Take an engine, frame and suspension derived from the YZF-R1 superbike, retune it for the street, stir in comfortable, upright seating and glaze with cyborg punk styling?voila, the FZ-10. Photos by Kevin Wing.
Right after I tumbled into my forties in 2000, I began to develop an intolerance for low clip-on handlebars and high rearset footpegs on long rides. On the racetrack, fine, but for more than a couple hours on the street I could no longer see the point of being scrunched up like a jockey. As luck would have it, right about then the motorcycle manufacturers obliged with a wave of sport standards based on their premium sportbikes. For weekend sport riding and sport touring, these bikes still brought sharp handling, premium suspension and the exciting snap of a race-bred engine to the game, but their relatively upright, relaxed seating positions meant the ol? bod no longer complained after a couple hours in the saddle. The Ducati Monster, Suzuki Bandits, Triumph Speed Triple and Kawasaki ZRX1100/1200 got the comfort/performance ball rolling, but it was the 2001 Yamaha FZ-1 that really kicked it downfield. Yamaha 39-liter top case and Nelson-Rigg saddlebags readied the FZ-10 for the road.
Based on the 150-horsepower YZF-R1 sportbike, a long list of engine changes gave the FZ-1 a wider, flatter torque curve for street riding, yet retained almost all of the engine?s ponies. Though the comfortable bike also handled really well, Yamaha stopped short of blessing its sport stand...