When I go to Wales with my dad we both set our trips at the start of the ride and also the start of each day. Every time, mine reads about 5% or so less than his however mine is always closer to the google maps estimated distance so we thought his was over reading?

First ever puncture today in 6 years of riding, was gutted no idea where I picked up the big screw that caused it from. I try to keep off the middle of the roads where all the crap seems to collect so must have been very unlucky. Only riding my Fazer to work at the moment because my push bike is broken  . Still, my rear tyre was getting quite low anyway and I've got just over 6k out of it so not too bad I suppose. Going for another Metzeler Z8, great tyre best I have ever used and not too bad at £113 delivered. My garage will probably change it for free as well if I give them the loose wheel, did last time  .

Haha that's mad Noggy I was in the exact same place on monday! Another quality Wales trip, I love all these back road scenic areas they are just as fun as riding the quality faster twisty roads.

One of my favourite parts of Wales! I'm going back there on sunday but not quite that far north this time unfortunately as we're bringing along my brother and he has to be back to school on wednesday. Here's a couple of pics of when we went quite recently this year, one of my Fazer on the Lake Vyrnwn dam in it's new naked form which is still a work in progress but looks and feels much better in my opinion.

Lots of helpful info here thank you  . The dealer in question is about 75 miles away so not exactly a short hop for the round trip but I am still very interested in going down and showing some interest, getting them talking about the bike, see if I can sit on it for starters then take it from there. I can understand why test riding bikes is a bit of a trust thing for people, much easier to damage than a car even from just a simple drop.


The bike in question Noggy is a Yamaha XT660x, even now my Fazer is almost perfect for me every time I see a video of someone riding a supermoto or one comes past me I just think I need one. I have to at least ride one to see once and for all if it is everything I believe it will be or not. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my Fazer though and I love it, so the XT will have to be pretty damn good to make me consider swapping. I would expect mine would be worth maybe £1100 px, I'll take off the little extras and what not and sell them seperately for another couple of hundred then see about financing the remaining money if possible, I could pay it all in one but would rather space it. It's a massive IF though like I say. If it isn't for me, then I am going to completely finalise my Fazer and buy suspension upgrades and sort out the very minor cosmetic blemishes it has and hopefully keep it for years more.


On the MT-07, I was caught up in the big publicity thing of how amazing it allegedly is until I thought about it. Why, why is it amazing? It's cheap, reliable and fun. Right, fair enough. For a much cheaper investment you could get a Fazer 600, whack on some quality suspension, lose some teeth on the front sprocket if you are that way inclined and want to feel "torquey" low down like the MT and bingo you have a much better all rounder in my opinion. MT 07 is tiny, looks a bit like a happy meal toy in my opinion, has barely any passenger room and a tiny fuel tank. This all coming from the guy who wants a supermoto!   

Glad it's useful to you! Some others that are more expert with the Fazer will chip in with other info I'm sure. They do have the old R1 blue spot calipers on the front yeah, excellent brakes if you keep them well maintained which is pretty easy. Check out a guy on youtube called "delboys garage" for any brake maintenance vids his stuff is usually excellent although he can ramble a bit and is very "old school".


The FZS 1000 rear caliper is a mod that a fair few people have done on here, it replaces the standard caliper for a blue spot caliper like we have on the front. I did it because my old one kept siezing and I thought aesthetically it looked a lot nicer. There is definitely more power and feel in the FZS 1000 rear caliper now that I have got used to it, but the old one when working correctly was plenty powerful and lets be honest the front brakes are where the real braking is done. I would say that your main priorities would be:


Make sure pitting on your forks isn't too serious, check it isn't in the fork travel area as it could rip up your seals.
Check all bearings are good - So front wheel, rear wheel, swing arm, headstock etc.
May as well do a full service, it is reasonably cheap and easy. So new oil (motorcycle specific 10 40), oil filter, oil drain plug and washer, coolant change as likely not been done for a while (rad flush while you're there and refill expansion tank under seat)
Check the condition of all your spark plugs as this will indicate how your bike is running, consensus on here is the Fazer runs a bit rich from the factory so could be a tad sooty.
Make sure there is no exhaust leak, if there is you can use Gun Gum but it doesn't last forever so may need a new link pipe to downpipe gasket.
I would definitely whack a K&N air filter in if there isn't one already.
Balance carbs and check TPS sensor. Also check rubber inlets from engine to carbs for splits and cracks.
Make sure battery is good.
That would be a good start 

