Well, here it is!

[CaminoRacer]

Installed the Akrapovic exhaust sticker. Skid plate sticker doesn't fit so I had to remove it. I'll have to notch the skid plate sticker this weekend and put it back on.

ftfy

[SVT_Power]

no tune, no boon, no hoon

[Cookie Monster]

ftfy

Wat.


The problem is the Akrapovic headers stick out further than the stock headers.

Stock:



Akrapovic:



Exhaust itself sounds good though. I want to try it without the baffle but I read you have to pull the muffler and smack the baffle out with a dowel and hammer and I don't feel like doing that. Plus I heard that makes it stupid loud. As it is it's the perfect volume on the highway for commuting but still screams when you get on the throttle hard. It's a tight fit with the skid plate but I think it should be fine with some light notching.

Here's the rubbing issue:

[CaminoRacer]

Oh that's not bad at all.

[Cookie Monster]

Oh that's not bad at all.

Yeah, it fits, but I didn't want it to be rattling around so I've left it off for now.

Honestly, I like the look of the OEM header more. I just don't like the giant whale penis cat it also comes with.

[12,000 RPM]

Do these not allow you to separate the muffler from the header?

Yea I would advise against running it without the baffle. It is ridiculously, comically, unnecessarily loud. Mine comes out with something that looks like the picks they use to clean your teeth at the dentist. No idea where it is now.

[Cookie Monster]

Do these not allow you to separate the muffler from the header?

Yea I would advise against running it without the baffle. It is ridiculously, comically, unnecessarily loud. Mine comes out with something that looks like the picks they use to clean your teeth at the dentist. No idea where it is now.

Stock is one piece, Akrapovic is two piece.

I like the way it sounds now. I just don't want to deal with cutting the skid plate.

[Cookie Monster]

47.1 mpg last tank. Holy fuck.

Either this thing is breaking in more and getting even more efficient or the new exhaust is making this thing run stupid lean.

I would think since there's a freer flowing exhaust, it'd be running richer, especially since it pops and burbles a lot on decel, but I'm probably wrong....

[CaminoRacer]

Popping = lean.

Akra probably has a tune for it.

[Cookie Monster]

Popping = lean.

Akra probably has a tune for it.

I was told it doesn't need a tune but is recomended. I'll tune it in a couple months when i have more time at work to ship my ecu and not ride for a couple days.

[MX793]

The fuel injection should be able to compensate for the higher flowing exhaust.  If it was a carb'ed motor, sure, you'd need to richen it up a bit, but you'd need to significantly increase engine airflow to move it beyond what the FI can compensate for.  I suspect the throttle bodies limit it's ability to breath more than the exhaust.

[CaminoRacer]

The fuel injection should be able to compensate for the higher flowing exhaust.  If it was a carb'ed motor, sure, you'd need to richen it up a bit, but you'd need to significantly increase engine airflow to move it beyond what the FI can compensate for.  I suspect the throttle bodies limit it's ability to breath more than the exhaust.

A lot of new bikes seem to run super lean from the factory in order to meet emissions. I know on the 390 Duke, some people do the Akra tune even if they keep the exhaust stock just to richen up the mixture and keep the engine cooler.

Might as well get a nice airbox to match, then tune it.

[Cookie Monster]

Alright, here's the giant pain in the ass I had to deal with yesterday night/today:







Ended up notching the skid plate to clear the header. The bolts/nuts for the skid plate were also too long and hitting the header so I ground down the bolt heads and then flipped them to just barely clear the pipe.

Fucking pain in the asshole I paid $1200 for.

[MX793]

That exhaust must have been designed for the FZ-09.  That bike doesn't have a skidplate.

[280Z Turbo]

My bike ran like crap with a Muzzy. Stock exhaust made it run a lot better.

[Cookie Monster]

That exhaust must have been designed for the FZ-09.  That bike doesn't have a skidplate.

The skid plate is aftermarket.

[MX793]

Why did you put a skidplate on it?  Were you planning on off-roading it?

[Cookie Monster]

Why did you put a skidplate on it?  Were you planning on off-roading it?

FZ/FJ-09 oil pans are super vulnerable, to the point that people are hitting normal sized bumps and ripping oilpans.

http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494179

Stuff like that scares me. Another member on that forum hit a bump and blew a chunk in his oil pan and that led me to get the skid plate. Plus it ties in to the engine case/sliders/highway pegs I have and looks really nice and is super comfortable.

[MX793]

FZ/FJ-09 oil pans are super vulnerable, to the point that people are hitting normal sized bumps and ripping oilpans.

http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494179

Stuff like that scares me. Another member on that forum hit a bump and blew a chunk in his oil pan and that led me to get the skid plate. Plus it ties in to the engine case/sliders/highway pegs I have and looks really nice and is super comfortable.

The belly pan is the most vulnerable part of any bike.  I find it really hard to believe you'd routinely find road obstacles on which you could hit the belly pan on most bikes since bikes have about the same ground clearance as a car but a much shorter wheelbase.  Unless you're going fast enough (or have your suspension set soft enough) to get significant suspension compression when you hit the bump, anything that will high center a bike will high center a passenger car.  OP in that thread drove off a curb-sized step (Oh, by the way, was making a right turn from the wrong lane because he couldn't be bothered to wait for traffic ahead to move) which, yeah, will high-center a bike.  My dad crunched his headers doing that (driving between adjacent parking lots and didn't realize there was a step/curb between them until it was too late).  Other videos in that thread show riders jumping their bikes (one of them did so blowing through a stop sign at what I'd estimate at 50 mph to launch off the crown of the intersecting roadway) and bashing the belly on landing.  While I'm a little surprised the bike is designed to be able to hit the belly before the suspension hits the stops (I guess that can happen on a lot of bikes, I'm used to off-roaders), that's not exactly a "normal" use case.  I'd also probably chalk some of it up to the FZ coming with really soft suspension and I wouldn't be surprised if many owners aren't adjusting what they have properly.  The owner of the one I rode (who I'd guess weighed less than 160 lbs) had cranked his preload all the way up and the bike still wasn't harsh for me at ~145 lbs.  The guy on that 4theriders blog was riding 2-up when he bashed his on a "bump".  What was the total weight on the bike?  Did he increase his preload to account for the weight?

At the end of the day, a little extra protection doesn't hurt anything, and it sounds like it offers some other features that you'd want even if you didn't need the skidplate.  Just seems silly to fit a skid plate on a bike that never leaves paved roads.

[Cookie Monster]

The belly pan is the most vulnerable part of any bike.  I find it really hard to believe you'd routinely find road obstacles on which you could hit the belly pan on most bikes since bikes have about the same ground clearance as a car but a much shorter wheelbase.  Unless you're going fast enough (or have your suspension set soft enough) to get significant suspension compression when you hit the bump, anything that will high center a bike will high center a passenger car.  OP in that thread drove off a curb-sized step (Oh, by the way, was making a right turn from the wrong lane because he couldn't be bothered to wait for traffic ahead to move) which, yeah, will high-center a bike.  My dad crunched his headers doing that (driving between adjacent parking lots and didn't realize there was a step/curb between them until it was too late).  Other videos in that thread show riders jumping their bikes (one of them did so blowing through a stop sign at what I'd estimate at 50 mph to launch off the crown of the intersecting roadway) and bashing the belly on landing.  While I'm a little surprised the bike is designed to be able to hit the belly before the suspension hits the stops (I guess that can happen on a lot of bikes, I'm used to off-roaders), that's not exactly a "normal" use case.  I'd also probably chalk some of it up to the FZ coming with really soft suspension and I wouldn't be surprised if many owners aren't adjusting what they have properly.  The owner of the one I rode (who I'd guess weighed less than 160 lbs) had cranked his preload all the way up and the bike still wasn't harsh for me at ~145 lbs.  The guy on that 4theriders blog was riding 2-up when he bashed his on a "bump".  What was the total weight on the bike?  Did he increase his preload to account for the weight?

