I'm going to try to keep this page going

[Millietant]

Sorry I didn't make the distinction Fred, Ryan has the Fazer 600, which was never available in the USA - Liz has the Fazer 1000/FZ1, which obviously was  

Over here we take it for granted that everyone knows the difference, most immediately in the engine appearance, but with Liz's bike having the fairing lowers it's not obvious to those not familiar with the differences.

I'm on the US FZ1 FB forum and your friends bike is even quite famous over here in the UK Fazer community  

Must abmit, I love the "look" of the FZ1 swinging arm. There were many ways that Yamaha could have modernised the FJ during its life at very little cost, just a shame they chose to leave it up to us to do it  

Back in 2003 I was thinking about a new bike and tested a FZ1(Fazer) over a long weekend ride up to Scotland (Liz rode the FJ) - I found I still preferred the FJ, and they were too much alike fir me to have both, so I  decided to go for a much sportier bike and got the Aprilia RSV instead. Liz, at the time, said she didn't like the FZ1 because it looked, in her words, too masculine, but she hadn't ridden it.

A very short while later, a dealer convinced her to take a test ride on one and she fell in love with it. I think we've both found our ideal bikes inthese 2 Yamaha's 

[Millietant]

So, back on track with the thread.....and in answer to the question, I rode it and I got it soaked  

I have yet again, today, learned not to trust the BBC Weather App..........a full day of sunshine was predicted with a 2% chance of rain.........more like a 98% chance of rain !!

As I'd been checking the forecast every day and watching Sunday stay sunny and dry, I managed to cajole my neighbour Dave to get his Multistrada out and join me for a ride (Dave doesn't like to get his bike dirty). Our clocks have gone back now so it gets dark pretty early so I was only planning on about a 100-120 mile run and had seen an article on the Cotswolds Distillery, just outside Shipston-on-Stour and their award winning whisky, which had a nice spacious cafe with great Covid precautions that was open today and was the right distance from home, so it seemed like an ideal destination.

The weather leaving home was perfect, but about an hour into the ride, the heaven's opened and we had about 90 minutes of torrential rain.....luckily we were only about 10 minutes from the distillery when it started. I must admit, there was slight temptation to get Liz to hitch the trailer up and come and collect me, while I sampled what was on offer in the distillery shop  .....but common sense got the better of me and I stuck to coffee and a croissant.

Once the rain had abated down to just a mild drizzle, we togged up and headed off towards the bit of blue sky and the rainbow in the distance. Once we got out of the rain, we circled round some nice roads that Dave knew, but which were really wet and slimy, before heading back towards Banbury and then back north up to home.

As luck would have it, about 3 miles from home, we once again hit torrential rain and got a good soaking, which thankfully cleaned off a lot of the road debris and muck we'd collected on the semi dry roads we'd been riding on (which had lots of muck from farm vehicles and fallen leaves).

So the bike got put away into the garage, still wet and the next plan for "what did you do to your FJ today", is to clean, lube and polish it.............if the Belgian Cherry Beer doesn't get the better of me  

As we all like pictures, here's a couple of photo's from today.











And our route

[Millietant]

Well,  it looks like I'm going to be spending plenty of time in the garage for the next month....and no riding the FJ.....

4 weeks of total National lockdown again, starting from next Thursday.

During our last Covid lockdown, I was out on my bicycle (using my allowed exercise period) and 3 times I saw motorcyclists pulled over by the police, within a couple of miles of home.

Looks like she's going to get a thorough cleaning/detailing again   - might pull the carbs apart once more and see if I can get them set absolutely perfectly, or maybe not, as she runs fine for everyday use and I'm not looking for the last second on track days with her.

[Waiex191]

We are not in lockdown here, just lots of restriction for bars, restaurants, and that sort of thing. I've been working from home and it looks like I will continue to do so for another year.  I'm taking one of my cars off the road to save costs, and maybe rebuild it after the airplane is done.  If I need to run an errand I'll just have to take the FJ.

My kid is home this weekend and we rode yesterday.  The FJ still runs great.

[Millietant]

As from Thursday we're back into "stay at home, only go out for essential food shopping, if you HAVE to for work and for your daily allowed exercise period". No household may meet more than one person from another household - and only outside and in public open spaces; no visitor to any household either indoors, or outdoors in a private garden.

Only essential shops are allowed to open, no pubs, clubs, restaurants, fast food outlets, gyms or anything of that nature are allowed to open.