Mine has started rattling quite noticeably when cold too, pretty certain it is the cam chain. It goes away completely though after about 2 miles or so / 5 minutes when the bike gets a bit warmer, but when first started it is pretty loud and quite worrying. I'm sure it never used to be that bad, bike has done 28k. Not sure whether to just leave it and accept its a bit rattly after first starting or get my local garage to have a listen as they are about 300m away and it will still be rattling at that point.

All the bikes mentioned in this thread are bikes I love, the Buell is amazing and I like the innovative design features but they look pretty small and impractical for all round use if I was being really honest. I think the MT-01 would be borderline practical, especially after chaz said his can get 65mpg that is quality. Doubt they can take a pillion well though unless you have a small girlfriend / mate. I would love a test ride on any of these bikes but am not really sure how to go about doing that, or if at my age I would even be allowed? If you test ride it I also feel you need to be at least half interested in buying it which unless on some finance / px thing I wouldn't be really. Also, off on another tangent here and I feel a bit bad saying this being British but am I the only person that isn't really at all interested by anything Triumph has to offer? I think the triple engine is about the only engine other than some old parallel twins that I find a bit "meh". I haven't actually ridden one, so could be completely awoken to their awesomeness after riding one, but the styling and sound of the engine of say a street triple just doesn't interest me. The fact nearly every second weekend hooners bike I see is a triumph now is also putting me off, they're getting a bit common? Or do I just have dodgy taste?

Awesome work, wish I had some spare money I would love to do up / customise a Vamaha 535 Virago or turn some sort of trail bike into a supermoto

Don't normally like coloured wheels but it really suits yours and they look excellent, were they powder coated or did you do it yourself? I want mine redone black as they are getting a bit tatty in certain places, not sure whether to powder coat which will be a lot of fuss, remove discs new wheel bearings etc but a great finish or just do it as best I can with some rattle cans! Oh yeah levers are cool too, wont be getting any myself I dont mind the originals 

I fitted the 2 line kit and have renthal streetfigther bars (the widest renthals) and they work fine if you route them carefully.

After last years awesome tour of Wales with my Dad and brother we decided to return with some variations of last years route. Unfortunately this time my brother couldn't come as I couldn't get time off work in his school summer holiday so it was just myself and my Dad. But this trip was even better! My Dad got the tyre on his SV changed and his wheel balanced, so he was riding so much more confidently which was great. We covered about 850 miles or so in total I think and the roads were absolutely excellent and there wasn't a drop of rain. My personal favourite part of the trip is when we ended up doing a detour down some unclassified roads to a place called lake Vyrnwy which was absolutely stunning, really felt like a proper adventure as the roads were single track through moorland, forest and huge valleys and there was nobody around for miles. The lake itself was awesome too and the weather was fantastic. We also did the Llanberis pass and Snowdonia backwards to how we did it last year and I preferred it in this direction, was much better seeing the scenery and going up the pass with mount Snowdon on your right in my opinion and approaching into snowdonia you could see all of the mountains in the distance as you carved up some epic corners! Biking perfection so close to home, it really makes me want to explore further afield now and go to Europe and possibly further!


My bike felt amazing this trip, it was much more comfortable than last year and all of the work I have done to it has really paid off! Usually when I swap with my Dad and have a go on my SV I think "wow this is great" but this time I just thought I really want my Fazer back! Its trips like this that really make you realise that the Fazer 600 is such a superb little bike, plus with how mine now looks and feels I can finally say that I am finished with it at last! It was totally faultless the entire trip, handled excellent, was comfortable and I got very respectable mpg. I love the way you can just shove it in 6th for miles and miles and let it pull you through the bends with ease, its just glides along. Amazing. Here are some of the best pictures I took. This is also the first pictures of my newly Naked Fazer so I hope you all like the change as much as me: