FZR600 Build, Little Details

[SquadraCorse]

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.





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.





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:

[SquadraCorse]

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.










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

[SquadraCorse]

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.






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.

[SquadraCorse]

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:



R6 brake calipers mounted and the bolts drilled and lockwired:



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...

[SquadraCorse]

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:

[SquadraCorse]

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:














LED lighting, more to come on this:

[SquadraCorse]

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.

[Bobdot]

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.

[teazer]

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.

[71cb450]

very very clean! keep it up

[kookie31]

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

[thirsty 1]

Cool bike man. I had a 92' and wish I still did. Fun Fun Fun!!

[SquadraCorse]

Brake lines showed up today  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.

[Swapmeet Louie]

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...

[biker_reject]

That is one clean FZR!  There definitely needs to be a race rep page.