what did you do with your fazer today ?

[robbo]

Another foray north of the river. A 208 mile whizz through Essex, taking in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Called in at Finchingfield for a chillax. Not as busy as Sunday obviously, but still plenty of bikes/people about. The teashop was selling bottled beer, maybe that was the attraction .

[Dudeofrude]

Quick blast around the wolds, back home for an oil and filter change then another 60 mile trip through the back roads.
Chain and sprocket booked for thursday and that's all major maintenance finished for the year 😎

[Grahamm]

Spent the afternoon cleaning the rust and loose paint off the rear footpeg hangers, then prepping them and spraying them with etch primer for painting and lacquering.

[Millietant]

Typical, ruins a perfectly good picture of a Fazer 

Here you go then

[Grahamm]

I finished painting the rear foot peg hangers, just got to lacquer them tomorrow.


Then I had fun stripping and refurbishing the rear brake caliper.


I figured that it would be better to do the rear first, since there's only one pot and, if I screwed it up, it would be less critical than buggering up a front one 

First problem was that I needed to remove the piston, but needed "low pressure compressed air" to do it, according to Hayes.


I tried with an airbed foot pump, but couldn't get a good seal, so I looked at it a bit more and realised that the bleed valve is almost the same size as a Presta valve on a bicycle tyre.


I found a 10mm bolt to block the hole that the banjo bolt goes into and tried to push the piston out. I got a good seal, but it wasn't moving, so I got a G Clamp and put some padding on each side, then used that to squeeze the piston back into the caliper a little way.

Then, when I tried the bike pump, I got the piston to slide out nicely

I found the best way to get the seals out of the caliper was with the pointed "clip" section on the end of a biro cap and then it was just a matter of cleaning everything up and reassembling it.

So tomorrow I do the front calipers and then just wait for the vacuum brake bleeding kit I ordered from eBay to turn up so I can refill the system and check that it all works... (fingers crossed!)

[bald_pig]

Fitted new pads on the front, and gave her a wash, back to work on Monday!

[unfazed]

Typical, ruins a perfectly good picture of a Fazer 

Here you go then

Much better

[Dudeofrude]

I finished painting the rear foot peg hangers, just got to lacquer them tomorrow.


Then I had fun stripping and refurbishing the rear brake caliper.


I figured that it would be better to do the rear first, since there's only one pot and, if I screwed it up, it would be less critical than buggering up a front one 

First problem was that I needed to remove the piston, but needed "low pressure compressed air" to do it, according to Hayes.


I tried with an airbed foot pump, but couldn't get a good seal, so I looked at it a bit more and realised that the bleed valve is almost the same size as a Presta valve on a bicycle tyre.


I found a 10mm bolt to block the hole that the banjo bolt goes into and tried to push the piston out. I got a good seal, but it wasn't moving, so I got a G Clamp and put some padding on each side, then used that to squeeze the piston back into the caliper a little way.

Then, when I tried the bike pump, I got the piston to slide out nicely

I found the best way to get the seals out of the caliper was with the pointed "clip" section on the end of a biro cap and then it was just a matter of cleaning everything up and reassembling it.

So tomorrow I do the front calipers and then just wait for the vacuum brake bleeding kit I ordered from eBay to turn up so I can refill the system and check that it all works... (fingers crossed!)

Although your foot pump method worked for the rear, you may find it a tad more difficult with the front as once you get 1 piston out you the  cant removed the rest so it makes it a tad slow and tedious doing 1 at a time 🤕  I'd highly recommend buying some 'piston pliers'
Paid around £12 for mine about 8 years ago and they have been invaluable for brake servicing 👍
Having rebuilt my front brake last week I can tell you it takes all of 30 seconds to get all 4 pistons out of a caliper without any damage etc.
Great bit of kit

[robbo]

Lovely morning to be out on the bike early. Met up with the usual breakfast run members, for another 200+ miler, taking in most of Sussex and Kents best biking roads, including the Chilham Bends, which are always guaranteed to put a smile on your face .

[dazza]

Fixed my leaking fork seals with a DIY tool I cut out from a lemonade bottle.
After a few pumps and a little ride out to see if it has fixed the problem...Success.
No more leaking seals and saved me a strip down to replace them.

[dazza]

Lovely morning to be out on the bike early. Met up with the usual breakfast run members, for another 200+ miler, taking in most of Sussex and Kents best biking roads, including the Chilham Bends, which are always guaranteed to put a smile on your face .

Nice one Robbo. Going to be hitting those bends later. Roads have been pretty clear around that area lately.
Round my way every bend you come to has a jogger, walker or cyclist....Or a car on the wrong side of the road trying to avoid them 

[robbo]

Hi Dazza,
Nice to see the yellow peril is out and about and doing the business . Yeah, the walkers,joggers and cyclists are like mobile chicanes almost wherever you go. But not the Chilham bends fortunately .Take care and say Hi to your brother for me.

