Viperthreat
Member
Bit of a long post, but it might come in handy for those of you who are in a similar position, or who want to do an FZ8 swap. Here's my FZ1 journey:
Back in 2019, I was commuting about 100 miles a day on my GSXR-1000, which is basically full track spec minus street fairings and lights. It was taking a toll on the bike, and on me physically, so I knew I had to pick up something with better ergonomics. I wanted something that was sporty however, so ultimately I landed on an FZ1 as my prime target. Not much longer later, I picked up an '08 for $1900. It was in rough shape, but nothing was majorly wrong, and I was confident I could repair the problems.
Photo from teh day I bought the bike, sitting next to my GSXR-1000.
The first order of business was to solve the mechanical issues the bike had - a kinked fuel line, nasty chain and sprockets, broken fasteners, new tires, cleaning up shoddy wiring work, brake flush, coolant flush, oil change, and valve check.
Finally, it was time to begin the mods:
- Vortex rearsets (gp shift)
- StompGrip tank pads
- Ram Mount
- Speedo Healer
- Gear indicator
- ZX6R mirrors
- Double bubble tinted windscreen
- Carbon fiber front fender (the existing one was pretty beat up)
Of course, you can't upgrade a bike without taking it to the track and sorting out the suspension and such. I popped her track cherry at Willow Springs. It was a pretty windy day, but I managed to dial in my suspension and had a solid few sessions mixing it up with some wera 600cc riders - they had me in the corners and under braking, but I had a power advantage.
The trackday made me painfully aware that I was due for a suspension and brake upgrade, so of course, on with the mods!
- '04 R1 forks, calipers, and master cylinder
- Speigler Braided lines
- New brake pads
- Airbox mod
- XplaneR1 tune
A few months later in late October, I made my way to Northern California to ride ThunderHill East. At the time, my GSXR-1000 was in the process of being converted to a full-time race bike, so it was sitting in parts in the garage. My GSXR-750 track bike was also having some clutch issues, so I tossed the FZ1 in the trailer as my backup bike. Sure enough, about halfway through the day, my 750 wasn't really behaving, so I threw it back in the trailer and brought out the FZ1. I had Dave Moss give the suspension a quick once-over, then headed out to the track in A group and started shaming some S1000RR riders. With every lap I was growing more and more confident, passing riders on slicks, backing it in to corners, the works. Unfortunately, that led to me discovering the bike's key weakness.
Down the back stretch, I hit my braking marker at the bridge and started to feed in brakes. Suddenly, the bike developed severe headshake and sent me into a tankslapper at around 130mph. I did my best to recover, but there was no saving it, so I laid her on her left side and tried to "surf" her into the runoff area. Unfortunately, the left rearset caught a crack in the pavement and flipped the bike, which sent me flying. I was mostly OK, although a bone-bruise on my heel made it hard to walk for a couple months. The FZ faired decently well, however the plastics were definitely busted, so I was in for a long-haul repair.
The biggest hurdle in repairing the FZ was in sourcing parts - outside of buying new OEM parts, it's nearly impossible to find good condition bodywork for the FZ1. I got lucky with the front fairing - a local had just converted his bike to a naked, so he gave me a box of parts including the nose fairing assembly, headlight, trims, and a handlebar (score). The tail however proved to be much harder to find, so in the end I decided to risk it and aim to do a FZ8 tail swap.
Around this time, I finally moved into my own place, which put a 1-2month hold on the project, during which time I kept ordering more and more parts.
- '15 R1 rear shock
- Motopowerpuck
- carbon fiber
- FZ8 subframe
- FZ8 rear seat
- FZ8 front seat
- FZ8 carbon fiber tail fairing
- Motodynamix tail light + turn indicators
The repair process was tedious, but here was the process I used:
Initial setup & Tank Mounting
1. Strip all bodywork
2. Pull all electronics and wiring from rear subframe.
3. Install FZ8 subframe
4. Pull tank bracket from FZ1 Subframe, and attach it to fuel tank. Set fuel tank on bike and get it into position with the bracket properly aligned to the Fz8 subframe.
