YAMAHA FZR600
Paul Brookes finishes this retro-racer and rides it at Cadwell.
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me last (September, 2018) so here’s a brief re-cap. I won the British Supersport 600 series on a trusty Yamaha FZR600 and decided to build one that (if you squinted) would look roughly the same, but also have some modern upgrades. The screen on the FZR was the original one and I really wanted to keep it, as these are no longer available. I could have got a reproduction one off the iweb, but wanted the original version as that’s what I ran on my race bike. As luck would have it, this one was in good nick, with no bits broken off it. I borrowed a buffer from a mate and thought I would just have a go at giving it a spruce up and see how it turned out. All I used was just some polish I had spare. I started off with just a light buff, having been told not to be too hasty as it was really easy to get it too hot, and this would overheat and melt the screen! It took me three goes, and now it’s as good as it gets. The best thing was that I got rid of all the yellowing that comes with age, so it’s almost as-new. Another thing which needed doing was making a mounting bracket for the Yamaha R6 master cylinder that I was using. The R6 calipers that came with the bike were in good nick, but it was running on the old original master cylinder, which wasn’t ideal, really. There wasn’t enough room to mount it with a bit of alloy, so I had to think again. I came up with the idea of drilling the top yoke and tapping an M5 thread, then fixing that with a titanium Allen bolt with a nyloc nut for extra security. I had to make sure that it did not snag on the ducting/‘hoover’ pipe that were feeding cold air to the carbs. It ended up being a snug fit, but looked good. In my last scribblings, you heard that the FZR was up and running, but now it was back to the dyno at Swinton
Motorcycles for a final fettle. Ashley got it running great and it was almost ready for the track again, but first I needed a temperature gauge and a tacho. No looking around for me, as Scitsu Instruments were now being made a mile away from me in Sheffield. A phone call was made and the pair picked up that very day. Time to mount them, so it was off to Oneoff Welding and Engineering, and my mate Paul. Back in the day we ran with the original front-fairing bracket, but it weighs a ton! Instead we took the original as a template, used a cereal packet to make the template
and made a lighter one from there. It was best to use the original as I think it’s a little bit ‘off-set’, so you copy the old one to ensure the lighter, new one fits. I think it looks factory… By the time it came to putting the fairings on, I wasn’t too titillated by the scheme, but I knew I’d have ‘sponsor logo stickers’ to put on. Back in the day, every kid wanted stickers when at the races in the ’70s and ’80s from their heroes or of the cool sponsors of the time. Obviously, I wanted a mix of stickers covering my old and new sponsors, so Dean Hobson at Signs Xtra in Barnsley was given a picture of my old bike, and he did a range of stickers with Astralite, Duckhams and John Noble engines on them. The bike was booked in to display (at a gentle pace) at the Endurance Legends event at Donington Park. The comments I received about the bike were brilliant. By the time a track day at Cadwell Park came, we were ready.
This was an old hunting ground for me. Not only did I start work as a marshal here when I was just 15 (dad lied about my age), but I later won plenty of club championships here and was ‘King of Cadwell’ in 1988. A year later – when I won the British 600 title – I won the race, and that race was on television later that day! Fast-forward 30 years and I was going steady at first, building up the pace. The bike was just as good, if not better than I remembered. This was down to it having been to ‘Weight Watchers’, I’m sure! I’ve since done more track days, but on my Fireblade. You feel more like a flea on a dog on that. I have more fun on the old FZR600, so this year it’s time to squeeze some more track day fun in on the old/new girl! cmm
■ Thanks: Avon Tyres, Swinton Motorcycles, Signs Xtra, Oneoff Welding and Engineering, Antonio exhaust.