My first motorcycle project: the plan
Hello again for this third article in my motorcycle project series. In October I introduced you to her; my Yamaha FZR 750 project bike from 1987. And now it is time to tell you ladies and gents all about our motorcycle project plan. Let’s go!
First things first; the base. She is a first generation Yamaha FZR 750 Genesis. I will show you a picture of her original form below. Her official colour is black, but she won’t be once she’s done. I can tell you that! Not that I don’t like black colored bikes. They often look great. But I just enjoy a bit of colour on my bikes.. You probably wouldn’t tell, based on my tricolore RSV4.
MOTORCYCLE PROJECT PLAN
WHAT WE WILL DO
So what is our motorcycle project plan for this classic beauty-to-be? First; we will check her, obviously. She will be stripped down and torn apart to check the current state of all the technical bits. Like the engine, clutch, gear box etcetera. The previous owner thought she would run as soon as we put a new battery in it. [DID SHE?!] …
THE PLAN FOR
BRAKES AND SUSPENSION
I plan on changing the brakes for a pair of R1 brakes. I don’t just plan on making her look great. I also want to ride this babe. And I personally enjoy a pair of good brakes. Especially the front one. So I wish to replace the shitty original front brake.
My boyfriend Ron has an older, spare Brembo braking pump laying around. I might use my puppy eyes to get my hands on that thing. Honestly, any other brake pump will probably be a big step forward already. But hey, like I said I enjoy a good front brake on a bike. So might as wel add a bit of decadence to this motorcycle project.
I’m not sure yet about changing the front as a whole. I think the original front suspension – which is not upside down yet – has a certain ring to it. It will probably ride very differently from what I am used to, but somehow I like that idea. If we do change it, it will be replaced by a front suspension and rim from an R1 as well. We’ll see how the motorcycle project plan goes.
CLUTCH AND CLOCKS
THE 'C' IN TLC
Last time I wrote about this motorcycle project I wasn’t sure yet what was wrong with the clutch. The previous owner stated the cylinder was dead and gone, so needed replacement. But since I do not have a lot of technical skills, I didn’t immediately know what was up.
Well, it is clear now. It’s obviously the master cylinder. There is no pressure on the clutch lever at all. But I’m not too sure about the state of the slave cylinder as well, so we’ll probably replace that too.
So one thing I’m totally sold on, is keeping the original clocks. They look so cool! I will add a picture below. There is just something about those old clocks. I’m not sure what it is. I just love them. The speedometer might not work well with the new R1 front. But I’ll see if I can add a GPS meter to it and connect it to the old clocks somehow. We’ll see. A woman can dream, right?
Oh and I know the white clock isn’t original at all. This FZR-lady has seen some bad days. I’m not sure what happened, but when taking her apart it was clear she encoutered a pretty big impact to the front. Lots of broken bits, like the subframe etcetera. But I’d rather not replace the white one. I think it tells a story and I love that.
ONTO THE FAIRINGS
AND THE THRONE
We will get rid of the original seat and fairings. They just don’t look right to me. I love their old look, but I’d like to get a mono seat on it. Riding pillion on a sports bike is just not my things. Actually, it’s not my thing in general, no matter the bike. So let’s take that off. We will replace it all for a set of race fairings.
Not set yet on the looks of those fairings. It might be an OW01 styled fairing, with the bulky front and rear. But I do like the look of the modified RC45 (image shown below) as well.
I know putting a Honda styled fairing on a Yamaha is kinda similar to swearing in church. But hey, like I said in my previous article; I dig a bit of contradiction in life. Oh and I know that teeny tiny rear on that modified Honda is something you either love or hate. But I love it. Especially in balance with the more bulky front. Again, contradiction. Love it. This motorcycle project plan is filled with weird things.
LET'S SHINE
LIGHTING AND ALL
So at first, I planned on keeping the original headlights on this motorcycle project. As it turned out, the glass was broken and they didn’t work properly. Since it’s pretty hard to find an original replacement, I might just go all futuristic with this part. I found a pair of LED headlights that might look cool. She won’t look anything like her original form, so why not go crazy with the lighting part.
LED ALL THE WAY?
TAIL WIGGLE
As for the tail light in this motorcycle project plan, we’ve basically got three options. Ron still has the tail light of our R6’s street kit. Since the R6 will probably never see her street fairings again, we might try to build that R6 light into the rear fairings for our motorcycle project.
If that doesn’t work or doesn’t turn out the way we’d like it to look like, we might add a LED tail light as well. We could either integrate it into the rear fairing or add it below it. We’ll see what we end up with in the process.
THE BEATING HEART
OF THIS MOTORCYCLE PROJECT PLAN
At the moment, she still has her original 750 cc engine with 64K kilometers on it. [IT RUNS WELL OR DOES IT?]
If it continues to run well, she will keep that engine. Personally, I love 750cc engines. They just are a bit different and I love that. If the engine dies on us in the proces, we will swap it for a 1000cc one from probably the same year. At least, that has my preference. I’d like to keep some of that 1987 vibe, even though she will be packet with newer stuff.
CONCLUSION
That’s it! My awesome little motorcycle project plan. My first one, ever! I’m still very excited now. I’m curious whether I will stay that way. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m no technician at all. And I don’t have a lot of patience. So that’s probably not the best base to start this project with. But hey, I’ll do my best. I’ll probably fail a thousand times. And get very, very frustrated. But that’s all part of building a bike, right? Please tell me it is..
I’ll keep you ladies and gents updated about our little motorcycle project. Stay tuned for my next article in this series. Which will probably be something like “My first motorcycle project; how it’s going”. Catch you later!
