Painted the frame

Since I had the bike pretty much torn apart I decided to paint the frame.  I chose to go with Dupli-Color "Graphite".  it was close to the stock frame color but a little more silver/grey.  I'm really happy with the way it came out.  I also got a set of stock dog bones from a guy on the FZ1 forum and raised the bike back up to stock height in the rear.  This weekend I'm going to try and get the front raised back up to stock as well.

Here are pics of the frame paint:

Bike is done for the season...

I've been having a gas leak problem on the bike so I finally decided to put the bike away for winter already and start pulling it apart.  Got the carb bank off and found that ALL 4 carbs had cracked float bowls to to over tightening of the drain bolt.  The #3 bolt was in so tight I can't get it out and the #4 bowl had silicone in it to try and seal the cracks.  WTF?!  Of course the bowls are like the only part on the bike that you can no longer buy so it looks like this winter I'll be trying to find either new bowls or new carbs.

FZ1 "Project"

Not really a project but here is a list of things I've done to the FZ1 so far and some plans to come:

• Wired the rear brake light to act as tail, brake, and turn signals
• Got a set of bar end mirrors
• Added a Fiamm Highwayblaster horn
• Fixed the throttle from sticking

Things on the way

• Have a new clutch lever and perch coming, the stock one was loose
• Have a set of Driven grips on the way
• Have a set of LED front turn signals coming

This winter

• I plan to rip out the emissions junk and while I have the radiator off I'll change the plugs
• I might do a new handlebar or repaint the current one, if so I'll do it before I do the grips
• New brake lever

And I think that is it.  I want to do as little as possible on the bike because I want this to start a street fighter / naked bike and don't want a lot of junk on it and I don't want to get into modding it and dumping a bunch of cash into it.  Then hopefully come Spring ride it more. LOL 

The guy was not a flake!

Hahaha!  The guy I traded bikes with ended up riding his FZ1 an hour down to me last night.  Very nice guy and I love the new FZ1 so far.  I won't be able to really take it out until this weekend after it's registered though. :(  I've never really been attached to a bike but I will admit it was sort of sad seeing the Vulcan driving off.  I always knew it was loud but never really how loud until we listened to the new owner riding off for blocks. LOL  Well, here is the new bike, 2001 Yamaha FZ1.

Possibly a new bike coming...

After putting in all of the work into my Vulcan and getting it to where I wanted it, it makes sense to get rid of it and get something else right?  Seems to be my pattern anyway.  I think I've liked working on bikes more than riding them but now I'm getting to the point where I just want to ride and not have something that I feel the need to modify year round.  My goal was to sell my bike and use the money to build an early 70's Honda chopper for a winter project.  But a guy emailed me this week that got me thinking in a totally new direction.  He offered to trade me for his 2001 Yamaha FZ1.  I almost said "no thanks" but after thinking about it and reading up on the FZ1 I think it'd be a perfect bike for me.  He's done some modding to it already and I don't see myself doing much more to it.  It'll be a bike I can walk past in the garage and say, "I'm going for a ride!", instead of  "What can I do to the bike next?"  I love projects but sometimes the bikes end up being in constant project mode.  So,  I'm really hoping this guy does not flake out on me and hopefully the exchange happens this weekend.  I've never been on a FZ1 but I can't find a single bad review on it so I'm excited to get on it.  If I hate it I'll sell it come Spring and be back to square one.

But what to do this winter when I'm stuck in the house?  I think I'm going to try my hand at building custom handlebars.  I was going to build a set of ape hangers for the Kawasaki this winter but instead I might just start tinkering with building some generic bars and see how they turn out.  Who knows, maybe I can end up selling them and having a little side business.

To be continued....