[Noah]

Cheaper than Dirt - $300 or less Build

as it sits April 2011



This is the story of a 87 FZ700

I borrowed this bike from my friend. It was his pride and joy. Wheelies, stoppies and sunday rides; these were his to enjoy. Then, one fateful summer day I asked to borrow it to take a ride to Spokane...6 hours away.

Had a great time! It was the first streetbike I ever rode and was pretty quick compared to my old 400 cruiser.

Well I met up with some pals over in spokane and the next thing you know Im doing 110mph just after midnight down a road i dont know.
I see the 15mph hairpin turn sign too late. Off the road I go into the railroad tracks where I taco the front rim, bend the forks back so the wheel is in the exhaust and get launched off the bike.. seeing the moon then black and the moon and black means im pin wheeling through the air...thank God i just changed out of shorts and a t-shirt into some carhartts!

I landed on my back in loose gravel..slid into some wild rose bushes and stopped. I heard a crash and then after a split second the bike came down a second time.. and I felt the impact as the rear wheel slammed into my helmet and upper body, pinning me to the ground.

The speedo was at 110 when i tried to hit the brake.. who knows how fast i was going when i hit the tracks... the damage to the bike was horrendous, the gas tank was ripped off, the plastic scattered for about 40 yards or so with misc other parts, rear section was bent and mangled

My first buddy reached me and was yelling like a maniac that I had been killed, he was hysterical. Finally when he shut off his bike, he could hear me yelling to "GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!!" He did and miraculously I didnt even have a scratch!

I loaded up the bike into a borrowed pickup truck and drove back home the following day.. I had to face my buddy. He walked out the front door as I pulled up and looked like he had lost his best friend He almost broke down into tears as I threw the carcass out at his house. I bought him heaps of parts to fix it and ended up buying him a Honda Interceptor to replace it, but he was never the same. He still gets that look in his eye.

That was summer 2004 and summer 2008 he gives me the pile of parts and broken plastic for my birthday present. So i hauled her home and started putting on all the parts I had bought, fiberglassing here and there.. straightening bent metal... And after some days of work on the engine, she fired up and sounded like she was ready to stretch her legs! Had a long way to go though...

Then as I was looking for parts, I found this website and thought..What am i doing to this old piece of crap? Man for $300 or less I could build some crazy machine! And so it began.

Stripped her down and started thinking of all kinds of ideas so I tucked all the rear wiring away and chopped off the back

Then I grabbed a rattle can and my can of brake cleaner to use as a template and made some headlights

Something like that.. im looking at some PIAA fog lights or something..any suggestions?

Then I got my cardboard box and went to work on the rear.

I think I might scrap this idea and go with a R6 tail maybe? At least need to raise the tail section a few inches.. hmm Anyone have any suggestions? Im also wondering about this exhaust.. it is nasty.. thought about running it out the tail with a cbr600 exhaust, but not sure about what happens with carbs and jetting and air flow with all this kind of stuff. Never worked on bikes before, just jeeps and its a whole different ballgame!

Im enjoying it though. Love the website, already lost all my cash in the casino! As far as bikes go..Im a noob so go easy on me. I know zero about motorcycles compared to you folks. Looking forward to learn something new!
Cheers

 

[CK 187]

That's totally a Mad Max/Toecutter/KZ1000 lookin tail piece.



I used to have a built FZ600 that i road raced. Good bikes

 

[CraZKenE13]

A word of caution on the R6 tail, They are WIDE for a bike like that. I bought one for my CBR and it looks great from the side but from front or rear it looks retarded. The older bikes with narrow tanks/frames like ours are hard to tail swap. Check out fslflints old FZ for inspiration, the tail on his came out really well.

 

[Noah]

Check out fslflints old FZ for inspiration, the tail on his came out really well.

I was looking at that but... I dunno... I just think that I want something that looks a bit different.

Check out this thing

I hear ya on the narrowness though. Im really hyming and hawing on this one.
Flints came out looking good but I dont want to copy his bike. Unless he sells me the tail piece, haha.
I could change it to look like this though...

maybe smooth it out a bit and even go a little longer.

 

[n0regret5]

mmm. taco.
seriously, how freakin lucky are you? my last crash was at about 20km/h (probably 10-12mph) and i lost a fucking TOE.
wicked bike to fighter, but the R6 tail won't suit it. they've got a huge wide ass on them so the riders can slide around without falling off, would probably stick out a good 3-4" from the sides of your bike!

looking forward to seeing progress!

 

[TigerR6]

Im amazed you got thought that with nothing man..but yeah the R6 tail..sucks i dont like it one bit even on my own bike it looks to wide, i also slide back whenever i goose it. Ide probably go with an R1 tail but im not sure on the measurements of it, its what im trying to get for my yami.

Looks good though cant wait to see how it turns out

 

[CK 187]

Look for an FZR400 solo tail. You can find them sometimes in need of repair on some roadracing forums

 

[fslflint]

how bout some more motivation

 

[shift1313]

welcome aboard and man your lucky!

i agree, dont use an r6 tail.

If you wanna keep the same "style" try a ysr50 tail

i also think like a 94-96 yzf600 tail would look good

i think if you wanted to use a more modern tail you will need to keep some bodywork on it to widen the bike up.

 

[fslflint]

I need to get my fz700 back in my hands so I can sell the parts that I don't need and maybe do some friggin work on it

 

[Noah]

how bout some more motivation

I like the way that tail looks from the side.....

Yeah I would like to go with a more modern tail or grab some sheet metal and do something. Im not into that airtech stuff for the 80s bikes so much... the rear ends all have the huge flat spot for the tail lights and it ends up looking as bad as my cardboard tail piece.

when i get some time...

 

[Noah]

OK So I went out to the garage and looked at the bike some more, put on the old plastic and thought about this wide tail thing and have decided that you guys are absolutely right. The wide tail isnt the way to go. That photo that flint posted looks just wrong some how I dunno what it is... so back to the photoshopping I went and came up with this

I think this is more my target and throw in the exhaust wherever is appropriate.


Flint when you redid the exhaust on your FZ did you mess with the carbs? I dont really understand how all that works... might do a search through the site to see if there is a post on it.

Thanks for all the input guys and you are right!
I am one lucky chucky to have walked away from that wreck without a scratch! I wondered about that for a long time...never came to any conclusions...what a ride

 

[Noah]

I need to get my fz700 back in my hands so I can sell the parts that I don't need and maybe do some friggin work on it

yeah man! get some time in making that thing into the original desiners nightmare while you rest your brain from the Flintcycle Project as I have come to call your nameless frame build,

 

[fslflint]

I'm still planning on putting an fz1 or r1 motor in my FZ

 

[Noah]

I would like to see how that goes, i think that would be sweet as.
There is a gsxr1000 with no title on craigslist in seattle right now.. i was tempted since it has low miles...

 

[fslflint]

cylinder bank angles will keep you from putting that motor in the FZ. the fz was the first to use such a forward canted cylender bank and yamaha is the only manufacturer to use it so much

 

[Noah]

Ok so I took a R6 tail and chopped the middle piece and made it about 3 inches narrower.
Grabbed the heat gun and played around a bit. Anyway here is a photoshop version of what I might do from the side.. more photos to come.

What do you think? Im thinking it looks pretty crap.

 

[Noah]

Here is my actual tail im playing with.
Kinda looks like a motocross bike!:hairpull:

 

[Noah]

Here it is narrowed..

 

[Noah]

man I finished the front half of my wiring harness tonight, getting it cut down to fit under the tank was way easier than I thought it would be, and it all fit so nicely!!