FZR600 Build, Little Details

SquadraCorse

Coast to Coast
So as a lot of you know I acquired a 1994 Yamaha FZR600 last summer, and sold my GS450 Suzuki to a friend. The Suzuki was a great little bike, but just didn't stir up the emotions I was looking for. I've always loved older sport bikes. They have a lot more curves and soul than a modern bike and really get the blood flowing for me. Plus this one has dual headlights, which we all know are awesome.

I have some pics of it scattered around this site, but I thought I'd group them together in a proper build thread in case anyone wants to see it progress. The plan this winter was to really tune up the chassis and suspension, and give it more of a race bike feel. 145mph top speed is fine with me, so power really isn't high on the list of things to improve. Unfortunately the girlfriend loves it so it needs to stay 2-up, otherwise I'd change the tail out.

So, Last summer when I picked it up it didn't run for sh*t. A weekends worth or carb cleaning and a complete tune up had her in tip top shape. Burned up the hard rear tire, threw some fresh rubber on the back along with a D&D pipe, and rode it all summer.

2010-07-27151121.jpg

2010-07-28182042.jpg

Smoke.jpg


After it was running I realized that the gearbox wouldn't stay in gear when you really whacked the throttle. This was pretty damn annoying, but apparently a common problem on these bikes, even with only 15K miles on the clock. I scored a low mileage gear set off e-bay and sent it out to APE race parts to get the gears undercut.

PA130006.jpg

PA130004.jpg

PA130005.jpg


This is still waiting to go in, along with an EBC clutch, but I'm getting the chassis sorted before tearing into the motor.

Tore her down in the fall and started blowing through the bank account:

PB070055.JPG


PB070053.JPG
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

First thing to address after the gearbox was the suspension. For the rear I got an R6 rear shock with adjustable high and low speed compression, and some rebound adjustment. The front forks received .90kg/mm springs from racetech, which were quite a bit beefier than the stock units. I replaced the seals while I was in there, and refilled with fresh 15wt oil. It feels really stiff, but I won't know until I get a change to ride it.

No center stand can be quite annoying.
P1220680.JPG


P1220681.JPG


P1220671.JPG


P1220674.JPG


P1220675.JPG


I cleaned 17 years of grime off the fork tubes and removed some light surface rust from the upper shafts.

P1220682.JPG
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

The front tire was pretty old and crusty by the end of the season, so I had some fresh Bridgestone battlax tires mounted. While off the bike, I replaced the front wheel bearings and gave the rim a good scrubbing. The paint has seen better days, but at a 100mph you can't tell.

P1290699.JPG


P1290703.JPG



I powdercoated the fairing brackets gloss black and mounted the front fairing back on and added a zero gravity double-bubble windshield. I like the look of the DB style better than the purple one that came on the bike. Plus I'm hoping it makeslong stints on the highway a little more comfortable.

P1290712.JPG
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

I scored some R6 brakes off e-bay and a set of adjustable levers. I also got an R6 clutch perch so everything would match. The brakes are a direct bolt on, and I'm psyched to have the upgraded master cylinder. All the components to make the brake lines are on the way. I got -3AN braided lines and a handful of fittings to make them myself. Check out http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/ for all kinds of good race car hardware, tools, etc.

Master cylinder and new lever mounted up:

P1290711.JPG


R6 brake calipers mounted and the bolts drilled and lockwired:

P1290709.JPG


Bolts for the triple trees drilled and lockwired. I'm going to do this to all the critical hardware. Building this bike has made me miss being a professional race mechanic. But then I remembered what it was like wondering if I would get paid each week and realized I don't miss it that much...

P1290704.JPG
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

These gems just showed up this week from FFTP. They have an awesome selection of chassis parts for vintage bikes. This is an NHK steering damper with their beautifully machined clamp, and a Tarozzi fork brace. I'll throw some pics up this weekend when these are mounted:

damper.jpg
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

Ah the gauges. I'm really excited about these since nobody seems to have done anything with the FZR gauge faces. Mysta2 did the artwork on these for me after I scanned and sent him the original faces. I hated how cluttered the speedo was and wanted something less Japanese and more Euro. I always loved the Ducati style gauges and that's what we went with.

The original faces were backlit, but obviously the lighting technology back then was sub-par. Because of the cluster setup I decided I could top light the faces and got some thin LED strips. I'm still messing around but the concept is definitely solid.

I had the faces printed on a white vinyl with an opaque backing and satin finish. They came out perfect. Huge thanks to Kit for the artwork and effort he put in. All the marks line up perfectly so I don't have to worry about them being off.

