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(sorry if the pics aren't working, computer is fucking around and so is photobucket)
Hey guys, I'm a bit bored and figured i'd throw some content on these message boards. Earlier this spring I decided to pick up another bike as it had been over a year since I owned one. When I first moved to Vancouver I got a job at Carter Motorsports. Having brought my bike with me from Edmonton I rode it for a short time in B.C. before starting the new job. The biggest perk was getting insurance covered, gas, and my pick to countless bikes. Having those kind of perks available I quickly sold my old bike which looking back I kind of regret. Eventually I left the job and found myself bikeless. The journey began trying to find a bike to replace my old Yamaha 2009 R6 in black and gold. Here are some pictures of my old bike.
I considered other 600cc bikes but my heart is with Yamaha so another R6 was the bike I began searching for. Knowing the in's and out's of Motorsports, Yamaha especially, the 2008 and 2009 models years were the ones I was hunting for again. My last bike only had 13,500km before I let it go so finding one with equal or less km became a priority. I tried hopelessly to find another black and gold in equal condition to my last but came up dry. I eventually found one in Edmonton but decided to pass as I didn't want to wait until the mountains cleared up only to have summer arrive while it would be under the knife. When it comes to 2nd hand bikes i'm very careful to make sure all maintenance is redone as it's my life resting on those 2 wheels so allotting time for mods and maintenance is a must.
Eventually I stumbled across an add in Comox for a 2008, blue, with only 9500km for $5500. Initially I wasn't a big fan of blue. The bike looks dated in the stock form due to the factory stickers and black two tone paint. However, the price was right for a stock bike with low km that had never been dropped or even tipped over. I quickly mapped out the vision I had planned for the bike and decided i'd be more than happy with it. I got in contact with the owner and as it turned out he was the original owner. He just moved to B.C. and was looking to part ways with his bike. We agreed on the price and he registered the bike from Sask. to B.C. before I picked it up.
With the new bike found, like the classic asshole friend I called up a good friend of mine who owns a truck and asked if he wanted to come pick it up with me. The catch he has to bring his truck haha. Being an avid rider himself it wasn't hard to convince him. He was moving to the island that month anyway so he dropped off some boxes in Nanaimo (his new place) on the way over to Comox. It was a win/win.
Once we got to the previous owners house I took it up and down the block. It had no plates so I just wanted to cycle the gearbox for any obvious bad signs. The bike was in dire need of some love. All the fluids were the originals along with everything else on the bike. We got it loaded up quickly and headed back home to Vancouver.
With the bike now in my possession I called up another good friend of mine and placed an order for all the parts. The following got ordered.
-Honda Type 2 Coolant
-Honda oil and filter
-NGK spark plugs
-Yamaha OEM air filter
-Cable lubricant
-Front and rear Yamaha wheel bearings, seals, and a new rear needle bearing
-White lithium grease
-Dot 4 brake fluid
The following mods were also ordered at the same time
-Pazzo shorty silver levers with black dials
-Hotbodies megaphone exhaust
-Hotbodies front flush mounts
-Competition Werkes integrated rear taillight
Thankfully the bike had some sort of aftermarket fender eliminator that still had the reflectors and factory signals on it. After looking at it a bit closer I decided I could modify it to a full blown eliminator.
For those who don't know Yamaha puts a special bearing called a needle bearing to help prevent any stress that could be put onto the rear bearings. Instead the stresses get applied to the needles in the needle bearing. Very cool idea, an ultra bitch to remove.
I would highly recommend installing a flasher relay. It's $30 and really helps make a bike not look like the owner cheaped out or did some hack job wiring job.
When the parts finally arrived it was time to start chipping off the list of work required. We started by doing the spark plugs, air filter, clutch cable lubrication, oil and filter change, chain clean, lube, tension and sprocket clean then finished the day off with the exhaust install.
