn't that great through traffic...


But R1s can wheelie too!


And god it sounded awesome on an open pipe.

49
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: Radiator Fan woes
« on: 14 August 2016, 01:09:38 am »
The fan surround/mount is very flimsy and easily bent so it might be its just been nudged into contact with the radiator. Just bend it away from the radiator and you should be fine.


Mine had one lug snap off and that started it rubbing. A few hundred speed bumps on the commute to work and it was eating into the core.

50
Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner / Re: MT10 Vs FULL MONTY'd Gen 1
« on: 14 August 2016, 01:05:26 am »
Oh, you utter tease. I'm dying to know.


I'll go with the MT-10 for the drag race because I suspect it's lower geared and will rev out quicker, but I bet the FZS has a higher top speed as the MT-10 is limited to 152 ish, judging by the magazine tests. I bet the MT-10 would cream the FZS on track though.


Are you doing roll-ons as well?

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