My FZS600, modding in Oz.

[Nebuchernezzer]

So I've done the blurb before in the introduction but I bought a '99 FZS600 about 5ish months ago to use as a daily commuter.  I'd ridden one before since me and a mate have a written off one we use as a track bike, they aren't that common here in Australia, but it was the right price.  $2900 AUD on road with 6 months rego.  So about 1500 GBP I think.
Had a few minor things go wrong with it, had a bad batch of fuel through it which made it run awfully and highlighted a few other problems with the carbs.  Carbs still need to come out for a clean, set floats etc etc.
It has around 78,000 km or so on it so just under 50k miles?
Stripped the rear axle thread (didn't have much pressure on when i did it so i suspect it was already mostly stripped before i got to it!) the other day so just replaced the rear axle and nut last night.  While it was just sitting in the shed before xmas I mocked up a few things on it, which moves us on to mods.


There were two ways I'd like to go with this bike, one is just to make it a sort of slightly tougher looking street bike with a slightly more aggressive stance, the other is to make it a faired cafe racer bike.  The cafe option i've thought about alot and planned out and yeah....it's my preferred option, but i can always do that later as a re-incarnation of the bike.


So on a whim i bought a street/speed triple headlight on ebay cheap and off i go from there.


Existing mods:
Yoshimura TRS slip on
K&N air filter
Aftermarket bars


Planned mods:
Shorty the TRS
Ditch the fairing (i only go through one speed zone over 80 on the way to work, the rest is 60, and i don't find the fazer fairing does a whole heap of protecting anyways).  Put on triumph headlight
Aftermarket levers because they're pretty, no other reason.
Bar end mirrors, cos i'm ditching the fairing.
Repaint tail section to make it look slimmer (don't want to actually change the tail cos it's quite practical for storing things and my girlfriend goes on the back of the bike too and it's good the way it is).
Radiator covers, to cover up what the fairing leaves exposed once it's off...also a place to mount my indicators once the fairing is gone.
LED slim indicators.
Tail tidy (got a spare stock undertail to chop up)
Short and vertical bar risers, got some from a Yamaha TTR that will fit with the fairing ditched.
Pod filters on the carbs, just cos really haha.  Will be fun to muck about with.
Replace 9mm sprocket nut when the chain is up for renewal, and just general wear and tear stuff too.  I've got a set of needles and seats for the carbs, NGK plug ends, that kind of stuff just sitting around for whenever i get around to putting them on.


So i took the fairing off the other day and mocked up the triumph headlight using some tape.  I've decided to mount the light around 30mm further back and 30mm further down than it's shown in the pictures here.  The dash mounts will come down 30mm.  I'll make a cover piece that's V shaped to cover the exposed rear of the dash and to fill in the space between the triumph headlights.
The triumph headlights will mount via fatbar riser that i bought.  I have a spare FZS headlight bracket to cut up and weld and etc to make this all work with minimum effort.






I also mocked up the tail section with black duct tape to see how i could make it look, slight variations below.
\





Not sure about the side covers, did some quite microsoft paint mock ups just to get a feel but i've not hit on anything just yet.




Anyways that'll do for now, but you get the idea of where I'm heading with this.  Nice solid streetbike that looks a bit different from most.  Sadly most people will probably just think it's another street triple with that headlight on it but i can always change that later.

[odbguy]

Looks good unfaired .. although I personally think those headlights are the ugliest Triumph have produced ... .. sorry :/
I'm currently considering what mods to do to my bike ...  so many different ideas and mods out there I change my mind each week ! Lol
Look forward to future pics and progress

[Nebuchernezzer]

Yeah i think it's one of those polarising designs that's for sure!
My actual preferred front end would be a number board with a projector through the corner of it, but i can worry about making one of those later on, possibly using the same bar clamp style headlight mount as this setup uses....interchangable lighting setups!

[Nebuchernezzer]

Stuck some pretty levers (china eBay) on, ordered a few other bits and pieces.
Got my debrix cartridge emulators and 2013 R6 rear shock sitting in the shed.
Awaiting a rear spring, some bar end mirrors, braided brake lines...etc .

[Nebuchernezzer]

So lots of stuff has arrived in the mail.
2007 Triumph Bonneville standard fork springs.
From memory the dimensions of them are:
35mm OD
4.7mm wire size
328mm free length
18.5 free coils


Straight rate too, got them for 1c on ebay .


Now i've calculated out the spring rate roughly and i get 0.95kg/mm.  Racetech says they are 0.75kg/mm.  I'll reconcile that somehow, work out the real rate and then shorten them to increase the rate if needed.  Instead of heating and grinding the cut end of the spring I'm thinking of cutting the spacer so it fits snugly on the cut shape of the spring (like how alot of car spring seats are).


