I wanted to stop sand and rocks from striking the rear shock. One way of doing this is to add a rear hugger. However, they are expensive and defeat what I'm doing with the FZ, (getting the weight off).
New solution:
If you look at the rear you will see a hard plastic mud flap hanging about 4" off the swing arm. Then it hit me... I will make an extension for the mud flap that will go all the way down to the swing arm.
Materials:
Note: The extended flap material has to be rubber like as to flex when sing arm moves up. I found a foam rubber material at Home Depot. It's in the flooring section and on a big roll (you can buy only what you need). It's dark gray with multiple vertical groves running in one direction on the front side and flat on the backside. It's about 1/8"-1/4" thick. Just buy 2' of it and you will have enough to make a few if one gets mashed up after many miles of use.
Installation.
Diagram: Stock Plastic Mud Flap viewing from rear tire towards rear shock
Top
---------------------
---------------------
--------------------- Side Edge.
---------------------
============== Protruding Plastic Edge running across rear of flap (facing shock)
--(*)---Holes---(*)--
---------------------
Bottom edge
Oh, you can paint screws black if you don't want to see them... I have them unpainted here for better pic...
WHALA.... Rocks and crap wont hit rear shock any more... If done right, it looks stock too.
As you can see in pic, there is mud/crud splattered on the plastic and new flap, but my spring is nice and shiny (no I didn't clean the spring before pic). It really worked well and cost only 4-5 bucks in materials (better than over 100 for a hugger). Oh, It was a 10-15 min mod.
Sure, a hugger looks "cooler" but I don't care about being cool... I just wanted to safeguard the rear shock from sand and rocks, plus not add more weight (even if a hugger is only 3 lb.). To be honest, unless you look for it, you really can't see it's there.
The rubber is thick enough to take a good rock hit, plus I have plenty extra rubber padding to make at least 10 more when this one gets ratted out...
Last Updated: 04-08-2003
Copyright © 2003-2005, FZ1 Owners Association, All Rights Reserved.
The marks YAMAHA® and FZ1® are used under license from Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A.
The information on this web site is NOT approved or endorsed by Yamaha Motor Corporation in any way.
The information contained here is for entertainment purposes only. No information presented here is to be relied upon for issues of rider safety nor to replace the services of a qualified service technician. Any attempts to follow or duplicate any of these procedures are done so completely at your own risk. By reading the information on this site, you agree to assume complete responsibility for any and all actual or consequential damages that may arise from any information presented herein.