New Joiner.......

[payneib]

Just saying "Hi". I've been browsing for a month or so, since I bought my naked FZ6 (2006). It was an absolute bargain that I nearly dismissed for looking "like an uncomfortable sports bike", how wrong was I? Well I passed my A licence nearly a fortnight ago and life has never been so good! Especially considering the year I spent on a Chinese 125, learning about life on two wheels.

I've got a few questions, most of which can go elsewhere later on.

Ian

 

[darius]

Welcome to the Fazer clan!
:welcome:

 

[Motogiro]

:welcome:to our great family Ian!

 

[dpaul007]

Welcome! Post a pic of your ride, too!

 

[yamihoe]

:needpics:

 

[payneib]

Welcome! Post a pic of your ride, too!

If you insist

I absolutely love it. The wife has said, in no uncertain terms, no one else wants to hear about the bike! Lol

 

[Cloggy]

:welcome: to the forum:thumbup:

......The wife has said, in no uncertain terms, no one else wants to hear about the bike!......

we do

 

[Nelly]

Just saying "Hi". I've been browsing for a month or so, since I bought my naked FZ6 (2006). It was an absolute bargain that I nearly dismissed for looking "like an uncomfortable sports bike", how wrong was I? Well I passed my A licence nearly a fortnight ago and life has never been so good! Especially considering the year I spent on a Chinese 125, learning about life on two wheels.

I've got a few questions, most of which can go elsewhere later on.

Ian

Welcome to the forum, good luck with the bike and enjoy the site.

Neil

 

[payneib]

we do

I'm glad about that! Lol

Is there anything these can't do? It's just the best thing ever. And so much more comfortable than the Honda Hornets I did my licence on. That extra inch or two between saddle and pegs makes such a difference. The only things I want to add to it are a decent radiator cover and maybe a fender extender, just to help keep lumps of country side out of the engine, and then a 12v socket for nav aids on longer trips.

It's in for a treatment from these guys: http://www.allyearbiker.co.uk/ on the 17th. So it will be shiny like on delivery day again!

 

[iviyth0s]

Welcome!! The bike looks great!

Out of curiosity, how good a deal was it and what kind of bike was the old one?? (any pictures of that too?)

 

[payneib]

Out of curiosity, how good a deal was it

2006 FZ6N, 9800 miles, listed at £2200. I gave him £2050 cash, and when the shop guy told him I'm ex Navy, he dropped the £50 as well, so I put it towards a Scottoiler. They also MOTd it for me, and it came up with an advisory on the rear tyre nearly being out of limits, so there's a free tyre waiting for me to run this one down as well. The only slightly dubious history was actually done in the shop, when a customer nocked a line of bikes over, denting the tank, so its got a brand new tank on it too.

and what kind of bike was the old one?? (any pictures of that too?)

A Pulse Lightspeed2, a cheap Chinese scooter. I only bought that and did my CBT because I was coming out of the Navy without any road licences and needed something cheap and right away. Despite all the problems it gave me, it put me onto bikes in a big way, and actually turned out to be a good investment as it saved me a lot of cash on extra tuition for my full licence.

My year on that taught me a lot that you just can't learn in a weeks training to pass the tests.

 

[ShoopCE]

If you insist

... The wife has said, in no uncertain terms, no one else wants to hear about the bike! Lol

HA!!!!!! I love that quote. I was sitting here laughing my way off of the sofa so my wife asked why. When I told her she laughed and said she thought she and other wives should form their own club and point their husbands to this forum. :thumbup:

Oh, and :welcome: to the forum!!!

Chris

 

[Yasko]

:welcome: from Texas:cheer:

 

[kenh]

The only slightly dubious history was actually done in the shop, when a customer nocked a line of bikes over, denting the tank, so its got a brand new tank on it too.

I thought that only happened in the movies? :rof:


My year on that taught me a lot that you just can't learn in a weeks training to pass the tests.

Absolutely, the fundamentals are the same and you earned some quality defensive driving experience I am sure.



... The wife has said, in no uncertain terms, no one else wants to hear about the bike! Lol

I get the same reaction at home.... this Spring when my Two Bro cans arrived in the mail and I showed my teenage daughter and exclaimed while peering through the exhaust opening that I could not wait to fire it up... her reaction, " yea Dad what ev....." :don'tknow:

 

[iviyth0s]

That scooter musta been SWEET on mileage. What kind of problems did it have and how fast did she top out? :thumbup:

You really did luck out on the FZ though, good work!

 

[payneib]

That scooter musta been SWEET on mileage. What kind of problems did it have and how fast did she top out? :thumbup:

You really did luck out on the FZ though, good work!

85-90mpg on the scooter and it would top out at 50-55mph. It would have been 100+mpg but I have an 84 mile round trip commute on country roads with a 60 limit, so it was at WOT for a lot of the time. The really annoying thing was, 84 mile round trip commute-85 to 90 mpg-on a one gallon tank......meant fuelling every night! Lol

Right, the problems:
Exhaust down pipe rotted through
Exhaust muffler mounting straps rotted through (x2)
Exhaust muffler outlet collapsed into the muffler
Intake tappet shattered, pieces of which jammed the timing chain and snapped that
Side stand kill switch fell off
All the lights filled with water
Spark plug port stripped the threads and had to be helicoiled
Crank case oil drain bung sheared off
Carb and air inlet manifold needed constant draining/cleaning due to the inlet and filter being six inches from the back wheel
The throttle cable needed adjusting twice a week
As did the valve clearances
The spark plug boot and spark plug would eat each other, meaning I had to keep spares of both on board at all times for when the boot would start just falling off
It would stall in cold weather once the auto-choke cut out, and then not idle again without constant input on the throttle because the auto-choke cut out temperature was about 40 degrees to low to keep the engine running, so I had to take the long slow route through town in the mornings to let it warm up before hitting the open road, and getting out of work at night was a nightmare of stalling, opening the security barrier, starting it up, getting through, stalling, getting my swipe card back in my pocket, then setting off again
And it's currently sat down the side of the house waiting for me to go back onto a shift rotation and have time to investigate its currently seized engine

But my god it was fun! Traffic light to light in the nearest city it would out strip any car, and keep up with some bigger bikes if they weren't expecting it, and get it on some twisty bits and you could really roll it around. There isn't a weather condition I haven't ridden in, including deep snow, and my instructor said that experience was invaluable to a quick DAS course.

