FS: Fazer 600

Good old manufacturers figures, with a Skorpion, K&N
http://www.blakeley.plus.com/millhouse-1/images/Bikes/Fazer_Dyno.jpg

 

Classic car turning right out of a junction without looking.

Whatever the original fitment tyres were I didn't get on with at all,
in the wet especially. Once they came out it spent pretty much all of
the rest of it's life shod with Bt010.

Nope it was the front, can't seem to find the pictures now but cracks
appeared on the sidewall in line with the deeper parts of the tread,
if that makes sense. happened on about 3 tyres from memory, I got my
money back for one from Bridgstone.

When I took it to Ireland I put that puncture glop in the tyres since
I didn't fancy being stranded in Kerry. That tyre wore evenly without
the cracking, related? I don't know. I can't recall having the problem
after that trip and I only used the green goo on one other occasions.

The first ones with the slightly smaller tank, had quite high pillion
pegs. When it got it's first makeover the tank size was increased and
the pegs dropped by ~20cm. I don't know how much of a difference that
made.

 

20cm? That sounds like a lot.

 

I wonder if I've been too conservative on how much pressure I've let the
rattler have; maybe I should plug it in to the "unrestricted" port
rather than the "set pressure" one. (I assume there's a technical term
for those.)

Aye; the ones that came with the rattle gun.

 

You're right, reading it again. I thought I recalled 20cm, but 20mm
wouldn't be worth the effort. Ah well, they moved them a bit.

 

Yes... claimed figures from the manufacturer when the bikes were new.

The Gixxer in question whilst not that leggy, was 12 years old. It seemed
ok, no misfires etc, but it sounds from your comments that maybe it was down
on power.

A shame the mate in question has since sold it, else I could have got it
down to my other mates dyno and seen exactly how much power it does have.

Well this one did. *shrug*

Idled fine, no obvious misfires anywhere in the rev range and went well
enough... it just felt a bit tame really given what I was expecting.

That, and since when was a Fazer classed as 'touring orientated'?

Have you actually ever soiled your senses of good taste, and ridden an early
Fazer?

From (admittedly cloudy) memory, the overview of it in the Haynes Book of
Lies marks it down as 'the spiritual son to the RD350YPVS' and as something
of a hooligan bike - they love being revved.

It's not in the league of the R6 I had in terms of sheer outright peaky
power... but then even that you could feel a marked 'notch' in the power at
14k and it then tailing off - both Fazers I've had have revved cleanly,
freely and with progressively more power in the upper rev range, up to and
beyond the 13k redline, makes for something that's brilliant fun on twisty
back roads.

It's autobahns where one will seem slightly lacking compared to stuff like
CBR600s in my experience of both.

Can't remember - that would make sense though.

Better than the R6 then - that caught me right off guard on a couple of
occasions and had I kept it, needed a damper asap.

 

Nice.

Did the driver claim 'Sorry mate, I didn't see you... due to the shit
headlight on your bike'? ;-)

 

Hell yeah. You can fine tune the torque on the Gun itself.

Dunno, the compressor jihad is over there --->

Urg. I'd leave those alone if they're mullering the subject nut and
invest in some decent ones from Sykes Pickavant or Britool / Facom.
[1]

P.

[1] Mine of course are Mac or Snap-on, but then i'm a self confessed
tool snob...

 

Oh, yeah, the cornering was sublime. With some bikes you just need to
look where you want to go and the bike follows. On the SRAD I just had
to think where I wanted to go and it read my mind.

Just a shame it had an engine from a child's wind-up toy.

 

My favourite one is still "I pulled out because I was dazzled by your
headlight".

 

I know Haynes manuals tend to be full of lies, but that just about takes
the biscuit.

The real problem I had with the Fazer I rode was that revving it didn't
seem to achieve much. Sure, the power increased, but it was utterly
underwhelming - the SRAD I mention did at least make some pretence at a
top-end rush, there just wasn't much of it.

 

Which puts the argument even further in my favour.

Boots has since provided us with a truer figure for the Fazer at 83
horses, whilst my '97 carbed gixer (IIRC) as standard was producing
114 horses.

So, an even greater percentage difference, than the manufacturers
cloud cuckoo land figures.

