Thought I would post a mini review, if anyone is considering something similar (there are plenty more Fazers out on the road).

As I have repeated dozens of times, I commute on M1 & M50. I have been doing this since 2010, and it used to be daily up until 2015. Since then I am WFH more, so I only commute 2-3 days a week. I also do one or two weekend away with mrs, usually to the Wesht or Inishowen etc.

So my 2003 Fazer was cheap to buy and cheap to run. It wasn’t 100% bulletproof, but given the state of our roads and since I commute year round with all that grit and salt – it wasn’t bad at all. It was restricted initially, then restrictor came out, I replaced corroded downpipes with stainless steel ones, changed sticky rear brake caliper with the one from FZS1000, removed the center stand that I didn’t need, changed ratio to make it smoother and more efficient on the motorway, changed the air filter to washable. This time last year it died on me, and turned out be stator or something like that, which was the most expensive thing to fix with the bike over these 8 years. And oh yeah, chain fell off once… :bag:

So I bought a F800GT because Fazer was wearing me out with chain maintenance. I wanted something witout the chain maintenance as I couldn’t bare the thought of cleaning and oiling the chain in those freezing winter evenings where my hands are already swollen from riding the bike for over an hour. Belt doesn’t need any of this, so that was the main reason for considering F800GT (along with VFR etc).

So yeah, since I picked up the bike, I can truly appreciate why some people like it – it’s physically more substantial than the Fazer – yet not as heavy. It vibrates at low revvs and gears – which was worrying at first, but once you get over 80 kmph, it’s just as smooth as Fazer, and once you get beyond 120, it’s way smoother than Fazer all the way to 180-190… There’s more fairing protection, theree’s slightly more upright seating position (which I don’t actually really like, I prefer Fazers), and more importantly, there are excellent brakes with ABS. Bike goes and stops as you please.

Apart from other cool gadgets like ESA, ASC, tyre pressure monitoring etc, the bike just feels better put together and gives a lot more confidence on the road. Also decent mpg from what I can see so far – will know the average after next couple of tanks but so far it looks like it will be around 4.5l/100km. It came with panniers, now planning trips up north and out to Wales. :thumbsup2:

I know this make gets a lot of shitck here but I like it.. for now. I reserve the right to change my opinion when next service comes around… :bag: