Fazer set to STUN!

What do you get when you mix CRK’s lovely café racer kit to Yamaha’s budget middleweight and the recently-retired Martin Fox? Well, one helluva foxy Fazer!

- MARTIN FOX

Hello all my fellow readers! My name is Martin. I am newly retired from the aviation industry and wanted to share my latest project with you all.

Having completed this CRK project, I do hope that this becomes a fantastic advert on how to turn a tired and rather sad looking Yamaha FZS600 Fazer into a beast of a café racer, with CRK’s shake-and-bake, ready-build kit.

So where did the inspiration come from? Well, imagine the scene if you will. I’m on holiday reading an issue of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics (my favourite and your favourite magazine) sipping a beer or two. There staring at me is a fantastic advert on how to turn a Fazer 600 into what looked like a gorgeous café racer. ‘Oh yes,’ I thought, ‘on my return that is what I’m going to build.’ See? The adverts in CMM do work!

Within just seven days of coming home from our holidays, I had tracked down a Fazer 600 which had been stored outside for around three years or so. Yes, it was in a sorry state and needed plenty of tender loving care, but it was available for around £450, which was fine for what I needed it for. I had the base bike, it was time to get started.

When buying the bike, the seller was able to show it running and it sounded not too bad to me, but once home and I started to strip off all the items not needed, the more I was able to hear the cash till ringing – this was going to cost a few pennies, but it was also going to be a labour of love and I really wanted this build to finish and be 100 per cent.