New Blood | Yamaha Fazer 600

It’s an oft-repeated thing these days when bikers get together, “we’re all getting old – we need new blood coming into the scene…” at least I think, nay hope, they’re bikers – could just as easily be vampires. I mean, not all o’ the undead wear cloaks – have you seen the film ‘Near Dark’?

Ant, who builds under the name of Dirty Chicken Customs (it’s a long story involving the rejection of a particularly grubby rubber chicken by his young son), is one of a number of younger guys heavily into building choppers. Just like us lot back in the day, he hasn’t got access to pots of money, and builds in a small garage/workshop near his house, and so has to rely on ingenuity and basic tools, but still manages to turn out some very cool bikes – the Fazer 600 chop you see here is actually his sixth build.

He was inspired to dip a toe in the custom world after he started going round to his good friend Pete Margesson’s to watch him build a chopper from just a frame and wheels. He kept going round there every weekend and seeing the build progress, and it made him want to build his own chopper. Pete told him “You can do it, Ant, you can build a bike out of anything – you just need an engine, frame, and wheels etc.” At the time he (Ant) had one of Yamaha’s Fazer 600s (one of the best mid-range Japanese bikes of all time) so, taking Pete’s words to heart, he made himself a frame jig, using info’ from Pete and off the ‘Net too, put the Fazer frame in it, and cut it. He then stepped back, looked at the frame in the jig, and thought “Shit! What’ve I done?!? Well, that’s it – I’m doing it now or I haven’t got a bike.” It ended up taking him three months to build, and he enjoyed every minute of it – the good, the bad, and the confusing times. He was hooked – he wanted to build more, both bobbers and choppers, so he started building again and, before he knew it, he had six builds under his belt and was well on the way to the seventh.

This bike by ‘ere came about when he bought two Fazers from a shop in Knebworth, and ended up building one, a standard one, up for a friend using all the best parts from both. He had left a frame, an engine, and the wheels (and a few other bits too), and wanted to do something with ‘em, but wasn’t too sure what. Then he remembered his first Fazer, and how much he enjoyed building it, so decided on another chopper.

He put the original frame in the jig, cut the two upper top tubes from the headstock away, and made a new single tube spine section so that a custom tank could be fitted, and then cut away the rear framework behind the rear of the engine cradle, leaving most of the cradle itself intact, and made a new hardtail section to take the stock rear wheel n’ brake, making all the necessary gussets and braces by hand. “I really enjoy welding frames and stuff… until you burn your fingers – then it’s OUCH! F**K! BASTARD THING!”

The forks’ seals were weeping but, rather than rebuild them, as he’d always wanted to build a set of springer forks, he thought he’d do that. He made up a separate fork jig in the frame jig, and worked out how long he wanted them and, then, did lots and lots of research as to how they work and how to make them. He wanted them to be the same thickness as the stock forks (41mm), and as close as possible to the original length, so that he can swap back to stock teles if he needed to, and then, using the original yokes, top and bottom cups, and bearings, did all the plates with a pillar drill, cutting them with a grinder and hacksaw, and shaping them with a large file in a vice. He bought springs off the ‘Net, cut ‘em to length, put it all in the jig, and welded it, having worked out the damping, and the distance it needed to travel. He says it was a little odd riding the bike with springers for the first time as he didn’t know how they were going to be but, it turns out, they’re very smooth and give quite a comfortable ride (and it was really cool to see the springs move while riding). And, having done this, his next plan is to make a set of girders too.

The Sportster tank he bought got a section cut out of the top, and a plate welded in so he could put an external fuel gauge pipe on it, and the rear mudguard came from the Renovation Spares (a mudguard specialist) stand at Kempton autojumble- he cut it in half, and reshaped it to fit the wheel, welding in supports for the rear light wiring underneath. Both were painted in a Moondust silver, and then highlighted using a scrumpled carrier bag dipped in a grey, with black paint flicked on top. It’s low budget, definitely, but very striking and effective. Similarly, the engraved skulls on the fuel cap, the cam-box ends, and the headlight rim were hand-done at home too, using nothing more than a marker pen and a Dremel – grass roots customising par excellence!  

He dealt with the inherent problems of the water-cooled motor (the main reason most people don’t use water-cooled motors’s is ‘cos o’ the plethora of butt-ugly water pipes n’ such) by rerouting/tidying/hiding the pipework as much as he could; he has a box of different size and shape pipes and bends to mix and match with, and has used this method on the last five builds to good effect – you don’t immediately notice ‘em so it definitely works!   

He says he takes a pride (some may say a perverse pride?) in building bobbers and choppers out of bikes that shouldn’t really be bobbers or choppers, just as he has done here – that’s a good thing in my book as we do like a bit of diversity here at BSH… as you may’ve noticed? 

Spec:

2000 Yamaha FZS 600 Fazer engine (up-jetted, aftermarket air-filters, EBC clutch kit)/exhausts (modified)/frame (modified)/wheels/front brake disc (one removed)/brake calipers/yokes/switches/master-cylinders (front/rear)/loom (modified), aluminium motocross foot-pegs, Bridgestone 120/70/17 front tyre, one-off springer forks, aftermarket braided brake lines, one-off ‘bars, aftermarket clutch/brake levers, aftermarket digital speedo, vintage-style grips, H-D Sportster tank (modified), aftermarket sprung seat with brass rivers, Renovation Spares rear mudguard (modified), one-off struts, one-off stainless battery/electrics boxes, aftermarket rear brake master-cylinder reservoir, Rezo wavy stainless rear disc, one-off torque arm, Michelin 170/60/17 rear tyre, aftermarket headlight (engraved)/tail-light (engraved)/LED strip indicators

Finish:

Grey/Moondust silver/black paint by owner, powder-coating by Edmonds Powder Coating (01462 337410), polishing by Peter Margesson

Engineering:

Bike built by owner at Dirty Chicken Customs

Thanks To: 

“Pete Margesson, David Oliver, & Hannah Baker; everyone at Sunday breakfast (you all know who you are – big respect); Renovation Spares (01527 543796) for the rear mudguard; & Andre Edmonds for powder-coating…”