Well, my screen name is no longer accurate! Had a buddy selling his mint 2007 R1 and clean titled 2007 R6 to pay for a 2015 R1. He offered it to me for what he had in it, and it was too good to pass up. Decided to make the jump to the R-Sizzle! Wasn't sure about getting it, but the wife said this is my birthday present, so if she's happy with it, I'll roll with it. Can't complain about that. Here she is in all of her glory! Pics don't make it look like much, but it's not as rough as the pics show. I have all the fairings except for a mid fairing and the tank skirts, as well as the seats and lights. Also came with a brand new fairing stay. Has a little rash on the GYTR tip, so I'll pull that off, sand it off, and coat it black. Not a fan of the exhaust, so I will look at getting that replaced. Has a flashed ECU from Bauce Racing already, so that's cool. Plan on pulling the bike apart and going through the valves to make sure they are in spec, and adjust if needed. Even if they don't need any adjustments, at least I'll know where they are for future reference. Peace of mind sort of thing. I'm not too sure about the gold wheels. I'm thinking of swapping for a set of black wheels, but we'll see. Need to see how it's going to look with the paint scheme I have in mind. Initial plans include spec'ing the valves, new battery, fix a minor leak with the oil cooler, change the fluids, safety wire, set the suspension, paint and rip up the track. Want to get some track skins, modify the OE slipper clutch, and some small tidbits like Renthal grips and swapping to GP shift.
Thanks JTR! I keep going back and forth on the wheels. One minute I hate them, the next I like them. We'll see how they look when the fairings are painted, and go from there. I may just keep them, buy a black set, and keep one as the backup/rain set.
So the game plan is to get the bike back to street trim, then get her done up in track trim, where she will spend most of its' time. Well, yesterday a buddy and I brought the bike home from another friend's house. First thing that bugged me was the tinted headlights. They looked good tinted, but the Lamin-X covers were peeling up, so they looked pretty janky. The upside of the covers means the lenses underneath were in mint condition, so that's cool. Corners and edges peeling... Halfway done... All ready to be installed... Today, I am going to check out some fairing issues on a buddy's 2015 R1, and then I plan to mock up the fairings so I know what I need to order.
Got a little work done this weekend. Can't wait for this turd to sparkle again. First things first, I wanted to take a gander at the valves. Had an issue with the bike not wanting to start, especially when the engine is warm, so I figured they would need some love. Did they ever! 15 of 16 valves were out of spec, with the #1 and #4 cylinder exhaust valves being way out of spec. Tear down begins. Wife was gone, so the bike came inside to be worked on in the living room. Cams, timing chain, cam sprockets, and keepers all looked to be in good shape... Pulled the cams on Sunday. Did all the math to figure out the shims I needed, and will be putting in a order this week for the ones I need. Since I can't go any further with the valves until the new shims get here, I got to work on the fairing stay. One of the ears was broken off where the mirror mounts, so the previous owner ordered a new stay. For some reason, the stay was really tight where it mounted to the neck of the frame, so I had to Dremel a slight bit off of either side. Not sure if the stay is OEM or not, but fitment was just a touch off, so I'm guessing it's not. If it has any affect on the mounting of bodywork, I'll order a new OEM stay. Got the gauges and wiring harness all swapped to the new stay.... Since I'll be waiting a little bit for the shims to come in, I will spend this week tearing apart the brakes to check pad life and proper function, and rebuild the calipers, if needed. I have to replace two bolts that mount the subframe to the frame, and will then start with the fun process of fixing the OE bodywork. The previous owner did much of the work, but there are some flaws from being moved around storage. Since prep work makes or breaks the final paint job, I'll be dedicating some extra time to that.
While you're in that area, you should cut the cross bar that surrounds the airbox (the one in the back). The 08+ bikes had this done at the factory to allow more flex/feel from the chassis.
Any chance you could clarify? Are you talking about the brace with '200' and 'Y-3' between the frame rails?
Yes. If you look at an 08+ frame, that brace is gone. The cut is almost from the last "0" to the "y" so there is still a lip left on each side. See pic. Something else that is different is the lower triple clamps. The 08+ clamps are straight which have a higher connect point than the 06/07. This also improves feel. Check out this thread... http://www.r6-forum.com/forums/56-s...ce.html#/forumsite/20693/topics/264362?page=1
Yeah it is, but it should have a great result (if you do it). The lower triple is a must too. I guess Yamaha went way too stiff on the 06/07 chassis
Didn't get as much work done this week as I hoped, due to waiting on shims, but today is the day the top end goes back together! Hopefully this goes smooth, and the bike is running by dinner time tonight. Pulled the janky exhaust off, and to my surprise, it was less janky than I thought. I sanded off the rash on the tip, and will get that coated to make it look better. Plan on replacing the exhaust in the future, but for now, I'll roll with it. Just trying to get it road-worthy at the moment, and do upgrades later. Picture of the rash on the canister tip... All stripped down and ready for some attention... Also noticed the subframe had some play in it where it mounted to the frame. Found out half the bolts that hold the SF to the frame were stripped out, and not holding much. Oh the joys of rebuilding project bikes. Always finding little Easter Eggs... This is the condition of two of the bolts... More progress updates coming soon!
Got the new valve shims picked up on Friday, installed them, put the cams back in, re-checked clearances, all was good, so buttoned everything back up. Top end is nice and healthy. Put some new NGK CR10EK plugs in while I was at it. Cleaned the throttle bodies and installed those and the air box. Tank was then installed, including the tank panels and front cover. I found a local guy selling the tank panels, the trim pieces below the clipons, and a mid fairing I was missing for a whooping $40! Can't beat that! The threads on the frame that held the subframe were too damaged to be safe. Only a couple threads on each hole was still there. Ran a drill through to remove the remaining threads, and slid new stainless bolts through, securing them with a nylon lock nut. The clip on retaining bolts and plugs weren't on the bike, so those were ordered and installed. New clipons will be ordered in the future if the stock bars aren't good enough.
Had to switch to GP shift because it's much more normal to me. Stock... GP... Addressed an issue with the headlights, and got those mounted to the new fairing stay. Sanded the rash on the tip of the exhaust. Coated it matte black, along with the bottom portion of the canister, and reassembled. Looks less terrible than before. I'll be upgrading to a Leo Vince, Akrapovic, or Arrow in the future when I can find a good deal, but for now, this will work. Put the seats on to see if the shift lever was positioned properly, and made some vroom-vroom noises. Starting to look like a bike again. Getting excited to finally ride this thing. Going to continue working on the bodywork this evening, and hopefully have all of that ready for paint in the next few days. Need to figure out where/when I will actually do the painting, but first things, first.
Thanks Marc! It's getting there. Think I finally came to terms with a paint scheme, so hopefully that will be in the works shortly.
Got all of the plastics sanded and prepped for paint. Had to get an idea of how it looks, so mounted everything with zipties. Of course the weather isn't looking good for the next week or two, so painting will have to wait until it warms up. My luck. Getting anxious. In the meantime, I have fluids and filters to replace, flush the brakes, swap tires, safety wire, all the boring stuff....
One of the things that bothered me and my OCD was the hideous exhaust. The original owner had put an '05 cat-less header on, but didn't do it properly. The header needs a reducer installed to mate with the GYTR pipe. Instead of welding the reducer on, they used a worm gear clamp that is designed for hoses. Since it doesn't tighten as much as needed, they then installed some header wrap to seal everything up. Clearly this didn't work, as noted by the stains on the pipe from where it wasn't sealing. Took off the header, removed the clamps, wrap, and reducer, and walked around to the welding and machine shop around the corner. Told the guy what I needed, he dropped what he was working on, and 20 minutes later, had everything TIG'd together. Took it home, hit it with some VHT until I can get it coated more permanently, and reinstalled. All in all, not a bad way to go for now. Still going to look into replacing it, but for $50 and a $10 tip for getting it done while I waited, I can't complain. You can sort of see the wrap and clamp job that was on there.... What it looked like with the clamps and wrap removed... All welded up... Mounted and sprayed. Not perfect, but will do until I get a full system. Just need to get the proper clamp installed for the slip on, and she'll be ready to rock. Had planned on painting the fairings myself, but after talking to a painter that I've worked with in the past, he offered to paint everything, prime/base/clear/buff, for $400-450 in a very nice metallic black. Now I just have to decide if I want to save the headache of painting and have him do it, or spray them myself.