After the Fall
AFTER THE FALL
Putting an FJ1200 back together again
OOPS. I'VE REWARDED OUR FJI200 project bike for its mellow personality, stirring performance and generally friendly manner by dropping it, hard, in a freeway crash. A driver in front of me, in an adjacent lane, nails her brakes, cranks her steering wheel and slides, all four tires smoking, in front of me. Evasive maneuvers almost work. But not quite. I ruin a perfectly good helmet, screw-up a nice riding suit, give myself some aches and pains and thoroughly wrack the FJ. Rats.
Back at the CW shop, inspection reveals a bent frame. The lower-right side of the fairing is shattered. The CDI box is crushed, and lots of other little bits and pieces need help. The bike, in short, is a mess. Only one thing to do: Fix it. Not easy. And not inexpensive.
Some parts, we just have to buy from the local Yamaha shop: the CDI box, for instance, which retails for a staggering $355.25, but without which there will be no spark. Retail on the fairing is $397.05. This, at least, there is a way around. We search for a plastic welder, and settle on Born Again Fairings (149 S. Eucla, San Dimas, CA 91773; 714/592-7638). We can mail the bits to the company, and BAF will send the repaired and repainted pieces back to us. For the frame repair—the right front downtube is badly tweaked—we turn to Dr. John’s Motorcycle Frame Straightening (1522B Industrial Park St., Covina. CA 91722; 8 18/332-1 598).
About two weeks after we’ve stripped the FJ down to frameand-motor, hauled it to Dr. John’s and shipped the fairing shards off for repair, we get everything back. The cost for the fairing repair, including the plastic welding and paint, is a reasonable $125. The cost of the frame repair is $ 175. The cost of other assorted bits, including the CDI box, is an additional $500, fora total of about $800.
Look, this is an experience we’d just as soon not repeat. But these things do happen, and putting the bike right has been an interesting experiment. Though the frame repair appears to have worked out very well, allowing the bike once again to track straight and true, we remain unsure about the wisdom of repairing, rather than replacing, a fairing as badly shattered as ours was. Though the repaired and repainted fairing looks nearly as good as new, the welds seem brittle, and have twice cracked (BAF re-did those welds at no charge). We may ultimately have to pop for a new piece. But maybe not. And if not, we’ve saved $272. We'll keep our fingers crossed, and gladly take the savings.
And in the meantime, I'll try to be nicer to FJ 1200s.
—Jon F. Thompson
SUPPLIERS
Oil cooler, carburetor jetting, engine work
Fours N’ More 7116 Canby Ave.
Reseda, CA 91335 818/996-8109 Price: $585
Fork springs
Progressive Suspension 11129 Avenue G Hesperia, CA 92345 619/948-4307 Price: $55.95
Oil-temperature gauge
J.C. Whitney & Co.
1917-19 Archer Ave.
P.O. Box 8410 Chicago, IL 60680 312/431-6102 Price: $38
Tires
Avon Tire 407 Howell Way Edmonds, WA 98020 206/771-2115 Price: $256.75