Whatever the spring rate is i should get around a 0.06kg/mm spring rate increase roughly per coil i remove.  Each coil is 20mm long so i can afford to take a few out if need be.  If the rate i'm starting with is indeed 0.75kg/mm then one coil out should give me around 0.81kg/mm, two coils out about 0.87kg/mm.  Right in the ballpark of what i want (around 0.9kg/mm, i'm not very heavy)





Ordered a hugger and a belly pan, both from Poland of all places (but the cheapest place i can get them from even incl post)


My girlfriend likes the fairing on my bike more than the mocked up street triple headlight so I've decided to go with the fairing and clip ons.  I'll space the fairing out forward and down a little and use Danmoto adjustable clip ons.  I can set them at a middle ground height (don't want them heaps low) and make it all work together.  I know clip ons will clear the tank cos our track bike has them, i can cut the sides of the fairing down a little if i want to anyways and just respray them.  The fairing could do with a respray anyways (it's got a few cracks and scrapes on it).  Maybe a double bubble if the fairing ands up quite low so it still does something airflow wise.





I put some barend mirrors on too, they work wel,l do like, when the fairing is moved perhaps the fairing mirrors will work well but for now bar end mirrors are better than looking at my own shoulders on the bike .



Measured up the axle holes to make up my own axle sliders, got a fair bit of room, around 11mm hole through the front axle, more like 16mm rear, so M10 threaded rod will fit nicely.


I've done up a quick drawing off my shock mod parts as well, 124mm dog bones to jack the back end up a bit, spring collar to make up the 10mm or so shorter spring that i'm fitting to the R6 shock and collars to adapt the M12 R6 top shock mount to the M8 holes on the FZS600 frame.  Got some of the dimensions off here, some off my mate who fitted the R6 shock to our track FZS600 and some i measured up and decided on myself.  Use my dimensions at your own risk haha, i've not actually made the parts or fitted them myself yet!





And finally i'd love one of these....too expensive though .  Alot too expensive!

[rhinoeli]

With the 124 mm dogbones the rear tire may touch the ground on centre stand I think.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Hope not! I think 127mm is the dogbones length most people use with the r6 shock and not sure how much higher the 124mm bones will make it but hey. But if it does make the wheel touch down there are always a few options. Longer dogbones obviously or just take the centre stand off. It is handy for working on the bike but can always just use stands too. We took the centre stand off the track bike long before it had r6 shock and dogbones, wanted to jack it up high for ground clearance reasons and although on the street there aren't any problems with grounding out the bike at all I like the idea of having the bike track ready and having the same handling as the track bike and stuff.... Logical? Mm perhaps not haha. But we'll see how it goes.
Have you had that issue yourself?

[rhinoeli]

Have you had that issue yourself?

No, I went with 127 mm ones. It is 3 mm difference which escalates going towards the rear axle. Anyhow please keep us updated, I am curious.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Will do .
It'll be interesting to see how much of a difference that 3mm makes.  It's hard to gauge through all the linkage and whatnot.
Looking at the centre stand just then it wouldn't be hard to make it slightly longer as well.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Put together my spare set of fzs600 forks today.
Drilled out the damper rods (4x10mm holes).
Used some triumph Bonneville straight rate springs I got for 99c off ebay.
Calculated the rate of the springs as 0.83kg/mm, which would be perfect for me (70kg) I reckon.... Lucky since I bought the springs just cos.
I've seen the spring rate on the 07 Bonneville stated as 0.77kg/mm, but they are also stated to come with various different forms...so who knows. We'll see how they ride.
Fitted some ebay preload caps.
Cut down the fork tube spacers to take into account the preload caps and the debrix adjusters.
Made a new washer to go between the spring and spacer,  since when I took the forks apart it turned out one was missing...

Next up will be painting the fork lowers gold and fitting them to the bike along with the danmoto clip ons.

[Nebuchernezzer]

And some more maintenance type things today, got a new chain, sprockets, nut and washer, old one was pretty flogged. So started on that (until it turned out my 32mm spanner doesn't have clearance to get the sprocket nut off.... Oh well ill get a socket tomorrow, my tools skip from 22 to 36..annoyingly..).but while I was at it I test fitted my hugger I got from Poland.  Fits very nicely,  so quite pleased with that at least! Dodgy blurry pics of a filthy bike coming soon... Woo...

