Yamaha FZR600R – Alloy Swinging Arm

 Some fairly significant changes were recently made to the FZR. The most noticeable probably being the swinging arm from a Yamaha Fazer 600. The rear caliper is from a Yamaha Fazer 1000, which required some minor modification to the 600 hanger in order to fit.

A Thundercat shock absorber has been fitted to replace the broken Nitron unit. Unfortunately it’s nowhere near as good, but at least it makes the bike road worthy until the Nitron can be repaired.

The bars have been relocated so that they sit underneath the top yoke. This gives a better body position for fast riding.

Yamaha FZR600R – Nitron Shock

A few weeks ago now the stock unit went horribly soft and spongy, there was also some significant corrosion on the rod, in other words it was goosed.

Scouring eBay turned up zilch so I decided to take the proverbial plunge and go for a Nitron shock. (Shop around kids, there are deals to be had out there.)

So how does the new shock handle? Well put simply the Nitron shock is amazing, completely transforms the handling of the bike, makes it much more stable mid corner and allows for much better traction on exit, even managed to get the front wheel up on the exit of a couple of 2nd and 3rd gear corners, I kid you not.

The shock was built to my weight and riding style (I specified 89kg fully geared rider weight and fast road/track riding), it is noticeably stiffer, feels more like a modern bike set up. Adjustment is dead easy using the supplied C-Spanner for preload, and a clicker on the bottom that adjusts both rebound and compression at the same time, a bit basic but more than enough for my experience/budget.

The only “downside” is that it shows up the front end, which means I am now saving my pennies for a set of Racetech .95 springs. Winding the preload adjusters all the way in helped a bit but it’s not really the right thing to do.