Speaking of mpg.......what's everyone getting on the Fazers? As I'm pushing 62, which I wasn't expecting at all.

 

[darius]

Yikes. I expect you're one of the few who could repair them faster than they fell apart.

Reminds me of the quality Chinese motorcycles advertised on youtube. $2k for a new 250cc motorcycle. Complete scam.

250cc Street Legal Motor Bikes Sport Motorcycles

 

[iviyth0s]

85-90mpg on the scooter and it would top out at 50-55mph. It would have been 100+mpg but I have an 84 mile round trip commute on country roads with a 60 limit, so it was at WOT for a lot of the time. The really annoying thing was, 84 mile round trip commute-85 to 90 mpg-on a one gallon tank......meant fuelling every night! Lol

Right, the problems:
Exhaust down pipe rotted through
Exhaust muffler mounting straps rotted through (x2)
Exhaust muffler outlet collapsed into the muffler
Intake tappet shattered, pieces of which jammed the timing chain and snapped that
Side stand kill switch fell off
All the lights filled with water
Spark plug port stripped the threads and had to be helicoiled
Crank case oil drain bung sheared off
Carb and air inlet manifold needed constant draining/cleaning due to the inlet and filter being six inches from the back wheel
The throttle cable needed adjusting twice a week
As did the valve clearances
The spark plug boot and spark plug would eat each other, meaning I had to keep spares of both on board at all times for when the boot would start just falling off
It would stall in cold weather once the auto-choke cut out, and then not idle again without constant input on the throttle because the auto-choke cut out temperature was about 40 degrees to low to keep the engine running, so I had to take the long slow route through town in the mornings to let it warm up before hitting the open road, and getting out of work at night was a nightmare of stalling, opening the security barrier, starting it up, getting through, stalling, getting my swipe card back in my pocket, then setting off again
And it's currently sat down the side of the house waiting for me to go back onto a shift rotation and have time to investigate its currently seized engine

But my god it was fun! Traffic light to light in the nearest city it would out strip any car, and keep up with some bigger bikes if they weren't expecting it, and get it on some twisty bits and you could really roll it around. There isn't a weather condition I haven't ridden in, including deep snow, and my instructor said that experience was invaluable to a quick DAS course.

Speaking of mpg.......what's everyone getting on the Fazers? As I'm pushing 62, which I wasn't expecting at all.

HAHAHA at the WOT for cruising, what a trooper (you have to give it some credit, even with that essay of a problems).

I'm surprised you say it was fast (until max speed) though, was it a 2 cycle??

I get high 48.25 MPG US, so just under 58 by UK MPG scaling. I'm completely stock, half fairing model FZ6 from 2007.

Yikes. I expect you're one of the few who could repair them faster than they fell apart.

Reminds me of the quality Chinese motorcycles advertised on youtube. $2k for a new 250cc motorcycle. Complete scam.

250cc Street Legal Motor Bikes Sport Motorcycles

LOL here's the ways I knew it's garbage:

Strike 1-"4 Stroke 250CC Air cool Engine Top speed 65+ mph"

Strike 2-"EPA approved and street legal in all states Exclude CA, PA & NJ"

 

[odachi13]

These bikes which are flooding the markets here are horrendous. Most don't last the 3 years until their first MOT.
One of the problems is they come in a box and are put together by a dealer as quickly as possible to get them sold, nothing is properly done up, nothing is greased like it should, luckily if the wheels are balanced.

£60 seems steep for the ACF50 coating, surely it's a good experience for you to get intimate with your new lady for the first time with a good old clean and coat it yourself? It's handy to learn your way around it, how the tank comes up, where the fuses are, oil filter etc.

But other than that, congrats. My 05 cost more than that with significantly more miles!

 

[payneib]

£60 seems steep for the ACF50 coating, surely it's a good experience for you to get intimate with your new lady for the first time with a good old clean and coat it yourself? It's handy to learn your way around it, how the tank comes up, where the fuses are, oil filter etc.

To be honest with you. I specifically don't want to become acquainted with "Alices'" under skirts at all. I'm an industrial electrician now, I was a Killick Stoker in the Navy, so I've worked on all kinds of kit from 33,000hp gas turbines to four cylinder diesel driven pumps, and all sorts of bits in between. I want everything on this bike done professionally. I just haven't got the time, space or tooling to work on this without a bodge being involved somewhere. So taking it to this guy for its valet and coating, who's got a van full of angled nozzles and treatments and waxes and detergents is a start. Obviously I'll still clean it, but nothing more than a rinse off with bike shampoo once this coatings on.

But other than that, congrats. My 05 cost more than that with significantly more miles!

I can't believe how lucky I was. Same age and mileage is generally going for 1.5 times, sometimes double what I paid for it. The guy was in his late 40s, early 50s and it was just too much for him and put it up for sale after a year. He put the money towards a cruiser, which I can understand. It's one of the things I like about it. It's Japanese enough to be fast, reliable and practical all year round in our crap weather, but that naked body with the single headlamp, big old saddle to move about on and get comfortable mixed with the Renthal(?) bars give it such a retro, almost cafe racer feel once you're on it.