Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

both performed well above expectation; a s a matter of fact, I was really impressed by both. I came away impressed with th e b ik e - especially wh en you t ak e in to con si de ratio n t hat it will b e p r ice d to c o mpete with Su zuki's SV 6 50S . Our first ni ght in A ust ria was spent staring at th e FZ6 at a tec h n ic al briefin g and t hen ag ain in th e va rious lo b b ie s of t he h otel , where b ik es w e r e st rat eg i cally p la ced t o p iq u e o u r i n te r est f u rt her. It wo rk ed . By th e t i m e we h a d t h e c ha nce to ri d e th e b ike the fo llowing d ay , I h ad generat ed a decent amount of c u riosit y about it. A lo t o f m y interest ca m e fro m th e fact th at th e motor i n th e b i k e i s th er e aren 't m any wh er e you spen d a lot o f tim e above thi rd g ea r . To sa y th at t h e ro ad s are t i ght a n d t w i sty is n 't descri p tive enough . Think of the tig h test h a irpin or s w itc h back y ou know , t hen t hrow in 5 0 m ore o f them . Then pa c k it a ll in a 15 -mile jaunt. What w o r k s in th e Alp s is sim pl e : t he ty pe of b i ke that f e a tu r e s a n upr i g h t r idi ng posit i on , b ig, m oto c ross -style handlebars and a lit t le more com fo rt t han y our ave rag e Super sport b ik e. That bike is th e FZ6. I was very im p resse d with the bike r ig ht from t h e sta rt because it feels li g ht, fli c kable and respon siv e . Ya ma ha want ed t h e bi k e t o b e a n all - essentially an R6 p owerpla nt with a differ ent fu e l - in j ec t ion s y ste m . I was already taken by its st y l ing, be lieving that t he styl ists in J a pan had d on e t h eir part. T h e b ik e ha s a fresh lo o k and is well th o ught o ut a nd in n o vat iv e - all at the same t ime . Th e o n ly bl ank I n eed ed t o fill i n w a s h ow it p er fo rmed . a roun d ver satil e p ackage th at wou ld be fu n o n a mounta in road, enjoy a b le fo r pra ctic al c ommutin g and wou ld c ut through t he urban congestion with ea se . I v ou ch for th e fact t h at the bike c a n d o a ll o f thi s w ith apl omb . W e spe nt a lot o f time r id ing th e FZ6 o n so me o f th e m ost scen ic a nd beautifu l ro a ds in t he w orld. We spent th e Th er e is one th ing th at y ou n eed to k now abo ut th e Alps : The roads a re uniqu e i n tha t th ey demand a b ike d ay c u tt i n g back and f o rth a n d u p an d d own th e hairp in -l a d en r o ad s. T h e cha ss is f eels re ally ni c e . Sure , the suspens ion c o u ld use s om e mor e d ampin g w h en TH E ALPS that c an turn o n a dime . pa c ks pl e nty of midrange punch and c an stop with authority . There aren 't a lot of roads in t he Al ps wher e a bike c an b e o p e n e d up , a n d push ed really ha rd , but for t h e price ran ge the bike slots into , the FZ6 w ill b e h a r d to b eat. Still , the bike h ad p lenty , a nd I didn 't m ess w ith the sus p en s i on a ll day. And w e w e r en ' t pie of logg ing t rucks coming down a pass. I had just m a d e a somewhat sketchy pa ss that saw me q u ickly gettin g ba ck to m y side o f the road j ust as th e t ra ffic ca me to a stop for a exact ly cruisi ng ... h ey , you c a n't let t hose great road s g o to w ast e. One of the bik e's b est attribu tes is its handli ng . The front -end geometry isn't razor sharp li k e a n R6, b ut its 2 5 degrees of rak e a nd 96 .52mm of trail make for a good - hand li ng and stable c hassis . One thing t h at is hard to p ut n u mbers o n , which ma kes an incred i - ha ir p in. I had t he front t ire sc re am ing for ve ng eance (always n ic e to get a n old -school Judas Pri est referen c e in), chirping and c o m p la in ing , but the feel a n d pow e r fr o m t he b r a k e s w er e e x ce lle nt. I d idn 't know t hey co u ld make p in- s lid e c al i pe r s w i t h s uc h bl e d ifferen c e , is t he leverage that th e ha ndl ebars c rea t e entering th e cor ne r. It's so easy to flick the b ik e into t hose t ig ht hairpins - and it' s o ne of th e m a in reasons t hat bikes like t h is w o rk b etter t han a spo rt b i k e o n th e Al pine ro a ds. T he cool th in g is th at the F Z6 h as th e best of both worlds - Despite the FZ6' s budget suspension and brakes, are com f ort and w in d protec t io n. Sure, any bike is going to hu rt you r post erior a fter a day i n the sad d le , bu t some are wo rse tha n others. The q u ic k steer ing and sol id sta b ilit y . I w a s a little worried that the t wi np i st on , pi n -s l i de f r on t cal i pe rs wouldn 't be up to the task of getting th e bik e s lowe d d own . I was really h oping that t he bike would have th e R6 ' s awesome m onoblo c k ca li pers on it , but in a n effort to k eep th e MSRP in c h ec k, t he t wi n- pots w i ll have t o never fe lt like m y leg s w er e c rampin g (I' m 5 ' II ") , a n d I was reall y happy with t