At the end of the day, a little extra protection doesn't hurt anything, and it sounds like it offers some other features that you'd want even if you didn't need the skidplate.  Just seems silly to fit a skid plate on a bike that never leaves paved roads.

It's a well-known fact that the 2014-2015 FZ and 2015 FJ have very vulnerable pans. Just looking it up on google comes back with a ton of results:

http://www.fz-09forums.com/forum/fz-09-general-discussion-forum/9442-anyone-else-cracked-their-oil-pan-yet.html

http://fj-09.org/thread/366/fixing-achilles-heel-drain-plug

Just a couple. I've ridden off curbs and other shit on my F4i (and took that down some gravelly roads) and never had a problem. I bet my FJ would have ripped its pan over some of the same stuff, because there are some "protective" fins that extend past the drain plug bolt that catch on whatever you're crossing and rip the pan. If it wasn't such a big problem, why did Yamaha redesign the pan with a drain plug bolt on the side?

Again, it's just for peace of mind. Plus, it's gotten a ton of compliments and comments on different group rides, and a bunch of people have asked where they can buy one (although I don't know if the guy I bought it from makes it for non FZ/FJ's).

Also, considering I took my CBR off paved roads, I don't see why I wouldn't do that with the FJ. I just need to wait till summer when I have more time and hopefully feel less bad about dirtying/potentially dropping the bike.

[Raza]

Danger to the manifold, I think. 

[12,000 RPM]

What the hell are you guys cracking oil pans on

IMO the FJ is not an off road bike

[MX793]

What the hell are you guys cracking oil pans on

IMO the FJ is not an off road bike

Every story I could find involved someone jumping off a curb or smacking a large bump at speed and launching the bike and then bottoming out and bashing the pan on landing.  Nearest I can figure, the bike will drag belly before the suspension completely bottoms and the suspension the FZ/FJ is known to be quite soft.

[Cookie Monster]

More alarmingly, it looks like the right side of my engine cage is bent. The right slider/peg is pretty crooked, but it's all one piece so something is bent/off.

The bottom of the slider has a scrape on it. I'm pretty sure I dragged it around a turn, but I can't imagine that'd cause enough force to bend the whole thing... I'm confused.

[MX793]

Unless it's extremely flimsy, I find it hard to believe you bent it by dragging through a corner without crashing.  Maybe you bottomed out at some point and the right side is the side that gave out and bent?

[SVT_Power]

More alarmingly, it looks like the right side of my engine cage is bent. The right slider/peg is pretty crooked, but it's all one piece so something is bent/off.

The bottom of the slider has a scrape on it. I'm pretty sure I dragged it around a turn, but I can't imagine that'd cause enough force to bend the whole thing... I'm confused.

rekt

[Cookie Monster]

Unless it's extremely flimsy, I find it hard to believe you bent it by dragging through a corner without crashing.  Maybe you bottomed out at some point and the right side is the side that gave out and bent?

Here are some pics:





And the slider on the right side:



I removed the skid plate (again) and loosened the bolts before retightening but the right side still sits weird. It's not hitting the exhaust or anything. The bolts look to be straight (mostly). Either I bent the cage itself or I bent the frame area (mask). Bike has never been dropped (yet), only scraped around a hard turn...

I'm so fucking confused.

[MX793]

Is it possible it was always like that and you never noticed?

[Cookie Monster]

Is it possible it was always like that and you never noticed?

It could be. I'm trying to look for other pictures I might have taken to see if it was always like that.

[Cookie Monster]

So... I emailed the guy I bought the cage from. He said they're all like that so at this point there's nothing I can do. It still looks cool, so whatever.


I did about 110 miles of twisties yesterday in the rain. The Yoshimura fender eliminator let the rear wheel spray mud all over the license plate, tail light, passenger seat, my jacket and helmet.

Probably only good for fair weather use only.


Also, thinking of getting an integrated tail light and flush mounted turn signals again. Might do that before I get levers.