1986 Yamaha Fazer 700

[Psycho1]

Picked up my Fazer in Phoenix last week. I paid $2500 for it, but felt it was worth it since it was only showing 9043 original miles on the odometer when I picked it up, along with still wearing the factory tires and brakes. I went straight over to one of the bike shops and picked up new tires and a battery, and i still have to find some mirrors, since the seller left them sitting in a family members garage that he no longer talks to. The carbs were so gummed up that it would only idle with the choke on, and the second you tried to twist the throttle it would die. Took apart the carbs and cleaned everything out, and got it to run but was still only running on 3 cylinders. Ended up having to change out a coild lead that was broken off inside the coil, then had to pull the jets out of one carb again and clean a 2nd time. Now it's running on all 4 cyinders, it's not as quick as my Kat 600 yet, but has lots of potential. I do notice a lot more low end torque than my 600 has, but the high rpm hp seems to be lacking a little bit, with more time running the sea foam through it hopefully it will improve. Next summer it will get some aftermarket parts thrown at it. Here's some pics.




I took a short ride up a canyon to a place called Tortilla Flats (thanks to Hex for directions to that location) , which is one of the local bike hang outs for a lot of the Phoenix area riders. The canyon is only about 20-30 miles from the start to of it to where it becomes a dirt road. I didn't realize how lucky I truely am to have so many good windy roads to ride here in the PNW. I had quite a few people compliment the Fazer, 1 young guy actually asked if it was a new bike lol, only a few people there were old enough to recognize it and knew what it was, so that was kind of cool. It has a fairly low center of gravity so it handles really nice in the twisties, really easy to flick it side to side, and it's fun having some extra torque compared to my 600 comming out of the turns (along with a fully functional transmission lol). It's also extremely comfortable as long as you don't try to go too aweful fast. Since it doesn't have any farings and you're sitting upright, you definetly feel the wind a lot more above 75mph than you do on a sportbike, but it's not too terrible if you try to tuck down behind the headlight. So far no buyers remorse, I've wanted one of these for 22 years (they were only sold in the US in '86 and '87), but I never seemed to be able to find a clean one close enough to buy when I had the money available, now I just need to make it a little more personalized. I saw some other really nice bikes while I was there.

[deanocinq]

nice bike over here we never had them but they look alot like the 1200 v-max which was v-twin and went like stink! and the fazers that we had where alot like the bandit but with a bikini fairing but a very good bike as well that was in 600 and 1000 same as the r6 and r6 but naked with a different frame

[alwmckay]

hey, that's a nice looking bike!

[Psycho1]

nice bike over here we never had them but they look alot like the 1200 v-max which was v-twin and went like stink! and the fazers that we had where alot like the bandit but with a bikini fairing but a very good bike as well that was in 600 and 1000 same as the r6 and r6 but naked with a different frame

From what I've read on the UK sites, you guys had the better version of the Fazer, it was called the FZX750. The US version was the FZX700. Ours was only a 700 because of a stiff import tax on anything over 750cc's in the mid 80's. While we only got them in '86 and '87, you guys got them from '85 or'86 - '98. The V-max was a 1200cc V-4.

[mambopalace]

Baby V Max. Somewhat rare in the USA espescially to find a good, clean one. Take care of it and you should get every penny back that you spent on it.

[zrxmike]

Those are great bikes and preety hard to find. Real quick for a 700!

[Psycho1]

Yeah they run pretty good stock, although they're extremely choked down with the stock airbox/filter and exhaust from the factory. With an aftermarket exhaust, K&N pod air filters, jetting, and lowering the gearing a bit, they hold their own with bigger bikes pretty well off the line. Still haven't done anything to mine yet though other than add mirrors. With the smallish 3.4 gallon gas tank, I only get around 130 miles of spirited riding before having to hit reserve. My friend was only getting around 90 miles with his before hitting reserve after doing the mods, so not sure if I really want to do anything to it or not.

[whitecl0ver]

Reminds me of a Jr. V-Max

[Psycho1]

Reminds me of a Jr. V-Max

Originally, the designers started out trying to design a 750cc V-4 mini max because US dealerships were begging for one once the '85 V-max hit the showrooms and became so popular. They tried several different designs but couldn't get the smaller V-4 to fit the way they wanted in the smaller bikes frame, while still keeping the V-max look to it. Since they couldn't get the V-4 to work and dealerships still wanted something in the 700-750cc range, they decided to just go with the proven FZR750 5 valve Genesis engine tuned for a little more bottom end torque, to give it better acceleration over shorter distances (light to light) like they did with the V-max. What's wierd is after designing the engine for more low end torque, they overgeared it to try getting back some top speed. Mine stock won't pull to anywhere close to redline in 6th gear, I think so far the fastest I've got it up to was around 125mph @ something like 9000rpm. 0-100 goes by pretty quick, but from about 105 on with no farings, wind resistance makes it harder to keep gaining, almost like you hit a wall and it stops pulling. It's geared so high from the factory that dropping 1 tooth on the front sprocket from the stock 15 tooth to a 14 tooth usually helps the top speed a bit.