Greetings all. New Member here. Long term owner of '87 FJ12. Many mods and several iterations over the past 30 or so years. Not ridden lately as it's on the lift waiting for final iteration completion.
Freshened stock motor. Sitting on FZ1 front and rear suspension/wheels/brakes and FZ1 handlebars. R6 aluminum subframe and tail section. Seat a blend of FJ and R6. And so on...
Welcome aboard lad, your mods sound wonderful. I hope you took pictures, lots of pictures, we love pictures of modified FJ's.
I am interested on your blending of the FJ and R6 subframe.
I think you will fit in famously here...... 12 steps of Modifiers Anonymous. LOL
Cheers
Pat
Welcome, took you long enough.
Thanks - I think.
Pat,
Not sure what happened to my reply, but yes, I'm afflicted with the perpetual modification syndrome. I'll post some pics soon of the "once again project".
R6 sub is a lot of work. Required a sub-sub-frame! Looks good though.
Yes sounds very interesting. I have a lot of "project fjs". That would be great for a café racers project for one of the rougher bikes.
Welcome!
Lets see some pictures....... (popcorn)
So here are some pics. Looks goofy without the seat! Anyway, you can see most of the custom bits and fitting of the FZ1 stuff. That's a shortened R1 can with its titanium connector pipe. No idea what it's going to sound like, but probably loud. The sub rear fender is a maybe keep. The gold clutch cover was an experiment that I'm not liking, so it will probably end up black.
Thanks for the picts! Looks interesting! Pat
very clean, what exhaust is that?
The exhaust is a mishmash. Plasma coated Kerker up front. Homemade mandrel bend midpipe and then titanium R1 connector pipe and can. I shortened the can about 2" and fiddled with the tip inside the tip.
I like it. Looks great.
Looking good, I hope to see more progress.
Welcome!
Reminds me of Brook's bike:
Looks nice!
It looks really really good and I'm loving the mods, can't wait to see it with the seat and screen on :good2:
But........looking at the way you're doing the mods, you're not going for a "touring" bike, so I wondered why you fitted the much longer FZ1 swinging arm, rather than the shorter YZF 1000R (Thuderace) swinging arm ? Or are you going for the drag-bike approach ?
No, not touring, but would do fine I think. Def not drag either.
I actually shortened the swing arm. It's off of the back end; the tire almost rubs the cross rib. Ended up only 3/4 or 1" longer. Sadly I wasn't documenting much at the time. And I never even thought of the YZF. The riding style when this thing is finished will be a lot more relaxed anyway! And it has longer bars for more leverage. 🙂
Not sure I understand the reasoning to fit a shorter swing arm. I know it is supposed to make the bike turn quicker and with less lean angle the shorter the wheelbase - but it also means less weight on the front. Would that potentially lead to the front end washing out easier?
I'm definitely not at the skill level to make use of handling mods of that level - especially not on public roads. I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to feel the difference between an inch either way :pardon: Mostly a theoretical discussion for my type of riding!
The dynamics of motorcycle handling is extremely complex and I understand only a tiny bit of it. Basically you are correct though, the longer wb will make for slower steering but add to straight line stability. Then the ride height, steering angle, rake, trail, and the list goes on, all contribute. Now that I've changed so much on it, it would probably take back to back rides on it vs a stocker to really know.
After changing my 86 to the gixxer 1000 front end and switching to the Honda rear shock with the highest rate spring the stock valves could handle. Slightly raising the rear. I knew it was better. But I didn't even ride it in stock form. So had no reference.
So I asked my next door neighbor. Raced gsxr1000 locally. Third in points Elkhart lake and the Illinois track can't remember the name.
He really didn't want to take it for a ride. But he reluctantly did... He was gone so long I was really getting worried. When he finally pulled back in the driveway I could see his huge smile through his face shield. He jumped off the bike. And as he was staring at my bike he said I don't know what you did to it. But the geometry is just right. He said it turns in better than his race bike. He said he took it through the corners he takes the race bike through. When he's setting up the suspension. And he couldn't get it unsettled. He had some factory sponsorship from suzuki at the time. He later had full sponsorship from skidoo/Bombardier for snocross. Awesome rider.
Would really like specifics of what you have done to your bike and how it feels when you get it done. Looks like it's going to be awesome!!!