he reach t o th e hand lebars . Overall , I fe lt very c o m fo rt a b le w ith th e upright se ati ng p osition . As far as wind p rotectio n goes, th er e is plenty o f it. Th e wind stayed off my ch est w h il e st ill a llow ing en o ugh airflow to keep me cool w hen it w as hot. Yama ha 's accessory division a lso make s a n optiona l ta ll er wi n d screen , but I t hink t h e stock version w ill suffice for most. As I m entio ned b efore. t o d o t h e A lps right, you rea ll y need a bi ke wi t h some mid ra ng e torqu e , and t he FZ6 was designed to o ffer m o re of it t han what you 'll f ind o n the R6 . Desp ite th e fa ct tha t t he bik e 's tun ing i s good fe el. Other a re as t hat the FZ6 excels in FZ6 is no full-dress tou ri n g b ik e i n terms o f seat comfort, but it isn 't a n R6 , e it her. As for the e rgono mics, I was reall y comfortable o n th e b ike . I do . I was p leasa ntly su r p rised w it h t h eir pe r formance o ut on th e roa d . They we r e mo r e th an ca pa ble of ov erwhelming th e OEM t ires, wh ic h are d esigned m ore for mi leage t h an rac etrack - li k e grip. At o ne point in o u r r ide w e had to m ake some iffy passes o n th e multitudes of German a nd A ustrian vac at ioners w ho were st uck behind a c o u - Engin e designer Keich i Harada and his team wanted the motor to rev, but they also want ed it to produce usable midrange torq ue. The FZ6 motor is virtually the same as the R6's in term s of architecture. Th ey share sim ilar cases (th e FZ6 has different engine mou nt points) , the cylinder head is the same , .and the same basic stacked, six -speed transmission is used (with a tall er 46 /16 final driv e) . Th e FZ6 cy linder head differs from the R6's only because it was painted silver for aesthetic reasons. The intake cam differs only in that a flange for a cylinder-identification sensor ha s been removed. The exhaust cam is identica l, as is th e ent ire valve tra in. One thing that was cha nged is that the compression ratio was lowered on the FZ6 to 12.2: 1 from 12.4:I on the R6 . The single largest difference between the FZ6 and R6 motors is the fuel-i njecti on system . In an effort to save weight , the FZ6's throttle bodies are completely different . Th e bodi es are split into two halves , with an assemb ly for the number-one and num ber-four firing cy linders grouped toge ther, and the number-two and -three cy linders gro uped together. They are joined by a sync hronizing mechanism with a sync screw. This groupi ng is 22-percent lighter than the R6's throttle bodi es. Additionally the R6's suction-piston valves have been eliminated on the FZ6. What is interesting is that only 50 percent of the fuel is delivered to the cyl inder on the intak e stroke , and then the othe r 50 perc ent is delivered as the com pression stroke is initiated. So there are two injections per cylinder for every 720 degrees of crank rotation . The throttle pull is a progressive elliptical design for better response, while a pulsation dam per is use to stabilize the injection pressure; both are to help improve low- to midrange response. Th e injectors themselves are a fourhole design sim ilar to the R6's. Unlike the FZI , which is based on the RI motor, on which the cylinder head was change d to acco mmodate the side-draft car buretors, the FZ6 motor uses down -draft throttle bodi es in the same configuration as the R6's. The FZ6's exhaust system is com pletely different from the R6's. The header is based on the R6's, but from there back thi ngs are quite different. The four header pipes reduce to two pipes and then into one as they hit the two-way honeycomb cata lytic converter , then stay a single pip e into the single under-seat cani ster. The canister looks like it has twi n pipes, but it is really a single canister with tw in exhaust tips. Th e FZ6's canister doesn't get as hot as does, say , the Ducati 999's, because unlike the Italian bike , there isn't a heat-radiating cata lyt ic con verter under your butt. In addition to the catalytic converter, the bike has an air -injection system to m eet all current and future Euro and Ame rican emissio n regulat ions. The only difference for the Califomia bike should be the addition of the required charcoal canister. The battery on the FZ6 has been moved to a un iqu e position on the bike. It now resides under the fuel tank cowl at the front of the bike instead of under the seat. This was done in an effort to opti mize the bike 's center of gravity. Th e engineers won't adm it it but I'm sure that part of the reason is that there isn't any room left under the seat, due to the unde r-the-seat exhaust. The ECU on the FZ6 is a brand -new unit, with a 32 -bit processor instead of the R6's 16-bit unit . It is mu ch more compact and 75-percent lighter than the R6's. c ue I e n e vv S • S EPTEM BER 1 7, 2 0 0 3 33

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