5. Drill 2 pilot holes through the FZ1 tank bracket into the FZ8 subframe - use a couple screws to hold it down and keep it aligned.
6. Remove tank and bracket, use grider/sander to remove paint from bracket and subframe
7. Reinstall bracket using your drilled holes as guides, weld around edges, remove screws and spot-weld the holes shut for added strength.
8. Reinstall tank and check fitment.
Install tail fairing & seats
1. The FZ8 tail sits a bit higher than the FZ1 tail, and at a more aggressive rake. In order to solve this, use an angle grider to chop off rear mounting brackets.
2. Clean and prepare the removed brackets for welding, as well as the area they will be welded to.
3. Using a level and various bits of wood, mock up the appropriate tail location, then use magnets to reposition the mounting points to the subframe. (you will need the tail light installed into the rear fairing for this - the brackets you need to modify are for the tail light, not the fairing itself.
4. Tack-weld mounting brackets and reinstall tail fairing.
5. Modifications to the FZ8 rear seat will also be necessary to lower it and match the new rake angle. I ended up shortening the two front L brackets, and chopping about .75" off of the plastic on the bottom to lower the rear of the seat - I used zip ties to mock up the plastic until it sat right, then used fiberglass to reinforce it once I was satisfied.
6. The FZ8 front seat is normally held on with 2 bolts that are somewhat hidden under the rear of the seat cushion. It's annoying to install/remove them, so I chopped the latch mechanism off of the FZ1, as well as the latch from the FZ1 seat, then through a process of trial and error adapted it to the FZ8 seat and subframe. This mostly was just a matter of mocking up, trimming as necessary, tack-welding and testing, until satisfied.
7. Uninstall everything again, do your final welds and cleaning, then paint the welds/subframe for rust protection.
8. Reinstall the wiring harness and various sensors/electronics. In my case, because of the R1 rear shock install, I had to get a bit creative with placement - a couple small brackets were made to help.
Removing the covers and padding from the seats is necessary for these above steps. I ended up installing some gel pads and custom covers on my seats once I was satisfied with the fabrication.
At this point, the fabrication is done, so I did a complete assembly of the bike to ensure that everything fit properly, that nothing is binding, etc.
Back in 2019, I was commuting about 100 miles a day on my GSXR-1000, which is basically full track spec minus street fairings and lights. It was taking a toll on the bike, and on me physically, so I knew I had to pick up something with better ergonomics. I wanted something that was sporty however, so ultimately I landed on an FZ1 as my prime target. Not much longer later, I picked up an '08 for $1900. It was in rough shape, but nothing was majorly wrong, and I was confident I could repair the problems.
Photo from teh day I bought the bike, sitting next to my GSXR-1000.
The first order of business was to solve the mechanical issues the bike had - a kinked fuel line, nasty chain and sprockets, broken fasteners, new tires, cleaning up shoddy wiring work, brake flush, coolant flush, oil change, and valve check.
Finally, it was time to begin the mods:
- Vortex rearsets (gp shift)
- StompGrip tank pads
- Ram Mount
- Speedo Healer
- Gear indicator
- ZX6R mirrors
- Double bubble tinted windscreen
- Carbon fiber front fender (the existing one was pretty beat up)
Of course, you can't upgrade a bike without taking it to the track and sorting out the suspension and such. I popped her track cherry at Willow Springs. It was a pretty windy day, but I managed to dial in my suspension and had a solid few sessions mixing it up with some wera 600cc riders - they had me in the corners and under braking, but I had a power advantage.
The trackday made me painfully aware that I was due for a suspension and brake upgrade, so of course, on with the mods!
- '04 R1 forks, calipers, and master cylinder
- Speigler Braided lines
- New brake pads
- Airbox mod
- XplaneR1 tune
A few months later in late October, I made my way to Northern California to ride ThunderHill East. At the time, my GSXR-1000 was in the process of being converted to a full-time race bike, so it was sitting in parts in the garage. My GSXR-750 track bike was also having some clutch issues, so I tossed the FZ1 in the trailer as my backup bike. Sure enough, about halfway through the day, my 750 wasn't really behaving, so I threw it back in the trailer and brought out the FZ1. I had Dave Moss give the suspension a quick once-over, then headed out to the track in A group and started shaming some S1000RR riders. With every lap I was growing more and more confident, passing riders on slicks, backing it in to corners, the works. Unfortunately, that led to me discovering the bike's key weakness.