[Nebuchernezzer]

New stuff arrived in the mail .
Fits quite well. FRP is thick and solid.  All from Poland cos it seems to be the cheapest place to get bodywork for this bike (posted to Oz anyways!)
Yup i scribbled over the piece of white styrofoam the belly pan was resting on in the last photo in paint to see what it'd look like on the bike a bit better.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Finished my spare set of forks today. Got to find time to swap them over soon. Fitted a double bubble too.
Forks have debrix emulators, eBay preload adjusters, triumph Bonneville straight rate springs, 15wt oil at 135mm air gap. We'll see how they go soon. Just painted them today, they came up well i think.

[Val]

Looks good unfaired .. although I personally think those headlights are the ugliest Triumph have produced ... .. sorry :/

^^^ This.

IMO Triumph headlights are fugly.

Somebody has posted cafe racer yellow Fazer. Sorry can't find the post. It was with FZ6 light and ha has covered the side fairings gaps with black custom covers slightly curved with Yamaha logos.

The bike was stunning

[Nebuchernezzer]

I know the picture you're talking about, it does look quite good. Alot of why it looks good (IMHO) is that he's cut the key barrel off and moved it and that's allowed him to put the dash right up against the triples and the light right up against that.  Makes the front end look pretty good when it's all compact and doesn't have acres of space between the light and the dash and the dash and the triples.


I still like the triumph light though haha :P.


But i'm actually staying faired now though.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Finally installed my spare set of forks that I modded.
Debrix emulators, triumph Bonneville straight rate springs, eBay preload adjusters.  15wt oil at 135mm oil height. Spring rate I calculated at somewhere around 0.85kg/mm. I'm only 70kg so it seems right. Feels amazing compared to standard. Most noticeable when cornering fast and braking into corners I reckon. The zip tie around the fork leg tells me I'm using 3/4 of the fork travel with some spirited but not all out riding so seems about right too. I've finally put my drawings into the machine shop at work to have the rear shock swap bits and up for r6 rear swap.
Also primed my belly pan and hugger today and bought some paint to respray the whole bike sans the tank which will do as is.

[Nebuchernezzer]

Put my r6 rear shock in with my short dog bones.
Bike still gets the back wheel off the ground when it's on the centre stand, so that's good (and some said it might be a concern)  All bolted in pretty easily. Longest part was searching the shed for my grease to regrease the bearings while I had it apart...but 45 minutes later gave up, next time...
Had to bend a little piece of bracketry on the frame to clear the shock, but only a few mm.

No test ride yet.
Settings to start with are:
650lb/in 6" spring (from memory)
10mm spring spacer
124mm dog bones
Top hat spacers to take the frame top hole down to 10mm
Preload ramp at least preload
High speed damper 3 turns from hard
Low speed damper 16 clicks from hard
Rebound damper 14 clicks from hard

Settings from kebab, I don't actually know what I'm doing yet haha!
The swap is pretty much the usual one everyone on here has done for anyone wondering. Nothing special apart from my choosing shorter dog bones.
Not ridden it yet, tomorrow!

Pics later.

[Nebuchernezzer]

[Nebuchernezzer]

Fitted my Poland belly pan. Was a bit of stuffing about to get it to fit without the stand hitting it but got it pretty good on the end.

[joebloggs]

Looking good

Not sure about the Gold forks though

[stinch182]

Looks very clean.  good work

[kebab19]

Very nice   

More importantly, how does she ride?
Just realised from reading the thread your suspension front & back is virtually identical to mine.

[Frosties]

Looking very nice fella. For me, the gold forks work well 

[joebloggs]

Looking very nice fella. For me, the gold forks work well 

As you ride a CBF1000 you obviously have know idea re style 

[Nebuchernezzer]

I'm quite pleased with my gold forks, but it does seem to be a love it or hate it colour scheme.  Overall i think when i paint my spare swingarm black and put that on (and respray all the faded red plastics) it'll look great! .  I was worried i'd have too much red with the red hugger but i'm happy i went with red now.


Kebab, i'm very pleased with my fork setup, i need to twiddle with the R6 shock, i've not set the sag yet though so really i've just set the clickers, whacked it in and off i went.
It's better than the standard shock naturally, but it's got a little bit too much rebound i think.
Hard to tell since i've not done much suspension setup but i'll set my sag, twiddle around and hopefully learn something along the way!
Anyway basically it's the same suspension setup as yours cos i copied it from you haha :P.


Painting my TRX front wheel this weekend so i can get some new tyres (the pilot road 2 on the back is stuffed now), going to try pilot road 4s all round.


It's not nearly as clean as the photos make it look, but hopefully one day it will be!