As with so many of these types of projects, this started
with a crash. One morning in October,
2006 I was headed to Case Western, ready to start another day in the dental
school clinic. Making the left turn down
towards the parking garage the road was clear so I decided to pull a small
wheelie – bad choice. During the night ongoing
construction left a fine layer of concrete dust on the road surface. The rear tire spun and slid left, the front
tire landed quite sideways and between a lack of traction and lack of skill the
front slid for several feet until plastic started grinding. In an instant I was sliding on my back and
watching my beloved blue/white 1991 FZR 1000 slide down then up the hill then auger
into the front wheel of a parked car. 12
years of ownership and more modifications than I care to think about and it’s
all bent up. Just look at those poor
forks and rim. Of course one of those
mods is a fully build 1040cc motor with ported heads, forged pistons, billet
clutch, undercut transmission, stage III carb tuning and several other mods I
can’t think of right now so not all is lost.
After an appropriate mourning period and purchasing a 2001
Yamaha R1, I found a YZF 750 frame with a clean title on e-Bay and much to the
chagrin of my wife I won. Thus was born
the decision to build a Yamamonster replica.
E-Bay boxes started flowing in from various corners of the States as I
sold off various FZR parts to offset some
expenses. Swingarm, forks, rims,
tank, various brackets and pieces.
Eventually I had a rolling chassis in need of a motor. Thankfully, 750 and 1000 EXUP motors are
built on the same bottom-end so the swingarm pivot is a direct bolt-in. After fabricating the most home-built looking
upper mounting brackets from a thin sheet of steel and several crude-looking
bolts the bike was starting to look like something other than a mess.
Life continued to get in the way. In 2008 I graduated from dental school and we
moved to Las Vegas for a 1 year residency at Nellis Air Force Base. Anyone that’s completed a residency will
understand the bike basically sat in the corner. After graduation we PCS’ed to Lackland AFB in
San Antonio, Tx and I finally had some quality family time. It was time to finish this 3-plus year old
project. Using my crude thin sheet metal
brackets as a template I took some 1/4” thick steel plates and ground them into
some decent looking brackets that weigh 1 lb each with bolts. Here is a really bad picture that shows the
left side bracket.
The second picture was taken 07 August 2010. Up to this point I had everything together
well enough to get the bike running.
Things that I had completed up to this point: 1994 YZF 750 front forks
fitted with 1997 YZF 1000 blue-dot brakes then rebuilt, stripped and painted
the lower fork legs black. Front and
rear wheel bearings replaced. 1997
YZF750 radiator fitted, stripped and painted black. Tuned FZR1000 motor with 4 – 2 – 1 Arrow full
exhaust pipe, ECU and wiring harness fitted and modified to accommodate the YZF750
in-tank fuel pump. FZR1000 Fox shock
modified and fitted with all rear linkage bearings replaced. Swingarm polished to match frame (polished
prior to purchase). Rear brake stripped,
cleaned and painted black.
From here things started to get more fun. Bodywork was ordered from Sharkskinz – WSB
upper with windscreen, lower and tail section.
Unfortunately, when it arrived this is how the boxes looked – note the
crushed area is right over the FRAGILE sticker!
However, Sharkskinz reputation
as having the most durable aftermarket bodywork produced paid off. No damage occurred – Kristen was particularly
happy to have these motorcycle pieces in her dining room…
Their arrival precipitated mounting
it up, making a couple of brackets and then prep’ing everything for paint,
including the front fender and tank.
Unfortunately, because the Arrow pipe doesn’t follow the FZR motor
tightly it hangs over 1 inch below the oil pan and I had to trim away almost
half the lower fairing. Again,
Sharkskinz reputation held and after mounting the bodywork only required a
light scuffing to be ready for paint.
Determined to keep this a track-only bike I decided to use relatively
cheap Duplicolor lacquer pre-mixed paints.
Of course, I had to use the Candy Colors so it still cost about $130
between the silver base, candy translucent and clear coats needed. But that’s much better than the $600 or so I
paid for paint supplies when spraying my TZR250! Here are some before and after pictures and
how my garage was transformed into a paint booth.
On 20 September, 2010 I was
able to finally take the bike around the block – and nothing fell off! I also was determined to NOT wet sand and
buff out the orange peel texture of the paint.
It’s a race bike for crying out loud!
So 2 weeks later I was happily sanding and polishing the paint on a bike
that only needs to look good at 100 mph.
If you look carefully at the radiator opening on the left side you can
see the aluminum water bottle I modified to take the place of the radiator
reservoir since I needed the space to mount the Fox shock. I also managed to find a rather rare set of
Attack rearsets. Now if I could just
find the Attack manual clutch conversion kit and rear suspension linkage. Hens teeth, those pieces are.
A couple other small details
were completed, like a seat pad, and I was ready to complete my first track day
with this bike. However, repaving delays
at Harris Hill Raceway and Uncle Sam had other plans so in October, 2010 I
headed off to Baghdad, Iraq with a newly completed and never properly ridden
track bike waiting my return. Finally in
June 2011 I was able to take it to the track.
Other than a couple of minor issues (gauges falling off…) everything
worked well.
Since then I’ve been working at making the bike
lighter. First, I just started removing
things not needed. So, the radiator fans
are gone – 4 lbs! The rear brake
reservoir was replaced with a small tube – 0.5 lbs. The chain was swapped for a 520 and a 2 teeth
larger aluminum rear sprocket was fitted, saving something like 3 lbs. The fuel filler cap was replaced with an
aluminum cap, 1 lb. The entire wiring
harness was stripped of everything not needed – 1.0 lb. While rewiring I removed the keyed ignition
and replaced it with a lightweight START button, saving another 1 lb. The speedometer was removed, 1 lb was
lost. As it sits, with no gas it weighs
something like 385 lbs. Next will be a
lithium ion battery, saving about 7 lbs.
The dream list includes Marvic/Marchesini forged rims (stronger,
lighter), carbon fiber fuel tank (7 lbs lighter), Brembo brake rotors, and the
smallest, lightest rear brake caliper and disk I can fit. Replacing various brackets, including the
fuel tank, gauge cluster and upper fairing mounting brackets with aluminum
pieces, along with all non-load bearing bolts with aluminum would be a nice
touch. Fairy tale stuff would include
replacing all load bearing bolts and axles with titanium. If I can get it down to 350-360 lbs without
fuel I’d be quite happy. Right up until
I crash it, then a new saga will commence.
