cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 I thought I would join in on the racebike build fun and show What Ive been up to. I joined the group here within the last couple months because I picked up and FZ-07 from a member here and need to learn about them quickly so this was a great place to read and learn. You all know these bikes and its been fun following and reading along as I learn and turn this bike into my own. My back story is I started racing in 2006 with the MRA in Colorado and have raced most seasons since with only missing a few and last season being one of the ones I missed. This one was due to injury at the first round. I had a pretty big crash and got a very serious concussion and broken collar bone so missed the rest of the season. I have always race Honda CBR 600s in the past so this Yamaha is a way different creature and am super excited to try something different. I have wanted an FZ for many years and was finally able to make it happen. Joe Kraft put his up for sale and I pounced on it pretty fast to make it happen. We made the deal and then waited a couple weeks for it to show up. Here it is as it showed up from Joe. Very cool bike and mostly built the way I wanted it but still felt like it needed my own personal touch. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Once I got the bike it was time to start making a plan and ordering parts. First items I ordered were the rearset plates and a slipper clutch. Ordered the Sutter clutch and Robem Engineering rearset plates and got those installed. Pretty simple so far and easy to install. Took it for a spin around the block to check it out. I then realized the springs are way to stiff for me as I am only about 145 pounds without gear so ordered a new spring for the rear and determined what to use for the front. Joe had send extra springs for the front so was able to swap those out for the next project. Not to big of a deal other than needing the special wrench for the KTech forks I didnt have so had ordered that when I ordered the rear spring. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Being here in Colorado I know Jason Madama and have always admired the FZ he raced in Moto America last season with the R6 bodywork on it. After talking with him a bunch and talking to different bodywork companies I decided to order all the bodywork from Sharkskinz along with a Tightails upper fairing stay. What I ordered was a combination of R6 upper, side panels, tail, undertail and seat pan and a tank cover, lower and fairing stay for the FZ-07. The good news is I was able to order all from the same company in one fell swoop but they did give me so long pauses on the phone when I was ordering. It took a lot of explaining. LOL. Then after waiting several weeks it finally showed up. The R6 stuff took the longest because it was the same time all the big teams where prepping bikes for Daytona so it was the waiting game for them to make it. I also will say, I do have a nice shop to work in here at my house but its not heated so the bikes live in my attached garage during the winter months. I dont normally work on my bikes in the home gym in my garage but its nice and toasty so I had to make do until the weather warms up. Bodywork shows up and I got started on it right away. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me but did get several tips from Jason on how to make the sides line up with the lower fairings and where to cut them for attaching together. He was very helpful in the process as Im not sure I would have attempted this without his guidance. I did do all the work myself but I dont have the fab shop or tools to do what a lot of you are able to do. Mine is a tab more crude in design and cutting phase but it works for me. Once I get it all put together and fitted Ill probably enlist some help from some fab guys to make the pieces look better. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 I did have to cut the subframe off right behind the seat mount brackets and the low tubes were cut off leaving a couple inches for future use if needed. Im not sure at this point how the rear subframe is going to look or be shaped but I have a few Ideas. Needless to say lots of blue tape and clamps were used to get everything mounted up but I did finally get it where I liked everything and I could send it off to paint. A buddy of mine I used the race with saw what I was doing and said he would paint it for me for a good price so I was just a matter of getting it to him and getting it back when he was done. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Here is my crude seat/tail bracket to get everything lined up and attached to the bike. I dont think it will stay like this for race season but at least its a starting point for something nicer to be made and has all the locations for mounts and height for everything. I was able to use the tightails upper fairing stay exactly like it was with the exception of the top 3 or 4 inches. I had to bend the last few inches where the tabs are up to meet up with the fairing on either side of the windscreen but it worked very well and also was able to use the mount kit parts for the FZ bodywork for the lower sides. Once everything was fitted, drill and set it the bodywork was off to paint. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossrider Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 I like the look. Nothing wrong with your 'crude' work, looks like clever artistic improvisation to me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Bodywork came back from paint! Its not a perfect job but its certainly good enough for a racebike. I had it done all one color as my plan was to learn how to do a vinyl wrap. Ive put tons of stickers and numbers on before but never full graphics on a bike. Before I usually did a single color or a rattle can paint job but wanted this one a bit nicer so that was the plan. I just had to learn to do it so that was the next step. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossrider Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 A little athletic Triumph 675 vibe mixed in there, looks very nice. Me likey. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Vinyl shows up and its time to get to work. I tried a couple pieces on the tail to see how to do it and how hard it was going to be. I got the knifeless tape so practicing with that was key before I was going to try doing the real pattern. First attempts were ok but not anything to brag about. Corners were ok but not great. The good news is actual wrap vinyl is pretty easy to lay and get all the bubbles out. That made me happy as having vinyl with a boat load of bubbles and general crapiness was not going to make be very happy. I am fairly picky when it comes to stuff like this so needed to practice up. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Now we are up to this last weekend. Friday night after work I started laying shapes out and putting ideas to bodywork. Started with the front and bottom of the windscreen Then had a buddy with a vinyl cutter cut some number for it to design around. I also was able to use a hair dryer and razor blade to very carefully remove the Nicky Hayden and Dane Westby stickers from the original bodywork and reuse them so that was pretty cool 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Late Friday night I was able to get part of the lower done with numbers and color. Things are starting to come together! I went to be very tired as it was late but also woke very early as I wanted to get started on the rest of the design. I was quite eager to go and was feeling pretty confident with the parts I had already done to tackle the really hard stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 I have always loved the Anniversary Edition Yamaha ever since they did it on Ben Spies and Lorenzos bikes for Laguna in 2011 so the plan was a version of that for this bike. I started by laying out with regular painters tape (light green) and then following that with the knifeless tape (dark green). The knifeless tape has a wire in it that you pull thought the vinyl once its all in place. The trick is to remember the order the knifeless tape was installed as it needs to be removed in the correct order if it crosses in any locations. