Make or Break? Yamaha Fazer 600 5DM.
“That looks tidy, what’s up with it?”
First impressions, they can often mess you up. People, houses, motorcycles, they can all catch you out if you take them on face value. This Fazer 600 is a perfect example of what I’m on about. From ten paces away it looks pretty damn fine, but the closer you go the more things start to jump out at you. The biggest giveaway that all is not ship shape is the big hole where the set of carbs should be sat.
“What’s the score on it then?”
It’s a classic shed find bike. A motorcycle that was in daily use until being parked up without having been prepared for storage.
It came in via the trade, so the real story like any service history is now lost. I like buying bikes from the previous owner, only because they can give you useful info it. Us traders see so many bikes each week that it is easy to cross pollenate stories on the bikes that we handle, and yes, I speak from experience! Once I sold a non runner to a bloke and painted a picture that I thought was the case, a day later my aggravated customer rang me after trying to start it to ask where the camshafts were? How we laughed.
The only info I got on this rehome was that it had been put into a shop to get it running again. A day or so later, the owner called them up to and told them to stop working on the Fazer, he’d bought another bike! The shop hadn’t got too far, the carbs and a few other bits had been removed.
“So it’s a project shitter then?”
Yes. That is exactly what it is. The carbs are complete but need much love. It would make more sense to buy a set from a freshly broken running bike. On the plus side, both tyres look recent, the discs are all fine and the fork seals don’t even leak. The exhaust downpipes are also in fine fettle and the standard silencer is dent free.
With only 18,000 miles under its belt there is a cheapy bike lurking within. Fetch your £650 and give it a new hone.
Article provided by Scottie Redmond
