New to the Yamaha forum. ( I have been a dootalk member for some time and have a restored very well running 2007 MachZ x. )
Not to age me but I did have a 1989 Black phazer delux when I was a late teenager.
Presently I just acquired a lovely all stock 1990 phazer black delux. With 6000k. Did some basics to the machine toward the end of the season. ( all the stuff from my youth flooded back ). Great compression. Cleaned completely the carbs. Replaced the carb boots. Checked everything else and ran it for a few runs before the snow left. The old girl ran just as I remembered. Got her in the lake and put my phone with a gps tracker on and gave it a long pull. 78mph. Not bad.
Now the back story. My original phazer was a 1989 short track. I was obsessed back then with getting that little thing to make as quick as possible. For good reason. The phazer was the ultimate underdog at local drag events. In those days (as most will remember) you could build a competitive drag sled and hot trail runner on a modest budget. Also lots of fun to boot. A good running improved phazer would easily beat up on the larger machines for the drags. Back then we raced the full 1/4mile.
My original phazer received many updates over the years I had it. They are as follows. Bender wide kit/bender cold air/ campolast 1” full block track/AAEN quite can/Boyessen reeds/SX piston mod/lake racer porting/gutted airbox with Bender 38mm flat-slide. That phazer would fly. I won’t post its top end back then just because I only remember what the speedo said. (No access to GPS etc. ) I did have it on radar once at an even where the local police did the radar. I ran 87mph. The setup I had then was the stock track without studs, cold air kit, pipe, stock carbs., boyseen reeds, sx piston,mild trail porting. The helix I kept stock as well as the gearing. When I used the flatslides the little thing guzzled fuel. Ran very well though. I don’t really know if the thicker track, flatslides and more aggressive porting (at no point did I remove the stock head gaskets, this was always a trail machine) really made it quicker. I seem to have doubted it when I reflect back. ( would have been cool to have radar run it then, it literally put the Speedo needle straight south.) I kept all my tuning notes from back then
So fast forward to now. Kind of reliving the youth. My boys always heard the “phazer” stories (I called it Darth Vader back then). So now that they are all grown I found this phazer. On our modern well groomed trails I’m more than impressed with how well it works.
My son has an Apex so we went for first ride together. After about 100k and I was happy with how it was running we switched sleds. I said to him, remember it’s only 53hp. He ran it for awhile. When we switch back, he had the biggest grin on his face. The original phazer recipe still works. It’s that 50-90km/hr mid range zing that hooks you. Still good fuel mileage too. Love the little thing. Just zing around the trails etc. If the need for absolute insane lake flattening speed is needed we bring out big Mach Z. ( love the tech challenge to keep that thing going. Believe me it works very very well )
So that’s a massive intro to the forum.
Not sure what I’m going to do with my little phazer. Definitely not going full mod ever again.
I am thinking of a new AAEN quiet can (spring and jets) SX’ing the piston and installing the boyseen reeds. Then leaving the rest stock. In my mind that’s where it will perform and live then best.
Not to age me but I did have a 1989 Black phazer delux when I was a late teenager.
Presently I just acquired a lovely all stock 1990 phazer black delux. With 6000k. Did some basics to the machine toward the end of the season. ( all the stuff from my youth flooded back ). Great compression. Cleaned completely the carbs. Replaced the carb boots. Checked everything else and ran it for a few runs before the snow left. The old girl ran just as I remembered. Got her in the lake and put my phone with a gps tracker on and gave it a long pull. 78mph. Not bad.
Now the back story. My original phazer was a 1989 short track. I was obsessed back then with getting that little thing to make as quick as possible. For good reason. The phazer was the ultimate underdog at local drag events. In those days (as most will remember) you could build a competitive drag sled and hot trail runner on a modest budget. Also lots of fun to boot. A good running improved phazer would easily beat up on the larger machines for the drags. Back then we raced the full 1/4mile.
My original phazer received many updates over the years I had it. They are as follows. Bender wide kit/bender cold air/ campolast 1” full block track/AAEN quite can/Boyessen reeds/SX piston mod/lake racer porting/gutted airbox with Bender 38mm flat-slide. That phazer would fly. I won’t post its top end back then just because I only remember what the speedo said. (No access to GPS etc. ) I did have it on radar once at an even where the local police did the radar. I ran 87mph. The setup I had then was the stock track without studs, cold air kit, pipe, stock carbs., boyseen reeds, sx piston,mild trail porting. The helix I kept stock as well as the gearing. When I used the flatslides the little thing guzzled fuel. Ran very well though. I don’t really know if the thicker track, flatslides and more aggressive porting (at no point did I remove the stock head gaskets, this was always a trail machine) really made it quicker. I seem to have doubted it when I reflect back. ( would have been cool to have radar run it then, it literally put the Speedo needle straight south.) I kept all my tuning notes from back then
So fast forward to now. Kind of reliving the youth. My boys always heard the “phazer” stories (I called it Darth Vader back then). So now that they are all grown I found this phazer. On our modern well groomed trails I’m more than impressed with how well it works.
My son has an Apex so we went for first ride together. After about 100k and I was happy with how it was running we switched sleds. I said to him, remember it’s only 53hp. He ran it for awhile. When we switch back, he had the biggest grin on his face. The original phazer recipe still works. It’s that 50-90km/hr mid range zing that hooks you. Still good fuel mileage too. Love the little thing. Just zing around the trails etc. If the need for absolute insane lake flattening speed is needed we bring out big Mach Z. ( love the tech challenge to keep that thing going. Believe me it works very very well )
So that’s a massive intro to the forum.
Not sure what I’m going to do with my little phazer. Definitely not going full mod ever again.
I am thinking of a new AAEN quiet can (spring and jets) SX’ing the piston and installing the boyseen reeds. Then leaving the rest stock. In my mind that’s where it will perform and live then best.