It's located right in the middle of the back of the block, behind the swingarm. Impossible to see . . . unless you're underneath the bike.

It's funny, but the more you look at the mirrors on a Fazer the more that's all you can see. They seem to have a hypnotic effect and pull you in. They do make it look weird.


I decided to just stop looking at them . . . all I can see now is the colossal amount of corrosion after all the salt this winter .. . ..

Hi Tilts. Most motorcycles don't need fully synthetic oils and 10/50 is more like the kind of oil you use in cars. Yamaha recommend 10/40 semi. I'd stick with that because fully synthetic can lead to massive oil consumption later on.

This has got to be one of the few countries where it can be 13 degrees in January and 13 degrees in June. It's been a cracking week for riding. I was hurling the ol' Fazer around like it was an August bank holiday yesterday. Great fun.


I see the weather for next week is forecast to be dire, though.


That's the only difference between January and June in Britain. It might be 13 on one day in January, but it could be -4 the next. Less likely in June, but not impossible.

Good one!   


I have a few must not buys, too.

Cars have synchromesh . . it's like a cone shaped clutch between the dogs which get the two gears up to the same speed before engaging. Bikes don't have synchromesh largely because they don't need it. Not sure why, I'd hazard a guess at it being because they're sequential, the inertias are very low (except Harleys and old Guzzis) and the ratios are so close.

When going up the box, there's just enough of a slowdown of the input gear to allow time for the unloaded dog to slip into the window of the gear it's about to slide into, but when downshifting, we blip to unload the transmission and match the input and output gears to get that window. Which is why downshifting without a blip often gets a clonk too.

I think . .

Having Google it, I see there's not a lot of pages which explain this precisely, not that I'm 100% sure I've explained it correctly anyway!

If you have all the AIS gubbins on the bike, access is tight but taking the radiator off isn't really necessary. But here's a thought - I only changed my plugs after 50,000 miles and I wouldn't have changed them at all if it wasn't for the salt corrosion at the tops, they were all fine ... healthy gap, virtually no erosion, and no difference in performance or starting after the change at all.

Since I ride in London, I'm always checking the back wheel on the Gen 1 for nails and what have you, and today whilst checking I noticed that I'll be needing a new tyre in a couple of weeks time.


Nothing unusual there, but while I was spinning the wheel, I thought I'd check what profile it is. I know it's a 180 width. And lo and behold, there embossed on the tyre was the legend 160/60!


The dealer must have ordered for a 600 Fazer. [size=78%] [/size][size=78%]Front and rear are Bridgestone 023s.[/size]


So, that's the shock. The embarrassment is that I haven't noticed over 5000 miles that it's the wrong tyre. Except, as it's worn down, I have noticed that the usual flop into a corner you get with a flattened off centre hasn't happened, and it definitely leans over more on the side stand than it does normally. And now I come to think of it, it's felt very agile and chuckable of recent. Hmm. Maybe I have noticed ...


But as far as grip and stability go, er, it's been business as usual. Not that we've had much chance of proper riding this year, what with the weather of course, but there have been one or two days where I've been proper thrashing it. And that v10 M5 was despatched with ease round my favourite corner ..


Anyone else had used a 160/60 on the thou, or noticed any big changes to feel with different widths/profiles etc?

Funny you should mention that. My throttle was getting stiffer until eventually the cable snapped. Looks like it had been fraying for a while. They're cheap, so if I were you, I'd just replace it if it isn't the pivot point on the lever, otherwise you might enjoy a lovely 2 mile ride on tickover at walking pace whilst all the cars you'd overtaken over the previous 5 miles tootle past you! It was raining when it happened to me. Of course......

Sez here in the Yamaha service manual that it was the emergency stop switch warning code. Since it started up again, it's probably reset itself so no panic . . .

I've got a pair of those. They connect to my Datatool Evo .. .

Ta for that Mickey. When I was a teenager, I had the Technical Lego set and had fun building triple and 4 cylinder motorcycles (Give me a break, this was back in the 70s!) and I always built crossplane inline fours because it seemed perfectly logical to space it that way, and I was quite puzzled when I found out that they weren't arranged like that at all.
It seemed clunky having two pistons moving together and just spinning the Lego 'engine' you could feel it was less smooth than a crossplane because the friction of plastic on plastic amplified it. I tried using 3 in 1 oil once to make it run smoother but then the pistons used to fly out of the bores.
Ah, happy days. Don't you just lust after a crossplane Fazer though? Maybe I should buy a Cat C and build one myself because Yamaha aren't doing much at the mo. Hmm.


According to Kevin Ash in MCN, it might just be that Yamaha are in big financial trouble, big enough to question it's survival. Amazing what the exchange rates have done to Japanese industry - Sony has lost billions every year for the last four years and Panasonic have lost money in 3 of the last 4. Sharp is virtually finished, too.