Barricade - Yamaha FZ-16 (2009) - Midnight Black

Shashankfz-fi · May 18, 2020

Recommended grade oil for FZ?

deville_56 · May 18, 2020

Shashankfz-fi said:

Version 1, 20w40 and 20w50 by book and 15w50 offered by Yamaha as Semi-Synthetic option during launch time.

Shashankfz-fi · May 20, 2020

what about Yamalube fully synthetic, can i use it on my FZ V2? needed some opinion.

deville_56 · May 20, 2020

Shashankfz-fi said:

Yamaha is now recommending 10W40 across it's range, except the older gen low-capacity bikes. Sporty Premium is a good, economical FS oil. Yamalube FS was butter smooth on v1 as well, but due to the age of my engine, didn't fare well. Keep and eye on the level.

explorer99 · Jun 3, 2020

Hello, I read from an earlier post of yours that the yamaha fz16's rear suspension is Gabriel. Rear monocross suspension with a brand name Gabriel is available at my local generic auto spare parts shop priced at 2700. Could this be the same as the genuine rear suspension from yamaha? Yamaha genuine spare shop tells me the rear suspension costs around 3200.

deville_56 · Jun 3, 2020

explorer99 said:

Spares are cheaper in vendors branding compared to OE packing. It's the same. Check the color. Red one is costlier than yellow one, but both are same per Yamaha parts distributor. OE was 2.9k for yellow and 3.3k for red a year back. Both fits fine. There is also the black spring ones from newer model.

explorer99 · Jun 3, 2020

deville_56 said:

Thank you very much for the reply.
It's the red variant that's available at my local generic shop. They say it's from an old stock, new ones are more expensive. The printed price on that is 2799. I'm confused whether to go for this or genuine Yamaha. Is there any difference in quality or specification between red, yellow and black color variants?

deville_56 · Jun 3, 2020

explorer99 said:

Decision solely yours. I wouldn't mind picking the Gabriel one. Yamaha OE guy says they are exactly same except the color, but some guys are saying there is difference in spring tension, which no one verified or confirmed yet. Red goes in Fazer and yellow in FZ. Only advantage of OE at an extra price is, if you change at the dealer, you would get six months warranty against any defect, but that too they can deny stating user-end issues.

explorer99 · Jun 3, 2020

deville_56 said:

Thank you again. Please excuse me for one more question. I recently replaced the headlight unit on my fz16. The glass cover of the previous unit had turned yellow. But even after the replacement, I'm not satisfied with the brightness of the light. The vehicles coming against me are blinding my vision. I asked the mechanic that If I upgraded the headlamp to 60/55 from the stock 35/35, would it improve the brightness. He tells me that it will not and If I want better brightness, I may rewind the alternator coil which he says is a common practice. I did not clearly understand what he means by that because I've never heard of that before. I think he is meaning that improvising the alternator to increase the current so that the 60/55 bulb is sufficiently powered. Is this correct? Is there any alternative way of improving headlight brightness?

deville_56 · Jun 3, 2020

explorer99 said:

60/55W would improve the lighting to a great extent comparing 35/35W.

I have 60/55W headlights + a pair of after market horns + a charger + a make shift fog lamp (used only when night shift), all these on stock electrical. No harms. Only thing to be taken care of is to turn them off when engine is not running to prevent quicker drain.

I believe yours is version 1. Version 2 won't support it on stock since it has the Fi system to be taken care of and a smaller battery and needs this rewinding.

Rewinding is improvising the alternator coil with thicker copper wire or more number of turns. Rewinding can improve the charging capacity.

explorer99 · Jun 3, 2020

deville_56 said:

Yes you are correct. My fz16 is carburetor model - 2010 make. Let me try changing the headlamp to 60/55 first. If it improves the brightness I may not need to do a rewinding of the alternator coil job which costs around 3k. Any suggestions for for bulb brand? Thank you very very much for the prompt response.

deville_56 · Jun 3, 2020

explorer99 said:

Don't go for the costlier ones. Now there is this 30% extra light series from most of the brands. I got some Korean brand. Phillips got the same. Should cost some 200-250 for a bulb. Else Phillips Premium would do, was around 100 only. Costlier bulbs offer even better output, but conks off early.

deville_56 · Jun 18, 2020

May 2020: Lockdown maintenance.

Topped up the oil with some old Wurth 20W40 lying around. Thought of not wasting the Castrol Power 1 Cruise for the time being and change once start using the bike regularly. Now only weekly idling, with Dio and Beat doing the runabouts.

Tank sticker peeled off almost completely.

Found more missing parts from last service. Missing rubber cap of starter relay and improperly routed wiring.

More missing bolts.

Found the rubber cover around the air filter cover while cleaning the junk shed. Removed it the early times when it was hindering easy removal of air filter cover.

Cleaned it up

and installed.

deville_56 · Jul 4, 2020

May 2020 - Lockdown time killing.

Tank sticker was damaged. Took an hour of hard work to remove the sticker and the glue residue. Washed in rain.

Removed the tail panels and gave a wash as well.

Waxed

Tail panel was full of scratch and wear as well.

Worn out sticker. This one Yamaha was missing in later editions.

Removed the torn sticker. Gave a quick was as well.

Painted grabrail.

Assembled them back and installed.

Sticker time. Clicked the tank panel of an FZ with brand new panels. Some MS Paint and Photoshop and voila, perfect logos.

Got brushed chrome vinyls and cut out the stickers.

And finally [:D]

deville_56 · Jul 10, 2020

June 2020 - More misdeeds by Royal Yamaha Service

After sorting out all the misfits and missing parts by Royal Yamaha at time of drive shaft replacement, was going fine, but bike wasn't doing any mile since lock down 1.0. Had to got to wife's house, took my boy instead of Dio since there wasn't anything to haul. While waiting at signal, there was suffocating smell of burning oil and was looking at other two wheelers in vicinity to see who is the unfortunate one with blown engine. Next morning, while taking bike, there was pool of oil below and gave a shock.

Checked for the source and it was the drain bolt. That garage was infamous for ruining the threads in the engine. Feared mine had the same fate. On closer look, the crush washer was missing. 50:50 chance of thread damage.

Fresh drop 5 minutes after parking.

Then I saw the bolt half out. Immediately tightened up all the bolts. Could have paid more and transported the bike to regular mech than the crap shop.

I was doubtful about the oil from the beginning. He said it was Motul 3000, but I knew it was gold in color. This was silver. One of my friend stays across this garage, said some unbranded oil bought in barrel was used there. Bike clocked just 300 km since the work there and gear was super hard and bike was vibrating very much and there was smell of burning oil from exhaust. Checked the oil and it was murky green in color with a bad odor like mixed with coolant. Didn't want to take any more risk and wanted to change it then.

Another thing noticed was choke was not engaging and lever moving freely. Knowing this guy was allergic to choke, checked and as expected, the cable was disconnected. [frustration]