2004 Yamaha FZ6
good that Yamaha has decided that
the U.S. m otorc ycl e market is finall y
strong eno ugh to bring the bike state si de fo r 2 0 04 . How the A m eri c an
co nsumer will reac t to the bik e will be
B y B LA K E C O NNER
P HOT O S B y TOM R ILES
h e 600 c c S u pe r s p ort class is
wi thout a doubt one of th e most
competitively co nteste d segments in
t he m otorcy c le in dus t ry. T he engineers who design th ese b ik es stay up
lat e at ni gh t try in g to figure how to
squeeze m ore power, less weig ht and
b e tt er h a ndl in g fro m t he m i d dleweigh ts. But the re are m or e bikes
in th e class than the o nes you see
running around the world 's rac e tra cks . Case in point: the Yamah a
600 Fazer. In Europe, the 600 Fazer
has been a best seller for Yamaha for
fiv e y ears. As a matter o f fact, th e
tuninq -fork company has sold over
100,000 Fazers since its introduction
five years ago. For various reasons ,
however, the bike was never brought
to ou r shores .
The bottom line is that there is a
fairly big bridge between the tru e
Supersport bikes in the category and
the rest.. . the ones des ig ned with a
tig hter b udget. They are normally
detuned , overweight and don 't really
h av e th e sty li ng to app ea l to th e
m asses.
Yam aha has decided t o br idge the
gap betw een the Supe rsport bik es and
th e budget bikes, the reby creating a
good all -a round , performance-or ient ed m achine, mu ch lik e Yam aha 's own
FZ 1, but for th e m iddleweight cla ss.
So it m ak es p er fect sen se th at th e
new bi ke is calle d th e FZ6 . It's also
32
S EPTEMBER 1 7 , 2003ยท
a::
U
a::
Yamaha's stylists went all out t o m a ke
the FZ6 a real loo ker.
I
I!!
n
eVIl
s
in teres ting, w h ich i s exac tl y why
Yamaha isn't going to brin g a whole
boatload of the bik es into th e m arket
righ t away , opti ng to test th e wa ters a
littl e bit.
Ya maha m a y b e wo r rie d about
consumer acceptance of the bik e, but
it s ho ul d n' t b e . Aft er g ett in g th e
opport uni ty to rid e th e bik e fo r a day
in th e Au strian Al ps abo ve Inn sbruck ,
