Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126845
",-~"""","""'-"-"""'=----7-"'-'----"""'--;;;:--"""'-"-"'--"'----'="':I: !:! a: ...J ~ Z :I: o ..., >CD Vl ~ o :I: ... Yamaha's new FZX700S has a destroked FZ750 engine and unusual styling; one designer said the bike's looks relate to break dancing . The FZX700S ' body panels look odd when seen from behind. One boring bar and a Gobot to go • • • The 1986 street Yamahas By John Ulrich IWAT A, JAPAN , ocr. 8 " We do not n ecessarily believe the purpose of the motorcycle is to pursue ever-increasing top speed an d quarter-mile speed," Yamaha Motor Company Director of Mo to rcycl e Operations Kunihi ko Morinaga id Y h' 1986 US sal at ama as . . mode l press conference in Japan. "The purpose of the 24 . . motorcycle IS to offer motorcyclists ever-inc rea si ng enjoy men t in every w~ y . We . de ve.l op~~ o ur 1986 line wa h tha i III mm d. Yamaha 's line of 1986 street moun - cycles for the u.s. includes ma chines designed 10 attract new people 10 motorcycling, machines tar geted a t serio us high-performan ce ent h usias ts a n d ~ouring riders" a nd machines to co n ll ilue Yamaha s cus to m -styling successes. Sales of stree t motorcycl es in th e U.S. are dechning. Yamaha spokesmen ex p lai ned , a nd o ne o f the co m lJ:l!ll 's ]",e l l'.v..tls;, Iv expa nd the IOta ! market. As Yamaha sees it. there are o ver 20 mi llion people in th e U.S. who have motorcycling experience, but many of them no longer ride or bu y motorcycles. (T h e Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that there were 4,650,000 street and dual-purpose motorcycles in use in the U.S. in 1984. co m pa red to 2,400 .000 off-road motorcycles and ATVs; in 1983. th ere were an estima ted 4.977 ,000 street a nd dual -purpose motorcycles being used in th e U.S.• and 2.013.000 off road m otorcycles a nd ATVs). One of th e problem s, the spokesm en sa id , is th at motorcycling faces recreational co m pe titio n from ultralig h t aircraft, j et Skis. co m p u ters, ATVs, etc. The potential motorcycle bu yer of 1985/1986 is more casua l in hi s a p p ro ac h to motorcycfing, a nd new models designed to a ttrac t people just enteri n g th e m otorcycl e mark et m ust include el ements 10 a ppea l 10 casua l motorcyclists. Beyond tha t, Yamaha says , new produc t ca tegories and types with freshness a nd new exci tement are needed to bring former rid ers back 10 motorcycl in g ; bui lding machines for hard- _ co re ent h usiasts, who remain opinion leaders, is easy, th e Yamaha m en say , beca use ent h usias ts know what th ey want and will say what th ey want. Finding what it ta kes to bring back a form er rider or to exci te a more cas ua l enth usiast to buy a Yamaha is much more difficult. The motorcycl e market is healthy, Yamaha says, but cha n g ing . One spokes ma n told m embers of the press th at it used to be possible to sell 20,000 or 30,000 of one model motorcycle in a yea r. Now, with increasing market segmentation, a company might sell 3000 or 5000 units of one model ; in fact, he said. Yamaha sold 3500 1985 V-Ma x performance cruisers. That situation makes it difficult to recoup th e expense of designing. developing and mass-producing new eng ine s and motorcycles, and casts doubts on the wisdom of la u nch in g com p letely new ma ch ines every sea son or every other season. The sa les life of a design is becoming more ' important. and bui lding variants o f existin g machi nes or engines for various market segments mak es more sense than losing money and risking going out of business by building new bi kes with no cha nce of amortizing production and tooling costs. Which brings us 10 the FZX700S Fa zer a n d YX600S Ra d ia n , two machi nes .vh ich Yama ha says fit a new ca tegory, and wh ich th e compan y hopes w ill a ttract a cas ua l. yet performance-oriented enthusiast, one who appreciates high tech nology but a lso wan ts 10 be able 10 comfortably use a motorcycle for everyth in g from cruising to the store to sto rming cross a mou ntain road. The machines a re designed 10 have just such a broad range of ca p a bilities, and Yam aha says th e design emphasis is on balanced high performance. What we may be talking about here isa new generation of standard-model , do-anything motorcycles, but with n ew-wa ve styling and some hightech thrown in . Th eway Yamaha stylists explain it, th e smooth lines of the Fj l200 (m ore on that later) are like a waltz; the looks of the Fazer 700 are like break dancing. The Fazer certainly has un usua l looks. T he same type of " powerflow" styling seen in the V-Max is in the Fazer, but carried to a new ext reme with chromed, scoop- like covers lead ing 10 chrome carburetor covers and polished fins on the cy linder head . T he bodywork is broken int o segments, lik e ar mor p la tes o n some type of fantast ic fighting robot seen on a japanese cartoon show, a nd there are enough polished, chromed or gold anodized parts on the bike th at at first gl ance a viewer's eye doesn' t quite know where 10 look. The first thing that sprung into th is reporter 's mind was a Cobot or Transformer, th e children's toys that convert from being vehicles or househo ld appliances into robots and back again, with arms and legs and parts that fold out or tu ck in ; the Fazer 's chromed scoops and carb covers seemed the most lik el y ca ndida tes for a robot's a rms . The Fazer is powered by a 69&c. 68x48mm destroked version of the 749cc, 68x5 1.6m m fiv e-valves-percyli nde r. water-cooled FZ750 eng ine. Cam timing is unchanged , with slightly-less intake valve lift (7.0mm vs. 7.35mm). The Fazer engine has different mounts than th e FL750, with two sets o f rubber mounts at th e rear of the cra n kcases and a single set of rigid mounts in th e front; th e FZ750's lower from mounts aren't used . TIl e en g ine us e s a stee l water pump impeller ins tead of plastic, and th e 34mm downdraft Mikuni carbs are different, w ith t h e c h o ke lever mounted on th e ca rbs in stead of on the fairing. There 's a balance pipe between th e cylinde rs two an d three head pipes, sp rings replace th e rubber shock cus h ions in th e clutch basket , primary gear teeth a re p ol ished 10 in crea se streng th , a nd a n ew bearing is added between th e clutch pushrod a nd pressure pl ate 10 avo id seizing and galling . The sh ift sh aft is long, and no shift linkage is used because th e Fazer's pegs are not rear-set. Polished fins decorate the cylinder head casti ng. The rest of the eng ine is standard 1985 FZ750, right down 10 its ch ain fin a l drive. The Fazer's wheelbase is 59.8 inches. with rake and trail of 29" and 4.6 in ch es. The Fazer's frame is mad e 01 square-section steel tubing and the left downtube carries coolant from the radiator 10 the water p ump , in the p roc ess improving h eat dissipa tio n. T he fra me backbone tubes do n't wrap completely around the engine and carburetors like they do on an FZ750; in stead , th e fra me is ro u ted betwee n intact tracts: th e o utside ca rbs and intake tubes are ac tually outboard of the frame rails. The swingarm is made of rectangu lar steel tubing and carries dual telescopic, interna l-spring shocks. The front forks use air assist and hav e 38m m stanchion tubes; there's an aluminum alloy fork brace, The wheels are ca st-a lu m in um alloy and th eir style bears some re-