[Grahamm]

Although your foot pump method worked for the rear, you may find it a tad more difficult with the front as once you get 1 piston out you the  cant removed the rest so it makes it a tad slow and tedious doing 1 at a time 🤕  I'd highly recommend buying some 'piston pliers'

Interesting, thanks for the tip.

What I'm going to try to do is get them both almost all the way out by blocking one, letting the other move a bit further, then swapping etc.

If I can do that, I think I should be able to then get one out, re-insert it slightly and block it so the other will "pop".

I'll find out later tonight (or maybe tomorrow, depending on how I feel! )

[Grahamm]

Meanwhile, the bike is (finally!) starting to come back together again, although I had almost as much hassle getting the ABS cover plate back into place as I did getting it out

Still, footpeg hangers are now painted, the braided brake pipes are installed, the swing arm is re-attached, the new rear shock is now in place  :

I was thinking about putting the rear wheel back on as well, but I'd been at it for around six hours and decided it was time to take a break, so I'll do the rest of it later.

But there are fewer bits off the bike than there were and they all seem to be back in the right places, so that's a positive

[tex]

Nice ride out around Herts and Essex, Finchingfield was packed with bikes, lot of police around, two on the a507 withspeed guns

[Dudeofrude]

Had a nice Jaunt up to Scarborough and back. 180miles round trip. Certainly started to highlight just how uncomfortable my seat is 🤕

While I was there I parked next to another Gen2 Fazer. Dark grey, silver engine with flo yellow wheels and stickers, the couple riding it both had high vis helmets on.
Could maybe be someone here??

[agricola]

Up into the Derbyshire Dales. Not too hot, steady away, bikes running lovely, fair few bikers out, but generally light traffic

[agricola]

Parked up to admire the view

[Billy Balthorpe]

Sold it.
















Then bought my old tatty one back and put the cash difference in the bank.

[Dudeofrude]

Finally got round to get the new new chain and sprockets on... nice and golden now 😎
Gotta say as soon as I set off I noticed how much smoother the gear changes are now. Put a 'silent' front sprocket on too which has made quite a difference, although now I have an annoying buzzing noise coming from somewhere! Might be new or could have been there all along but being masked by the old transmission noise 🤔 either way I will need to investigate as it drove me nuts on the test ride 😅

[Dudeofrude]

Finally got round to get the new new chain and sprockets on... nice and golden now 😎
Gotta say as soon as I set off I noticed how much smoother the gear changes are now. Put a 'silent' front sprocket on too which has made quite a difference, although now I have an annoying buzzing noise coming from somewhere! Might be new or could have been there all along but being masked by the old transmission noise 🤔 either way I will need to investigate as it drove me nuts on the test ride 😅

[Gnasher]

Lovely looking chicken strips there 

[Dudeofrude]

Lovely looking chicken strips there 

Good....means I'm not riding like a dick then 😜😜

[Grahamm]

I spent an entertaining evening learning how to strip down, clean and rebuild the front brake calipers from my FZ6 and then getting a not very nice surprise...


The first problem was that, on one caliper, the smaller of the pistons would come about half way out, then, no matter what I did to block the larger one, the small one simply wouldn't shift any more.


Eventually I used a G Clamp to push it back in, kept the other one completely blocked, put something in the way of the smaller one, but so it would stop further out than it had gone before, then gave it as much pressure as I could from the bike pump I was using and, thankfully, it popped far enough out to get past whatever was making it stick.

I then "walked" them out by putting thinner blocks in front of them until they'd both got past the inner seals and I could just wiggle them out with finger pressure.


So I got everything cleaned up, new seals in place etc and started to reassemble it, but I couldn't get the pads to go back into place.


I know they were stiff when they came out, but I figured that was because they hadn't been cleaned for ages (or at all!) and they were on the sides that originally came from, because I was very careful about that, but I couldn't get them to fit back in place as they kept getting stuck.


Finally I looked up the code on the back of them and found the pads on a Russian website. It also had the details of the dimensions and some pictures of the bikes they were for.


I looked at the pictures. FJR, R6, R1, a 125... FZ6 Fazer? Nope, no FZ6 Fazer...!


So I tried looking up the dimensions for the FZ6's front brake pads...


The sizes of the ones I have are 94.0 x 41.0 x 10.0mm


The FZ6 pads are 93.8 x 40.3 x 9.8mm


So whatever Foccer put the pads on the front brakes, put the wrong damn ones on!!!

 

Ok, they are literally just about 0.2mm too big and they still work because I've been using them for years, but they wouldn't go back easily.


I then spent ages carefully grinding down the ends with a Dremel, shaving a fraction of a mil off, checking the fit, taking another tiny bit off, re-checking, rinse and repeat until they fit properly into the caliper bracket.


Unfortunately I think the place that put the wrong ones on isn't in business any more (they've been on there for a while), so there's no chance of going back and giving them a bollocking

[Gnasher]

Good....means I'm not riding like a dick then 😜😜

Oh dear, you don't have to ride like a dick not to have chicken strips, seems you're somewhat touchy about that     your get there in time, perhaps.