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Dave Blendell reports on his Yamaha Fazer 600
Suzuki's Bandit was a master-stroke, the combination of the faired model to take on Yamaha`s
best-selling Diversion and the naked one to see off the Kawasaki Zephyrs pretty much killed
off two birds with one stone. The Zephyrs were mortally wounded and quietly dropped from the
Kawasaki range while the venerable Divvy limped on with a trickle of sales after a minor
re-vamp.
Yamaha`s eventual answer was the Fazer, launched in 1998 it followed Suzuki's lead of
shoe-horning a sportsbike motor, in their case the 599c.c. Thundercat mill, into something
a bit more conservative. First impressions were not too positive, Fazer`s have never been
described as handsome and pre-launch pics did little to make anyone think the new machine
was particularly inspiring, bland at best, even a little ugly.
When the mags actually got to ride it opinions changed drastically, the Fazer out-handled,
out-accelerated and generally dumped all over the Bandit in every way performance-wise, a
legend was born.
The Fazer only came half-faired, a rather ugly (that word again) square-ish number with
twin headlights, oddly only one of which worked on dip. The Thundercat motor got a bit of
minor surgery to the head and different carbs to give better mid-range at the expense of
top end power and a smaller gearbox sprocket was used to lower the gearing. Even better
than the gem of a motor are the brakes, basically the same as on the R1 these are generally
reckoned to be the best brakes currently on any motorcycle bar none. Two years later Yamaha
added a clock, adjustable front forks, changed the seat design slightly and played around
with the inside of the tank so it held a whole tenth of a litre more while being the same
size externally.
For an extra £150 you could have the “S” model which basically just got you a flash paint
job in this country while in Holland they came with a Laser can as standard giving slightly
more power over 5000 r.p.m., as usual us Brits getting seen off.
2002 saw the final re-vamp, the most obvious being the addition of a better-looking
Fazer1000 type fairing and at long last the lights being wired up so both worked on dip
and you could actually see where you were going in the dark. 2003 saw the Fazer 600
killed-off by new emission and noise regulations from our owners in Europe, truly the end
of an era, or at least a bloody good bike.
So what`s it like to ride? Very easy for starters, like the Honda CB500 it seems to fit
everyone who slings a leg over it, in fact imagine a faired CB500 with 95 b.h.p. and you`ve
pretty much got the idea, like the Honda everything is light and easy to use, like the CB
it`s great around town and a blast when the going gets more hectic. Also Honda-like is the
clunk when you put it into first gear that has passers-by throwing themselves to the floor
hoping the sniper misses them, up to second is not a lot better but from then on the box
is smooth and pleasant to use. Basically they all do it and the only way to minimise it
is to keep your chain adjustment spot-on, even then it`ll be noisy. The whining from the
gearbox as you pull away is also normal and as with the notorious Diversion rattle there
seems to be neither a cure nor any harm done and it goes when you reach 3000 r.p.m. or so.
The gearing is too low for many, particularly first, and putting on a bigger front sprocket
(same as the one Yamaha changed in the first place!) will easily sort that if you see it as
a problem and also means that 70.mp.h. is shifted to just below 6000 r.p.m. where apparently an annoying vibration patch lurks. I say apparently because mine doesn’t suffer from it at 6000 or anywhere else, the dealer I bought it from actually told me that mine was exceptionally smooth for a Fazer and a scan of various web-sites indicates that many, if not most, owners see this as an annoyance so I must have a good `un.
The Fazer`s happy doing the commuter chores, blasting through the twisties, though the
suspension’s a bit on the soft side or as a budget tourer, it`ll hold 120 pretty easily
down the motorway (allegedly obviously), a real Jack of all trades.
Beef up the suspension and bung on a pair of Bridgestone 010`s or 020`s and you’ve got a
decent sportsbike, set of hard luggage and you’ve got a poor-man’s VFR, a set of knobblies
and…no that`s probably going too far!
It`s docile enough to cruise around the lanes of Dartmoor without tap-dancing on the
gear-lever, has enough poke to keep up with many supposedly sportier 600`s and will carve
through queues of traffic at almost walking speed on the way to work, just as well really
as I use mine for all three.
In the three months I've owned mine the sum total of maintenance over 3000 miles has been
two chain adjustments of two flats either time and the clutch adjusted at the bars just
after I picked it up in an effort to lessen the low gear clunking.
All told I`m very impressed with the Fazer but it has to be said that there are a couple
of things that they all suffer from, including mine. Firstly the headlight is truly awful
on dip, all pre-2002 models have just the one working and it`s just not good enough, why
Yamaha didn`t sort this from the start is anyone`s guess. The cure? Either you fit
Philips` excellent Vision-Plus bulbs or better still, if you`re on-line, go to the
excellent, and very useful, Unofficial Fazer Owner`s Club website at www.foc-u.co.uk
and you`ll find instructions on how to wire up your lights as they should have come out
of the factory in the first place. If you know your way around a soldering iron it`ll cost
you a couple of quid and take a few minutes.
The other fly in the ointment will be obvious to anyone who`s ever had a Yamaha, the finish, there’s no polite way of putting this…it`s crap. The exhaust down-pipes are mild-steel and covered thinly with matt-black paint, but not usually for long. Those in the know go for stuff called Zebo grate black which was originally for fire grates (ask your granddad) and no doubt would have been discontinued years ago had the Fazer`s shoddy paintwork not come along to save the day. The other fix is Halford`s matt exhaust paint, about 4 coats apparently finishes the job Yamaha couldn`t be arsed to do properly. No better is the engine paint which falls off quicker than a” born-again biker” on an R1. More persistent types have had engine casings and the like replaced under warranty, seems to depend on how good the dealer is and how stroppy you get. The stuff to use apparently is Smooth Hammerite black paint, though of course you shouldn`t have to. Yamaha give an excellent tip in the Fazer handbook to avoid corrosion, it suggests that you avoid parking in a stable “because of the ammonia”, sound advice that thankfully spares us any further detail.
To sum up the Fazer is a blinding bike that does a lot of things really well, the engine and
brakes are outstanding, handling maybe a bit soggy for back-road blasting, it`s
user-friendly and economical at around 50 m.p.g. however much you hammer it.
It has a very useful near- 200-mile tank-range and is docile enough for newbies while
having more than enough go to satisfy all but the hardened speed freak. All that let`s
it down is the truly cheap and nasty finish.
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