If she's fine with that for her first bike, she has more restraint than I do.
If she's fine with that for her first bike, she has more restraint than I do.
Both bikes all cleaned and detailed. Took the FZ1 out last saturday for 260 miles of random driving. Been gettin low 40 MPG on it. Its an easy riding bike and i love it.
Just thought i would chime in with an update
The new Sport Rider has a story on fixing up a used FZ1 (jet kit, suspension, brakes).
That's a pretty nice ride. Too bad you don't live closer or I'd say we should go for a cruise. I'm a yamaha guy as well (as you can tell from the avatar). I've had the R6 for over three years now and am starting to itch for a liter bike. I'm very jealous.
Been taking the bike out a lot on 100 ish mile quick trips. Just leave home and hit the road. Found some interesting places along the way. My MPG on this and pretty much every trip and tank is 40 +- a MPG. Cannot beat it.
Made some highway pegs for it...ill post some pictures soon. Makes long rides a bit better because your in a different position so less fatigue.
I keep saying to everyone that the bike is a windshield and a comfortable seat away from me going cross country. Those two things and this would be the perfect do ANYTHING bike.
Well, i have been busy with the bike. Last season the biggest thing that kept me from using it more was lack of carry-a-bility. I have a great backpack that Fieldsheer makes that is just great for riding but that was not enough at times. I figured i would wait till the off season to mess around with anything.
Well fast forward to a couple weeks ago when i found an old shopping cart on the front property at work. Now, normally i would try to wheel it back or just move it but the nearest store was many miles away and it was sitting there for a while so i took it, cut it up, and decided that i would use the bends and nice looking tubes to make my rack for the bike.
Made some mock ups with several pieces of cardboard, paper, toilet paper tubes and finally settled on a simple design made of coat hangers.
This design used the same holes and bolts that the factory passenger grab bars used. So no extra messing around with stuff like that. I wanted something i could remove and something that looked like it coulda been a factory accessory or stock.
I welded the U shape rack then made a rig setup thingy to mount the tabs from the U to the frame.
Was happy with how it fit after welding. Murphys Law of course that i could not get the MIG dialed in like i wanted it until the last two beads. haha.
Today i painted it up black using Rustoleum Hammered Finish paint. Let me just say that it is worth every penny and it looks absolutely killer. Goes on nice and by the second coat (as recomended) you cant wait till its done to show it off. Reminds me of a professionally done powder coat. Only downside is that it looks more gunmetal or dark silver then black.
Here is the rack all painted up and mounted. With no passenger i have apx. a 19" X 13.5 area, with passenger it still 12"X 8.5".
Ready for action.
Fun project. I did it after school/work/ latenights etc and it was as much a challenge as it was relaxing. I can still mount a hard case on the back in the future and can use bar collars if i wanna mount anything else.
CarKid1989 wrote: Made some highway pegs for it...ill post some pictures soon. Makes long rides a bit better because your in a different position so less fatigue.
Here is the quick version of the highway pegs.
Buddy gave me take off Harley Davidson pegs. I took two drive clevis ends from the scrap/ mistake parts bin at work. The holes were the exact same size so i found some bolts, made some mounting plates and mounted it to the frame by the engine mounts.
Folds up when not in use and down to stretch my feets out on long hauls. Works really nice.
Been using em for a year now and zero problems
minimac wrote: I don't believe you. I give it less than three months before the bike A.D.D. kicks in.
I'm glad I was wrong! Nice work on the rack/handle thingy and the pegs.
I did a similar peg setup on my bandit. Great for long rides.
Added a zero gravity sport touring windscreen.
Its a nice addition. Much less wind noise and buffeting and all that. Good buy
Another season is upon us and i still have the bike. Lovin every second of it. I had some upgrades done which ill post up here in the next few days.
Extra performance, extra comfort, and extra safety...stay tuned =)
Some of your facebook links have broken :O I want to see the pegs
Realized this had not been updated in ages. The end of the first year i owned the bike i noticed that the carb bowls were oozing gas. I also noticed that during the winter that the forks were leaking badddd.
After reading and rereading and doing a bunch of research i decided to send my carb rack out and have it rebuilt/rejetted/ modified by Ivan. Ivans Jet kits are a hot ticket in the FZ1 community and they have many satisfied customers. The turn around time was quick, the work was done well and i was quite satisifed. There are a lot of shortfalls with stock FZ1 carbs and the kit addresses them:
Oh, also a nice side effect of all this work? POWER haha.
I had a Yoshimure Exhaust and the carb work and that equates to apx. 131 horsepower and 75 lb/ft torque. Thats some impressive numbers. oh and thats for a 450 pound bike.
Reassembly of the carbs went well thanks to a few top notch resources in the FZ1 community. Just took my time and kept everything tidy.
At the same time I took off my forks and have them sent out to be totally rebuilt. All new seals, bushings etc. Everything. I figured if you're in there might as well do it right. "One and done" mentality.
The forks went together well too and i could not be happier with the work.
Thats not where the fun end though...
I found you can use the R1 shifter arm to shorten the throw of your toe shift. Ordered one up from my local dealership and a week later it showed up. Install of the part took all of 5 minutes and it shortened the throw a bit. Easy as pie.
Since i cant leave anything alone, i also got a AIS Delete kit. It injects air into the exhaust and blah blah blah. That system was totally deleted and plugged. It cleans up the engine area so much its worth doing almost just based on aesthetics. The installation for that was pretty ok except getting the factory fitting out of the exhaust was darn near impossible. Got creative with screws, vice grip pliers and a slide hammer.
And finally to wrap up that series of upgrades, i did a coolant bypass mod. No need to keep the carbs all heated up if i never ride in weather that cold especially with the carb re-do. (I have actually ridden the bike into "winter" with no issues because of this, so i am sold)
All these things were done over one winter off season.
Riding the bike into the next season was a blast. All the modifications worked so well together and the bike is smoother and pulls harder then ever.
Money and time well spent.
Ill jump to the safety upgrades, as one of them is coming today if USPS is correct. (louder horn)
but First off i signed up to run with Asphault Adventure's Explore the Shore event....
and since i was going to ride the FZ1 to New Jersey from Ohio, i wanted to make sure the trip was a safe one. I figured there would be a lot of night riding for the trip and truth be told most of my personal riding is at night so extra lighting would be a great addition.
First up was new light bulbs. Now, had i known about LED light bulbs and had the mainstreaming of them been in place i woulda bought them right away...thats not to say i wont still do that down the road butttt....
I ended up with a pair of Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs. I have used them before in bikes and its a nice upgrade. Are there others out there? Yes, plenty but i liked these and had a coupon. 
Not cheap but like i said, lots of traveling in the dark so in my mind worth every penny.
I then had a late night with a few buddies and beers and after discussing LED lights i decided to be the guinea pig and install some on the bike to test them out. I bought an Ebay set and they had CREE leds. the case is aluminum and seemed well built and they did not break the bank.
I wired it up the night before i left for the 1300 mile NJ trip and was blown away at the results.
The area between the headlights standard throw and the nose of the bike is totally filled. Solid light. Its got a nice wide pattern and its beautiful white light. It makes the street signs glow even haha. II like that it throws light to the side of the road too so i can spot Bambi and other woodland creatures even quicker. I have not gotten any flashes from other drivers even which is a good thing. This light was advertised as a driving light but the beam pattern is closer to a flood light which i was not happy about but it still does great work.
I am very pleased with this safety upgrade. It lights the night like nothing else and makes the stress of night riding much lower.
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