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 By saturday night I had both sides done and the top of the tail. This took a long, long time to make sure everything was even and as crisp as I could make it. I know, this is probably way more work than I should have but into a racebike that could be thrown down the track but once I got started it just kept going and going and I was liking it more and more and more. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Sunday morning, same thing, woke up too early but the mind was racing so it was time to get at it. I still had a lot to do and wanted to get started. I started with the undertail. The black was going to be the hardest part to wrap because its very round and there was going to need to be a lot of heat and stretching to get it wrapped even remotely well. It took a very long time for the black and red on the undertail and I almost stopped at that point but decided to keep going on the section between the lower pattern and the upper. As of now this is how its sits and am very please with it to this point. I do still want to add some red to the lower triangle that is white between the 1/2" black strips but after that its just the stickers to finish it off. The last picture is how it currently sits. I hope to get some more work done on it this weekend. I have a Brembo master to put on and bleed out, and figure out the rest of the subframe support since right now all thats holding it up are the two top tubes from the original frame. I dont think this is enough support to race on so will need to figure out what to add so its more like a real subframe. Sorry for the very very long bunch of posts but wanted to share and get all caught up to where it is now and how I got here. Its been fun so far and cant wait to actually put it on track if they ever open back up. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hosleymoto Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Nice bike!! I’m also fitting up a new R6 body to my FZ, I was digging Madamas setup and picked his brain on it too. Thinking of going with an R1 tail or might layup my own version based off the stock FZ. Going to be an on going summer project since i need to start getting seat time to get the new suspension straightened out. Madama said it took some work to make it not look wonky so I figured best not to rush it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 8 minutes ago, Hosleymoto said: Nice bike!! I’m also fitting up a new R6 body to my FZ, I was digging Madamas setup and picked his brain on it too. Thinking of going with an R1 tail or might layup my own version based off the stock FZ. Going to be an on going summer project since i need to start getting seat time to get the new suspension straightened out. Madama said it took some work to make it not look wonky so I figured best not to rush it. The original tail on my bike is an R1 tail. You can install it without cutting the frame or not having to do too much modifications. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Evill_Ed Posted May 1, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted May 1, 2020 Your bike looks great. Nice job 1 "Do not let this bad example influence you, follow only what is good" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member cornerslider Posted May 1, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted May 1, 2020 Nicely done!!! Probably one of the sharpest bodywork combos I've seen. The R1 tail section really makes it - 1 ""W.O.T. until you see god, then brake" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member fzar Posted May 2, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted May 2, 2020 Really interesting to read through your process. Very cool looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
br4nd0n Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Yes, finally someone besides Madama that used the R6 bodywork for this bike. All of the other typical body styles for the FZ/MT-07 I've seen look pretty ugly IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member pgeldz Posted May 2, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted May 2, 2020 What a great build! Loving it man! Keep up the great work! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 Got a bit more done on the racebike today. Made a bracket to fit in the faring stay to mount the gauge too. I couldnt see it very well in the provided mount because the laptimer is in the way so this allows me to raise it for better view. Strapped it on temporary to make sure everything works as planned then I will take it off and have it welded permanently. Also had to rebuild a free brembo master, replace the levers install it and make a bracket for the res. Got it all on and all bled out so now it has brakes again. Replaced the rear brake res with a length of tygon tubing. Did a few other tidy up items also like mount transponder bracket, fill water overflow and put on several stickers to make it go faster since each one is worth a MPH on the back straight, Right? Still have a few items to do like make brackets to mount the front fender since the stock on is not going to work. It will hit when hard braking so I have an 04 CBR fender that is going on it. Havent quite decided how to support the rear subframe yet but have several ideas and knowing me what ever is the hardest is what Im going to tackle. LOL. Also will be taking it down to my tuner to have the map checked with the fuel I will be using to see how close it is and adjust as needed. Contemplating a different intake set up as well so that will require it to be remapped. Havent decided which direction to go with that yet.... So much to do... so little time. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scratchpad Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Good stuff, cool write up. Your fork tube s placement look a little extreme to me with the stock setup. Unless you have longer fork tubes which i dont see why you would with the oem front end and rear link. You may not have to change out your front fender is what im getting at. I ran that setup for 4 years. It works great with proper internals and rear shock. My forks were at or near flush with the top triple. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosp600rr Posted May 4, 2020 Author Share Posted May 4, 2020 48 minutes ago, scratchpad said: Good stuff, cool write up. Your fork tube s placement look a little extreme to me with the stock setup. Unless you have longer fork tubes which i dont see why you would with the oem front end and rear link. You may not have to change out your front fender is what im getting at. I ran that setup for 4 years. It works great with proper internals and rear shock. My forks were at or near flush with the top triple. I dont have a rear link but based this setting off a well know racer in my club with a very similar set up. Also with the R6 bodywork its much closer to the front fender than with the FZ bodywork so I think I need to do the front fender anyway. I havent even ridden it on the track yet so will know more about the front height once I do. All I noticed riding around me neighborhood was that it turns slower than the other other bikes Im used to. Track time will tell for sure. Thanks for the info and Ill make a note in my spreadsheet about your suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scratchpad Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Cool it’s a great bike. Have fun! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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