The finished rebuild!

[Thorn]

Well it's been a long rebuild with almost every part of the bike being replaced, from knackered calipers to shot fork seals and even a new cylinder head, but I thought I'd throw up a before and after photo. Originally I was going to do a project thread as I took photos throughout, but typing up six months of history seems a bit tedious!

Anyway 

Before

[smg id=1080 type=preview align=center caption="Thorn FZS600 Before"]

After

[smg id=1081 type=preview align=center caption="Thorn FZS600 After"]

(high res photos linked below)

Before: http://thoronir.net/photo/FZS600_Before.jpg
After: http://thoronir.net/photo/FZS600_After.jpg

Future plans are a full respray of the bike in gloss black, tarted up with blue highlights, unfortunately funds do not allow it right now 

[darrsi]

Nice work 


It's funny 'cos i've said on here before that i doubt i'd get a black bike again because it's such a bastard to keep clean, i'd probably go for silver  :lol

[inditime]

Looks good in silver. Mine is red, looks dirty all the time....probably cos it is :o)

[garyb]

Great work - lovely bike 

[Dead Eye]

I have plans to respray my bike, but I am yet to actually decide on a colour

[Thorn]

Thanks guys 

The respray isn't so much just a change of colour, unfortunately the tank and fairings are quite tatty. The previous owner seemed to have a fetish for tarmac, and I don't mean riding on it  :\

She passed her MOT yesterday, with one advisory - weeping fork seal. Bit of a pisser considering the fork seals had just been done a few days previous, I've never seen a new set of fork seals go so fast! Won't be buying Kyoto again.

Apart from that, the bike decided to wee all over my leg the other day: FZS600 Coolant
Luckily it was just a hose that was loose, but in the process of testing the thermostat and fan switch, I snapped a bolt in the thermostat housing  :'(

Beyond the few expected teething issues with a 6 month rebuild, there seems to be some performance issues that I haven't had time to look into yet.
There's a massive flatspot around 5k, so strong that if you try to force past it the bike gets very stuttery/hestitant, I'm not even sure she'll pull herself past it. However, boot it down a gear into 6-7k and everything is dandy again. I have no idea what it's like beyond 8k as I haven't been there yet.

I haven't had time to look into the culprit yet, however pretty much everything has been changed on this rebuild. Sandybikespares downpipes, K&N filter, new cylinder head, valve clearances done, the camchain is very stretched (on the end of the tensioner) but I don't have the funds to replace it yet. I also reset the carb pilot screws to 2.5 turns, possibly not the wisest decision.

One thing I did notice is that the plug caps don't seem to be waterproof at all, they just soak up the water from the thunderstorms we've been having recently and the bike splutters and runs like a tank, so I think some NGK replacements are on the list aswell.