It doesn't really make that much of a difference for me, as I don't work and don't go out much anyway, other than on my bike or bicycle. My family are 200 miles away and Liz's family are in the USA, so we haven't seen them since the start of the year anyway and had no plans to visit before Christmas anyway.

More time in the garage.......I might even make a stRt on the VF750 restomod this time 

[fj1289]

Any progress on the VF?

[aviationfred]

Casper got a new Clutch Master Cylinder today. Sourced from a Honda VTR1000 SuperHawk/Firestorm.

I also picked up a 2nd VFR750 a little over a week ago. Purchased specifically as a parts bike. I plan on stripping it of all the relays, ECU, carbs, and fuel pump. It also came with a left side exit exhaust minus a muffler. These are extremely rare and I should be able to get a few hundred dollars for the exhaust. The main reason for this purchase is the 8 spoke rear wheel and the swingarm. The plans for these are.... the rear wheel will go on a yet to be purchased 2007 Honda VFR800 25th Anniversary edition and the swingarm will be modified and installed on Casper.
The last photo is an example of a 2007 VFR800 25th Anniversary model with the VFR750 8 spoke wheel.

Fred

[ribbert]

.....and the swingarm will be modified and installed on Casper.
The last photo is an example of a 2007 VFR800 25th Anniversary model with the VFR750 8 spoke wheel.

Fred

I am envious of your single sided swingarm project, these sort of jobs are great fun (if at times a little soul destroying) but immensely satisfying in the end.

That's a nice looking wheel Fred. Is the plan to adapt an FJ wheel to the single sided swinger?

Noel

[aviationfred]

.....and the swingarm will be modified and installed on Casper.
The last photo is an example of a 2007 VFR800 25th Anniversary model with the VFR750 8 spoke wheel.

Fred

I am envious of your single sided swingarm project, these sort of jobs are great fun (if at times a little soul destroying) but immensely satisfying in the end.

That's a nice looking wheel Fred. Is the plan to adapt an FJ wheel to the single sided swinger?

Noel

My plan is to use a VFR800 5 spoke wheel, painted white


Fred

[ribbert]

.....and the swingarm will be modified and installed on Casper.
The last photo is an example of a 2007 VFR800 25th Anniversary model with the VFR750 8 spoke wheel.

Fred

I am envious of your single sided swingarm project, these sort of jobs are great fun (if at times a little soul destroying) but immensely satisfying in the end.

That's a nice looking wheel Fred. Is the plan to adapt an FJ wheel to the single sided swinger?

Noel

My plan is to use a VFR800 5 spoke wheel, painted white


Fred

Haha, when it's done you'll have to investigate a 4 into 1 exiting on the LHS to give an uninterrupted view of the mod.

Noel

[Millietant]

Any progress on the VF?

Not yet - my wife volunteered me to build an "Alpaca Shed" for people to shelter in in poor weather at a community dog park locally. Community Service activities are exempt from lockdown restrictions as long as social distancing measures etc are in place.

Hope to finish it tomorrow.

[fj1289]

Awesome!

[Millietant]

Busying myself this evening, relaxing after my day of timber working, reading the latest edition of Practical Sportsbikes magazine, with a lovely article on a certain FJ 1200 and its long term owner 

[Millietant]

Although it was bloody cold today, it was dry, and the Govt has decided that solo motorcycle rides are allowable "recreation activity", so I managed to get a nice 70 mile ride around a few local roads around Warwickshire/Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border area, taking in Stanford Hall stately home, the Battle of Naseby site (English Civil War) and Pitsford Water. Only 1 other bike out that I came across and that was on the main road dash back home, when I realised I was going to be late for taking the dog out  .

A few pics and a couple of trial bits of video (apologies for the poor quality) follow.

Around StanfordHall & Church





The back roads were a bit mucky in places

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwhathsDfcyhOhtuy5S-UggIxKfiXKBJ/view?usp=sharing

Pitsford Water



A little bit of open road near Pitsford (spot the speed camera!)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_3hHI-CyEXFrLic6EN3mZPhlyGyRCE_/view?usp=sharing

Today's route.

[Millietant]

Apparently I used the wrong video links, so here are the correct ones.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwhathsDfcyhOhtuy5S-UggIxKfiXKBJ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_3hHI-CyEXFrLic6EN3mZPhlyGyRCE_/view?usp=sharing

Still learning about this technology !!!!!