VOL. 51 ISSUE 24 JUNE 17, 2014 P89
BY KIT PALMER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN WING
L
uckily for us, motorcycle manufac-
turers are always trying to come up
with new ways of getting you excited
about their products, like coming up with
new innovations or piling on the bling to get
you to buy one of its bikes. And I have no
problem with that at all. But Yamaha took
a somewhat different approach with its FZ-
09. Rather than wow you with bling and
high-tech gizmos, like clutchless transmis-
sions, traction control and electronic wind-
screens, Yamaha went back to the basics
and built a bike for the one reason why
we got into riding motorcycles in the first
place: For the fun of it. Fun, meaning fast
and sporty, and, of course, not too expen-
sive. And this is indeed what the FZ-09 is
all about.
But in this day and age, it's hard to jus-
tify laying down good money for something
just for fun. Fun, these days, is only half the
battle. People are looking to get more bang
for their buck, so not only does something
like a motorcycle have to be enjoyable but
practical, as well. With so much talk about
the FZ-09 being such a cool motorcycle to
blast around on, we asked the questions:
Could the FZ-09 also be a practical mode
of transportation? A bike you could also
ride comfortably as a commuter and as an
everyday around town go-getter? A bike
that you can justify dropping $7990 for? A
fun bike that you can live with?
I've been racking up the miles on the
FZ-09, using it as my main mode of trans-
portation for the past three or so months,
and can tell you right now — oh yeah! On
all counts.