Down the back stretch, I hit my braking marker at the bridge and started to feed in brakes. Suddenly, the bike developed severe headshake and sent me into a tankslapper at around 130mph. I did my best to recover, but there was no saving it, so I laid her on her left side and tried to "surf" her into the runoff area. Unfortunately, the left rearset caught a crack in the pavement and flipped the bike, which sent me flying. I was mostly OK, although a bone-bruise on my heel made it hard to walk for a couple months. The FZ faired decently well, however the plastics were definitely busted, so I was in for a long-haul repair.
The biggest hurdle in repairing the FZ was in sourcing parts - outside of buying new OEM parts, it's nearly impossible to find good condition bodywork for the FZ1. I got lucky with the front fairing - a local had just converted his bike to a naked, so he gave me a box of parts including the nose fairing assembly, headlight, trims, and a handlebar (score). The tail however proved to be much harder to find, so in the end I decided to risk it and aim to do a FZ8 tail swap.
Around this time, I finally moved into my own place, which put a 1-2month hold on the project, during which time I kept ordering more and more parts.
- '15 R1 rear shock
- Motopowerpuck
- carbon fiber
- FZ8 subframe
- FZ8 rear seat
- FZ8 front seat
- FZ8 carbon fiber tail fairing
- Motodynamix tail light + turn indicators
The repair process was tedious, but here was the process I used:
Initial setup & Tank Mounting
1. Strip all bodywork
2. Pull all electronics and wiring from rear subframe.
3. Install FZ8 subframe
4. Pull tank bracket from FZ1 Subframe, and attach it to fuel tank. Set fuel tank on bike and get it into position with the bracket properly aligned to the Fz8 subframe.
5. Drill 2 pilot holes through the FZ1 tank bracket into the FZ8 subframe - use a couple screws to hold it down and keep it aligned.
6. Remove tank and bracket, use grider/sander to remove paint from bracket and subframe
7. Reinstall bracket using your drilled holes as guides, weld around edges, remove screws and spot-weld the holes shut for added strength.
8. Reinstall tank and check fitment.
Install tail fairing & seats
1. The FZ8 tail sits a bit higher than the FZ1 tail, and at a more aggressive rake. In order to solve this, use an angle grider to chop off rear mounting brackets.
2. Clean and prepare the removed brackets for welding, as well as the area they will be welded to.
3. Using a level and various bits of wood, mock up the appropriate tail location, then use magnets to reposition the mounting points to the subframe. (you will need the tail light installed into the rear fairing for this - the brackets you need to modify are for the tail light, not the fairing itself.
4. Tack-weld mounting brackets and reinstall tail fairing.
5. Modifications to the FZ8 rear seat will also be necessary to lower it and match the new rake angle. I ended up shortening the two front L brackets, and chopping about .75" off of the plastic on the bottom to lower the rear of the seat - I used zip ties to mock up the plastic until it sat right, then used fiberglass to reinforce it once I was satisfied.
6. The FZ8 front seat is normally held on with 2 bolts that are somewhat hidden under the rear of the seat cushion. It's annoying to install/remove them, so I chopped the latch mechanism off of the FZ1, as well as the latch from the FZ1 seat, then through a process of trial and error adapted it to the FZ8 seat and subframe. This mostly was just a matter of mocking up, trimming as necessary, tack-welding and testing, until satisfied.
7. Uninstall everything again, do your final welds and cleaning, then paint the welds/subframe for rust protection.
8. Reinstall the wiring harness and various sensors/electronics. In my case, because of the R1 rear shock install, I had to get a bit creative with placement - a couple small brackets were made to help.
Removing the covers and padding from the seats is necessary for these above steps. I ended up installing some gel pads and custom covers on my seats once I was satisfied with the fabrication.
At this point, the fabrication is done, so I did a complete assembly of the bike to ensure that everything fit properly, that nothing is binding, etc.