Repair/Upgrade my FZ6

[DownrangeFuture]

So, since my FZ6 got laid down I've been waiting to repair it. The insurance check finally got here and posted to my bank on Wednesday so I ordered all my parts.

The rizoma handlebars, sportline grips, bar ends, and my new rear flashers came in today. So I put them on today. Well everything but the new turn signals, they won't fit on the stock shovel so I've got to wait for my FE kit to get here.

Anyway, I like the feel of the new bar, it's a bit wider and lower than the stock one. But the angle seems better. It's a bit late for a ride today, but I've got a group ride tomorrow, so I'll let you know.

Oh, and excuse the mess. We're just finishing up a move and all the boxes and my broke down katana are cluttering up the garage. We just got a bit lazy towards the end.

 

[DownrangeFuture]

So after a ride on the bike, I love the new bars. I may tilt them back just a hair, but they're awesome.

The grips are smaller, so those of us on the smaller side have an easier reach to the levers. I was able to stiffen the clutch and brake up quite a bit and it made a huge difference in shifting/braking. The bars aren't actually any longer than the stock ones, but they feel that way since the sweep is a lot less. I found I leaned further forward, but it was actually more comfortable. And the throttle has almost no free play now. Much snappier, with less slop.

And the vibes? Just about non-existent. It actually made the vibes everywhere else more noticeable since your butt and feet are vibrating wildly, and your hands and arms aren't.

And as a side note, the stock control housings have a tab that locks into a hole on the bottom of the stock bars. The rizoma bars don't have that hole, so you have to remove the tab. To keep the control housings from moving around, I used a wrap or two of electrical tape around the bar on both sides of each housing. Electrical tape is mostly weatherproof and it's black. But I mostly got it hidden under the controls so it didn't really matter on the color. I didn't think to take pictures of that part though.

 

[DownrangeFuture]

Got more parts in yesterday and I got them installed. Wanted to wait until after a ride test to update.

First of all, I found this FE kit for about $50 on ebay. That's for the light and the bracket. customizedbikeparts items - Get great deals on FENDER ELIMINATORS, HEEL GUARDS items on eBay Stores! I like the FZ6 logo, and now I just need to backlight it so you can see it at night. :thumbup: For some reason he doesn't have any black listed, but if you contact him, he has no problem swapping out whatever color you want. I even ordered a red plate light by accident, and he contacted me to make sure I wanted red. Which I didn't, so he swapped it for a white one, no problems. Too bad all he really makes are FE kits. I'd buy more from him. You can see my Rizoma signals in this pic. I tried to get video but my camera crapped out.

I did manage to get all the wires to fit in the stock run under the muffler there. The black boxes and the resistors are under the left fender. It's a tight fit under there, but they fit. For anyone that does these lights, the black goes to the black on the stock wire, and the red goes to the other color in the harness.

Installed some of luckyirishboy209's inserts. Feet are rock solid on the pegs. Vibes up though. It doesn't really matter to me though. I keep my heels on the heel guards so my feet get vibes either way.

And the sliders. I got the axle sliders too, but the whole camera crapping out thing...


Only issue I had was it's absolutely dead quiet when you turn the key on. It used to have that little whine like a fuel pump kicking on or something. And my fan won't turn on. Hmm... It ran fine for the roughly 90 mile round trip to work, other than it started to get hot getting into base. :spank: Guess I get to break it back down and check for loose connectors tonight. Unless someone just knows off the top of their head which one it is.

 

[DownrangeFuture]

Fuel pump connectors loose (not clicked in) and somehow I disconnected the plug for the fan relay. Don't know how. It wasn't broken, and I couldn't get it back off once it was on. :don'tknow:

And when you turn the key with the engine cutoff switch in the off position, it doesn't run the fuel pump or something. I wasn't using the switch really until the last day or two when I started making myself turn the bike off in neutral. Which in retrospect isn't a good idea either. Maybe I should just make sure I know what gear it's in before I leave. I somehow parked in 4th one day, and just took off like it was first, so I thought it was a good idea to always leave it in neutral. Now I'm having visions of the bike rolling off the kickstand.

Anyway, this is me... :banghead:

 

[Nightster6]

I like the reflectors on your licence plate... where did you get those?

 

[DownrangeFuture]

Sorry for taking forever to respond.

As for those reflectors, they're the ones the dealership put on the bike when my plate came in. I've seen them around the interwebs for cheap, but I can't comment on any of them.

And the rest of my broken plastics came in, but I've been so busy. Got to get a move on soon though.

 

[ngsm13]

Where did you buy the grips and bar at?