FITTING A FENDER EXTENDER TO A MK I YAMAHA FZS FAZER 600

My daily commute covers a fraction less than 100 miles a day. Protecting the Fazer from the elements is important as they are not exactly renown for the quality of their finish. A lot of protection come simply from regular washing, polishing and lubricating as appropriate. This is handy considering that I suffer from Shiny Bike Syndrome!

As you can see below, the bike has only has an upper fairing and a simple, cheap (always important) easy method of reducing the time taken to de-gunge the bike on a Saturday morning is to fit a Fender Extender. As the name implies, it simply adds length to the rear of your front mud guard, I'm guessing America has something to do with the the name.

Now I am no mechanical genius, I can perform some basic spanner work, but the garage does the bulk of it. Therefore, if I can do fit a Fender Extenda (to quote the name on the package), any of the mechanically inept out there can too.

Once again the Fazer Owners Forum (Unofficial) or FOC-U as it's know, was the inspiration of this particular modification.

It's actually a Pyramid product, but at the time, it was cheaper to source on on eBay and not much longer to get it delivered. You get a couple of double sided foam pads, two self tapping screws in the bag with the actual extender.

That's where fitting techniques diverged as there is absolutely no way I'm drilling holes through my beautiful Gold paint job. The alternatives then are limited to adhesives. Clearly the sticky foam pads are out of a job too.

I decided to use Epoxy resin, they come in a paired set of syringes, so are a no brainer to mix, B&Q are the source of most of my shed, so no guessing where to get glue from.

First job is to remove the mud guard. Dead straightforward job. Undo the 4 bolts that hold it in place and withdraw from the front taking care not to scrape or bang it. Once free I popped it in the sink and washed off the last few years accumulated crud off the rear.

Moving swiftly on the the shed I test fitted the extender and used an indelible pen to mark its position on the UNDERSIDE of the mudguard. This serves two purposes:

I rested the mud guard on a duster while I was working to protect it. It took a few minutes using fine sandpaper on both surfaces to get a nice and even roughened area. I then squirted out a decent amount of adhesive onto the packaging (see - recycling is easy) and mixed it thoroughly using a bit of scrap wood. Then it's simply a mater of applying a thin, even layer on the inside of the mud guard. Make sure it is a thin one, when you clamp up the parts excess glue will squeeze out everywhere and then dries into a rock hard lump you will have difficulty removing.

I simply clamped it up and left it overnight in the shed.

The next day it's simply a matter of cleaning around the inside of your fork legs (shiny bike syndrome) and sliding the new and improved guard back into position and bolting it up.

It significantly reduces the amount of crud hitting the notoriously rust-prone down pipes Yamaha feel are acceptable to fit and helps stop the front of your engine looking like a dirt bike.

I fitted mine in Mar 05 and at the time of writing it is Dec 05, so Araldite works fine and I know of people who have had years using similar fixing methods.

Hopefully you can complete this simple mod on your machine and get that great felling that comes from doing something yourself and doing it well. Once it's fitted you just have to clean her...