Oldfjman Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 After over 20 years of service, in early 2010 I decided it was time to give my FJ1200 a spruce up and to replace/upgrade a few bits (it had done over 50k miles, but was running perfectly). Since I'd bought an Aprilia RSV Mille as my main "fun" and track-day bike in 2003, this FJ had seen little use other than occasional touring over the period 2005-2009. Other issues that compounded things were that my wife had a Fazer 1000 which I also rode and we had trail/enduro bikes which we rode - at one point there were 11 bikes in the garage. On top of these, I got promoted at work in 2004, then we moved 200 miles in 2006 and work got even more heavy, so less and less of my time got devoted to the FJ. In 2009, we decided to take our youngest son a touring holiday, so the FJ saw some use in 2009 and early 2010, but just then I took ill (quite seriously with a lung disorder) and after medical attention, my recovery plan from the doctor was exercise, exercise and more exercise - so I became a very regular cyclist which ate up even more of my spare time Just when things began to settle down and we got into a routine, around 2011, instead of using my extra free time to concentrate on picking up the FJ project, I decided to check an item off my bucket list and get my helicopter pilot's licence and so for the next 5 years, my life was devoted to other things than the FJ !! To top all of this off, we had health issues with my wife's parents in the USA and my mother in the UK, so between caring and travelling, we had almost no time to ourselves. Anyway, this year saw my second attempt at retirement and an improvement in the care situation for our parents, so at the end of July 2018, I decided to actually start on the FJ project.The "Spruce up" consisted of the following steps.Strip the bike to rub down, de-rust, re paint & lacquer the frame. Add additional protection pads where the loom rubbed the frame for better loom protection. Clean, check and refresh covering on the loom where necessary. Replace all bulbs (and ultimately replace front brake light switch) Clean and re paint the engine, strip, clean, polish and paint engine covers, grab handles, yokes, footrest hangers etc, etc, etc..... Clean the (original) body panels and repair all of the mounting tab brackets and the small number of cracks that had appeared since 1989. Add foam pads to dampen vibration at all fixing points. Remove and give to a friend, my entire front end - install the FZR 1000 RU (acquired in 2007) front end, and add aftermarket discs, R1 calipers, FZ1 bar risers and handlebars, FZS 600 brake master cylinder, braided stainless lines and new steering head bearings. Home made lock stop to ensure steering lock remained in use and retained front brake splitter (I have a set of individual brake lines but will only use them if I feel they are "necessary"). Remove and give to the same friend, my rear wheel, disc etc and replace with the 17" wheel and disc from a YZF 600 Thundercat. Modify caliper carrier, new pads and add stainless braided line. Repaint both wheels to approx match to original silver/grey colour (used Ford Nimbus Grey as recommended by UK FJOC). Replace all seals/pistons in brake and clutch master cylinders and slave cylinder. Clean check and re-install all brake caliper pistons (all good !). Replace shock with Hagon unit. Clean and regrease or replace suspension linkage bearings. Remove, strip, clean and refurbish (with new diaphragms) the carbs - ended up doing the remove and clean 3 times before I was happy. Clean, polish and re-lacquer the exhaust (period Remus stainless with alloy can shroud). I was going to replace the oil cooler with a high performance unit, but am awaiting delivery, so I removed, stripped and repainted the original cooler and lines before re-fitting for use until the new one arrives. Tyres chosen were Bridgestone BT023's in 120/70x17 and 170/60x17 sizes. And.... generally refresh each part before I put it back on the bike and replaced almost all original (except for "visible" bodywork screws) nuts/bolts/washers and screws with same dimension stainless steel items. I'm sure there was a lot more that i did just in terms of tarting up and refurb'ing bits, and I also did the basics of changing all fluids, filters etc and made sure everything was "correct" as it went back on. The bike flew through its MOT with positive comments about how well it seemed to be "put together" and how good it looked There are still a couple of very minor cosmetic things to complete, but these aside, it was complete and "finished", so I decided to take it on a near 1200 mile round trip to tour Northen Ireland last week. The bike was perfect, nothing fell off, nothing went wrong, nothing vibrated loose ! I've added a couple of pictures below and hope you'll all agree that the effort was worthwhile - wherever possible, I've tried to keep the bike looking close to standard or "period-modified" standard (yes, even down to a few red anodised bolts for the fuel cap and screen). I wanted it to look "standard" to anyone who doesn't know FJ's and hope you like it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 That looks lovely mate, well done you. For an old bike they have a real presence, I love my FJR but miss the FJ all that low down grunt is something you have to experience to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finnerz89 Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 That looks mint [emoji108]Good choice with the wheel swap too, you can get some really decent rubber on it now!Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfjman Posted September 30, 2018 Author Share Posted September 30, 2018 Cheers guys. i know I can fit a 180/55 tyre on the rear, but thought I'd gîve the 170/60 a try first and so far, I'm not disappointed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neversaydie Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bippo Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Very nice indeed [emoji106] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator drewpy Posted October 1, 2018 Moderator Share Posted October 1, 2018 lovely, a credit to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchFJ1200 Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Hey, there's my bike!! Looks lovely. I'm sure that front end conversion makes a bit of a difference. Left hand side looks a bit 'naked' without the pipe there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfjman Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 Thank you all The combination of suspension, wheels and tyres has made a big difference Dutch (a positive one) ! I must admit though, I do like the "cleaner" look on the chain side that a 4 into 1 gives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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