You seem to be implying that I'm looking down my nose at the
Fazer. I'm not. I have ridden an early Fazer and, like most bikes,
I enjoyed riding it. But in no way would I have described it as a
full-on sports bike, better handling, lighter and faster than the
gixer

Whereas the gixer never had a reputation for being the hooligans tool
of choice, eh?

I was just expressing the opinion that your perception of the gixer
is at odds with the facts, general perceptions and my own experiences.

 

It was clear good daylight around 08:30 on a September morning, with a
clear view along the straight, she just drove straight up to the
junction and out without stopping. From my perspective I couldn't see
into the side road, she did appear to hesitate so I aimed for the gap
but had it closed on me.

 

The Gixer 750 SRAD is a fucking sight punchier than your old ZX-7R,
that's for sure.

Your "it's a bag of shite because it's not a litre bike" is getting a
bit tedious in all honesty. Let's see you at Cadwell in the summer and
see if you can really handle all that power you just *have* to have.

--
Lozzo
New bike (arrives Friday)
Fireblade 929 (For sale)
ZX-7R P4 (for sale)
CBR600F-W trackbike
SR250 SpazzTrakka,
RD400F, somewhere
I see a bright new future, where chickens can cross the road with no
fear of having their motives questioned

 

Ah, I saw that years ago, but had no idea it was a 600.

 

Aye. There should be a control on the rattler itself to limit torque
applid.

No, "decent" sockets - if you want to avoid fastener damage. The
supplied sockets are prolly OK for wheelnuts, that are deeper than
sprocket bolt heads, but I'd not use them on anything else.

 

I can quite believe that. The 7R was heavy and, with only 112bhp on tap,
short on top-end power even compared to a current 600.

But the SRAD I was talking about wasn't a 750, it was a 600 and not a
current one either, so I've no idea what point you're trying to make.

Is this your new hobby horse or something? When have I said "it's a bag
of shite because it's not a litre bike" ?

If you've actually read anything I've posted either here on the SV
forums recently I've said my impression so far is the 750 felt like the
better road bike. Easier to ride, far comfier, less likely to kill and
arguably better looking. As for your persistent gauntlet throwing, I've
said several times if I take a bike on a track this year it'll be the
RGV and not the thou, not least because the latter is a bit of a handful
and I've no doubt I'd lunch it.

Seriously, chap, calm down. I don't know what's crawled up your arse but
it's starting to smell.

 

Having spent a bit of time helping out at a dyno in the last year or so, I'm
fully aware of how 'accurate' dynos can be.

For a true comparison, you need both vehicles, on the same dyno, on the same
day.

That, and you're quoting peak figures - how that figure is achieved in terms
of the power curve etc, is important as well in the real world, together
with how well a chassis allows an engine to get its power down etc.

I'm not implying that.

It's just that some of your comments seem to indicate to me at least that
because a Fazer is stated at having X on paper, it can't possibly be doing
Y, compared to Z... in your opinion.

I didn't say you were...

If you can show me where I've claimed any of that, I'd be grateful.

My experience of the one GSXR was whereby the two Fazers I've had is, as
I've already said, that the GSXR felt flat up the top end compared to the
Fazers.

Your experiences have obviously varied from this.

And I've already said that maybe I need to try another GSXR before writing
them off as 'disappointing', as it's not unheard of for an older bike to not
be quite as it should be.

 

I need to get hold of another copy so I can qualify the above, but pretty
sure that's what it says.

It obviously does something given a good launch will see 60 in under four
seconds apparently.

It may well be that, given you're more used to bigger, newer stuff than I
am, that you've been more spoilt than I have in this respect.

Hence why much as it would be easy to go test ride something like a Gixxer
and sign on the dotted line, but given I'm about to change career and will
be on lower money than I have been in IT for a while, I'm not going to.

 

I'll qualify it once I manage to get my hands on another copy of the
offending book.

Not my experience at all, but then you're more familiar with litre class
bikes than I am.

<thinks>

Yes, I suppose compared to the ZX9R I had, they could possibly be considered
'wheezy', but only because you have to wring its neck more to get at the
full on power by comparison.

Certainly compared to other 600s, they're not bad at all.