With the basics taken care of I took my bike back home and started on the lights later that week. I had also ordered a solo seat from China (the only cheap part on the bike). The seat looked like shit but fit perfectly. The paint colour was off and there was dust in the paint. I originally considered the OEM one floating on craigslist but $250 for a seat that still needs to be painted killed my interest. Especially after researching the chinese seat fits perfectly.
Out with the old in with the new
I modified the fender eliminator by removing the reflectors and bracket that held the stock signal lights on. The front reflectors also found their way off my bike. A Competition Werkes integrated taillight was added to the mix.
Next step, testing that it is all wired correctly and working correctly. At this point I noticed my license plate bulb was burnt out. I grabbed a spare LED white bulb from my tool box I had sitting around for years and installed it.
With everything wired up and the rear pegs deleted it was time to slap the solo cowl on.
With the taillight, fender eliminator, solo seat and pegs out of the way I moved on to the front flush mounts and factory vinyl next. I couldn't stand the look of the vinyl. It makes the bike look dated.
Bye-bye huge factory signals, hello flush mounts
It was starting to look like a decent bike. However, I was still not satisfied with the look.
After a few days of thinking about what direction I wanted to take this bike in, this was the end result.
In the end I decided the black wheels and the black fairings were taking away from the look of the bike. I decided to send the wheels off for powder coating. Seeing as the wheels were coming off for new bearings and seals this was the perfect time to take care of a colour change. As for the lower fairings and the solo seat they were sent off to be paint matched to the rest of the bike.
Within a week I had all the parts back and began the install. At the same time I cleaned the shit out of the bike and removed some unwanted swing arm stickers.
I rode the bike for a few months having changed nothing. The pazzo's sat around for a while and eventually I got around to installing them along with a front and rear brake fluid flush and the coolant flush. The bike looked incomplete to me in the state it was in. Then it came to me, it needed a decal. So I ordered a decal up for it. An updated 2017 R6 decal showed up and completed the look. This is how the bike currently sits. I think the last mod I will be doing is a double bubble black windscreen. It's sitting in my storage but i'm not sure I want to install it or leave the clear screen on.
Areyez- The wheels were done at Vicious Coatings in POCO. I'm on the fence about recommending them to anyone. They did a set of wheels last summer for me and the price for 4 wheels including blasting/prep was the same for these 2 wheels. I went with an assumption that it would be half the price being half the work or at most maybe 3/4 the price. When I picked them up we both kind of looked at each other awkwardly because we didn't previously agree on the pricing. When I told him what he had previously charged me for work he acted shocked and said he must have not prepped them. They do good work but make sure you have everything agreed upon first. Which is hard because they mainly do industrial stuff and small stuff like this is clearly cash under the table for them.
Bananana - I'm not surprised honestly. There were a couple really clean R6's that showed up around that time and I went for the stock lowest km one. I was also surfing the web religiously beforehand and was the first person to call. I almost didn't get it because it really is a pain in the ass buying stuff from the island. I'm happy I went through the effort though because the end result is pretty nice. I'm quiet happy with it and gave the bike a new lease on life.
Thanks! Headed up to Whistler and back since it was such a nice day. Dunno who the guys in the lambo and r8 are. One had a Cali plate the other a BC plate. Were you in a car? I didn't see many bikes going up when I went.
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2000 Honda Civic
2002 Honda Accord Coupe
2005 Ford F-150 XLT
2008 Mercedes C300
2012 Ford F-150 XLT
2014 Ford F-150 FX4 - Current
1999 Chevy Trailblazer
2008 Range Rover Sport Supercharged
2015 Honda Civic Coupe EX-L
2018 Honda HR-V Touring
2019 Audi A4 Technik - Current
2012 Porsche 911 Targa 4 - Current
First time at the quarter mile with a bike. Was pretty fun. I launch like shit. Went home after and watched videos of people getting good launching and it appears people are slipping the clutch at 12k rpm and giving it full throttle to get a really good launch. In other news, I have a track day booked in Edmonton at Castrol Raceway September 1st so that will be lots of fun. I hooked up a bunch of different gopro mounts so I should get some decent videos of the day.
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