YAMAHA FZ-10
FIRST RIDE
P80
torque on offer and made the
Yamaha a bit of a handful on
the Dragon, so I mainly rode in
A-mode for the majority of the
test. A-mode still offers a bit of
a hit on the initial opening of the
throttle but it's more manageable
than B-mode with more person-
ality than Standard.
Yamaha's done away with the
twin-injector setup of the R1 in
favor of a single, larger spray
injector purely because this
model of cross plane four won't
be spending its life on the rev-
limiter where the second injector
is required. But don't think this
50 percent reduction in injec-
tors has sacrificed any form of
rideability. Once the throttle is
opened the drive to the rear tire
is spectacularly smooth with
nary a dip in power right through
the rev range and a soundtrack
that, in my opinion, is only bet-
tered by the Aprilia RSV4. On
top of that, the mapping is so
spot on that when on partial
cruising throttle, there's abso-
lutely no fuel-injection hunting,
making the engine as comfort-
able a proposition as the chas-
sis.
Combine the flexibility of the
engine with Yamaha's traction
control system that was originally
seen on the 2012 R1 and you've
got a bike that can handle pretty
much any riding situation. The
"IT'S A SUPERBIKE THAT'S GROWN UP, GOT
MARRIED AND HAD A COUPLE OF KIDS, BUT
STILL HAS THE PARTY GLINT IN ITS EYE
TIME CAN NEVER DIMINISH."