The look I wanted:
three_gauges.jpg


P1240684.jpg


P1240686.jpg


P1240688.jpg


P1240690.jpg


P1240691.jpg


P1240698.jpg


LED lighting, more to come on this:

P1240687.jpg


ClockLighting.jpg
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

So this is what the riders view is shaping up to be. I'm making pretty steady progress at this point so we should be in good shape by spring.

P1290713.jpg
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

Yummmmm, great stuff so far! I think we need a Race Rep section... Front end is killer, and those guages? Fugetaboutit! Looks friggin awesome. Keep it up dude, looking forward to more!

bob.
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

That's coming on really nicely and should be a fun ride. My G/F has an FZR400 ex race bike as her street bike and it's a lot of fun.
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

My buddy of mine was going to sell me one of these for 50 bucks (needed a lot of work). Nice work so far. I like the LEDs in the gauges idea (may have to borrow that one if you dont mind). This site does need a Race Rep section
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

Cool bike man. I had a 92' and wish I still did. Fun Fun Fun!!
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

Brake lines showed up today ;D Well....the fronts anyway. The rear is more of a pre-made setup that's coming from somewhere else. I'll build these and install them on Saturday.

Brake+Lines.jpg
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

In response to your title.... If no body has dibs yet, you can put it in my garage. It will be taken care of. I promise, Honest injun...
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

That is one clean FZR! There definitely needs to be a race rep page.
 
Re: Not sure where to put this, FZR600 Build

Very nice,I'm working on building an fzr also.Kind of a streetfighter/cafe thing.
 
FZR600 Build, Brakelines 101

Got the front brakes squared away today. It's funny how nothing goes as easy as it should. For those of you that have not build braided brake lines before, keep the following things in mind.

1: You will stab yourself in the finger tips with the stainless braid and bleed. Most likely more than once.
2: Always buy extra brass olives. The fittings are reusable, but these are not, and you will most likely need extras when you realize that you have made the line 40mm too long and need to cut and reattach the fitting.
3: Do not route the brake lines next to anything you wouldn't take a hack-saw to. These will cut clean through just about anything.

I have build quite a few brake lines, so keeping the above in mind everything went rather smooth. Only stabbed myself once. The banjo fittings were much thicker than the OEM ones, so to use the same bolt I had to toss the banjos in the milling machine and thin them out a bit to get the ports in the bolt to line up with the grooves in the banjo. Meh.

The front of this bike is now pretty much completely sorted. I got the tarozzi brace mounted and will machine a mount for the damper this week. The rear brake line will show up this week along with front brake pads, and hopefully the shock will go in next weekend. Then we're onto the motor!

P2050718.jpg

P2050719.jpg

P2050720.jpg


Yeah no dice:

P2050722.jpg


Om Nom Nom:

P2050724.jpg

P2050725.jpg


I jacket my brake lines in heat shrink to make sure the hack-saw effect is kept to a minimum.

P2050721.jpg


P2050726.jpg

P2050729.jpg

P2050728.jpg


Tarozzi Brace:

P2050731.jpg


You're Next!
P2050732.jpg
 
Re: FZR600 Build, Brakelines 101

Hot damn, that's a nice FZR... Brings back some fuzzy feelings, since an '88 FZR750 was one of the first bikes I ever rode. I'll bet you'll be able to give a newer sport bike rider a fit (if they're not paying attention) with that bike.
 
Re: FZR600 Build, Brakelines 101

You got rid of that mint gs450 for this!?

Fair enough. Looks good Squad!
 
Re: FZR600 Build, Brakelines 101

The FZR600 is a great bike, we have one with the same color scheme exactly. It's got Traxxion Dynamics reworked forks (springs and emulators) with the R6/R1 brake upgrade and Galfer S/S lines front and rear. 520 sprockets and chain conversion. Penske rear shock with remote reservoir. I welded on some mounts for spools on the underside of the swingarm for the paddock stand. Because the S/A is steel get two hex couplers for 6m or 8m and weld them on, bingo now you can mount the spools. I would like to make a nice 4 into 1 pipe for it some day? In the rear you could fit a 17'' x 4.5" SV650 wheel to accept a 160 tire. But that bit of work and expense. Keep up the good work I also think the older bikes have character newer ones lack? Re: girlfriend, Yamaha made a removable rear seat cover, hard to find them but maybe Airtech re-makes them?
Cheers, 50gary
 
Back
Top Bottom