G'Day from a Yamaha FZX250 owner

Hi everyone

I got my road bike licence late last year and bought the above bike. I've started looking at what i can do to maybe give her a custom look or feel and i've been having some trouble finding information, so i thought i'd drop in and start looking at what everyone else has been doing. I don't think there're a lot of options out there for the Zeal though sadly. Hoping to start a naked conversion very soon.

Nice to meet you all

Sean

 

Well i just took the fairing off and it wasn't nearly as scary as i thought. 4 allen key screws and two bolts. The blinkers just needed to be taken off too and i labelled the wiring, to be on the safe side (i don't get on with wires). Don't worry all. I think the conversion will be fine and won't involve molestation.... I can't see any need to cut or anything as it looked. I do need a mounting bracket of some sort for the headlamp. Just swap it back when i sell it someday and the bikini can stay locked away safely in storage in the meantime.

 

Hey greyimport. Those brackets look grea. The chrome goes wi the look of the bike. I should have a basic setup by tomorrow so i can use the bike. The two lower brackets are for headlights and i've put those back in. Hopefully should have photos giving an idea of what it looks like naked tomorrow. The temporary setup will use the bracket that's only on the left hand side of the picture just to mount the new lamp for awhile and probably won't be dead centre for the moment, but you'll get the point.

Hey and yeah, i've seen the site. Unfortunately it looks a little dead, but you can see several naked zeals on it with a couple of tips, which is cool.

Thanks again. I'll post late tomorrow!

 

Whew. Got back from work today and was working on it a little this afternoon. I found what i know to be a spare power wire in amongst everything and an orange one i assume is an earth. I ended up also adding a kill switch to the primary headlight just To be a little more energy efficient. I was able to mount the lamp where i was hoping with the temp setup. I'll want to go a bigger lamp to cover the wiring up a bit more just to protect it. Probably get an LED lamp. Not sure about if i want one that looks too pimped. The one that's on it has a black backing and it kind of matches the bike.

Well, i said i would throw up a picture. Here are two (not the best, but like i said, it's a work in progress). I had a test ride. The light seems bright. But now i'm off to bed!

That pic with the light on isn't the best, but just thought i'd show the light is working haha. Just one last thing i'll add is i notice a MASSIVE difference in the handling of the bike around corners and so on. I mean, i knew less weight would help a little bit and make e bike more fuel efficient, but wow. The fairing probably weighs as much as a medium sized ibm computer tower, so i guess having that on the front of the bike just made the turning a lot more sluggish. I'd almost argue it unbalanced the bike a little bit. Now i'm thinking twice about a full modification heheheh. Keen to take a trip down a pass or something now

 

Haha. I can see he is!

Oh, Maelstrom. I missed your info before about carby kits. Would that be modifying the original too much or is a carby tweak not going to be an issue for most people. If that's cool, then that will be something to do too.

GI - Oh man, why did you have to show me such an awesome shop! I think i'll go with those drop bars and mirrors.

The light though? For this bike i think Cafe Racer Chrome....

http://www.thirdgear.com.au/products/Cafe-Racer-Chrome-Headlight.html

The only other thing that concerned me was the paint scratches on the tail of the bike which you guys wouldn't have seen. Yamaha apparently didn't leave behind the codes or code details or used their own. I could look into a respray in future or hold my breath for a replacement rear fairing in the same colour. The only thing with the respray too is i guess it would lose the original decals.

I'll do some shopping this arvo i think.

 

Ahh. GI. That project looks like fun. Though I wouldn't know where to begin, stripping the entire bike down.

If the paint can be scan matched, that would be awesome. Previous zeal owners have tried a few years back according to google, but We'll see how we go. I prefer to keep the original stickers, so fingers crossed.

Yes, maelstrom, you're half right. According to wikipedia, the initial Zeals were naked, but the bikini fairing was added to the Aussie and New Zealand production. I guess this partly explains why the bike handles better after losing the fairing. Or at least it indicates the bike will still be balanced.