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2006 Yamaha FZ1

Sunday, 20 August 2006

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Rain Dodging by Mike Emery ~ Photos by BJ and the Bear (Riles)

2006 Yamaha FZ1

I've come to the conclusion that focus groups are damaging our sport. I mean how about the way they suck all the fun out of a potentially superb (read perfect) bike by demanding softened down naked versions of superbike tackle? We want more midrange, they cry. We need more wind protection, is another whine...

Whatever happened to wind in your chest motorcycling and balls out naked motoring? There's nothing wrong with a bug or two on your jacket (or in your teeth) and top end rush that needs a minor gearbox prod to go find? What's the world coming to I ask - bunch of wankers the lot of them.

It's no secret, there's three things in life that I love - Naked women, naked bikes and naked women. Would Yamaha's FZ1 live up to my vision of naked nirvana? I managed to spend a day and a bit on the thoroughly revised (actually all new) 2006 and also got to run the bike on almost every type of road, from bumpy canyons, freeways and country roads, wet and dry. I'll let the cat out of the bag early and tell you a couple of things, this bike is a larger rear sprocket and 11 pounds short of being one of the funnest bikes I've ever ridden. The sprocket issue is easily solvable, the 11 pounds needs a little help from a Euro friend and I'll try and show you the how and why.

So here's a modernized version of a bike deemed acceptable to the Y2.1K focus groups, so why that revision? Well, kudos to Yamaha, I suppose, because when they entered the class back in 2001 it gave the masses a bike that was a little more angrier that what they had been used to. Consequently it became the class leader in sales and pretty much stayed that way with the mark I version. Sure the bike was good, but only up to a certain level though, if you pushed the bike hard it tended to become a bit of a flexi flyer. Like a true sportbike should, Yamaha applied the usual upgrades to this version relative to a sportbike class and moved the bike toward superbike land with almost no penalty for those existing owners looking for a that modernized replacement.

So what did they do exactly? Well I'm glad you asked... Obviously with a class leading bike they'd be foolish to mess with a good thing. Yamaha thought the original bike was good, but they wanted it better. To appease present and future owners they hit three key areas right on the head - first, they wanted to maintain the every day real-world functionality, add some hi-po sportbike performance, and finally add some style points to further seal the deal. So, it's got improved performance, that beefier motor then needed a sportier frame, that new frame then needed a longer swingarm... Oh man, I'm liking this direction already.

The bike looks far more aggressive than its older brother, and lines have been drawn and sharpened to bring this bike bang up to date. The front bikini fairing has a meany-mean look with that familiar looking dual cat-eye headlamp. The aerodynamics of that tiny fairing are apparently better than of yore, it's 17mm higher for better wind protection. I'm not convinced, as I had a very turbulent area right in front of my noggin offering almost no protection and a ton of wind noise. If I stood up and got a clear shot of the wind blast, my Arai was almost silent. However, the line of that fairing follows the lines of the R1 style gas tank perfectly but I'm European and most gals over there dump their bikini tops as soon as they can. Like I said earlier, naked bikes and ladies rule.

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