Another FZ to check off my bucket list.

At one time I subscribed to four different motorcycle related magazines. I just couldn't get enough motorcycle related news and stories. Very quickly I found out that when a new model came out, the manufacturers would invite motorcycle journalists from all over the world to ride the bikes and write their thoughts about them in their respective magazines. Great for getting the word out on new bikes. Bad for people that get four magazines a month in their mailbox when all four have the same basic article on the cover. 

I ate up every word about Yamaha's FZ line as it came out since I am an unapologetic Yamaha fan boy despite basically reading the same article four times over. Over the last few years I have been able to ride the FZ-09, FZ-07 and the XSR900 in addition to the grandfather of the all, my 2004 FZ1. My patience paid off and I was finally able to swing a leg over the direct descendant of my good old FZ in the form of Yamaha's FZ-10. Read on to see how it went.

I have mentioned many times that I am in the military. All branches of the service have made a focus on motorcycle safety. It is good and bad. Bad in that to start riding you have to take a bunch of training, get all of the gear and sell your first born child (just kidding on the last part) before you can ride on base. Good in that the training is free and you can take it any time you want. The services will also host safety demos or events on base to get the word out. They invite local businesses to participate. One such event on my base lead me to the North County House of Motorcycles booth. They were offering free test rides on anything in their stock. I signed right up! I wrote a little about this shop a few month's ago in my A Superbike Surprise in San Diego post.

Here is my ride for Labor Day. Its a 2018 Yamaha FZ-10 in black. The price tag was just north of $13,000. I'm not a black bike fan, but for a chance to ride it I'll forgive the boring color choice. I was eager to feel the power of this bike. All of the magazines have gushed over how much fun it is to ride. If it was half as much fun as my FZ1, it should be a good time. The dealer rep took my info while I signed my life and checkbook away (they are not responsible for injuries, I am responsible for all damages kinda stuff) and away I went to get familiar with the bike in the parking lot.

Before I get to the ride I have a few more pics of the bike in the showroom. Mostly what I was doing was comparing my FZ to the current generation of the FZ. While the bikes are related, they aren't the same bike in almost every way. Both use the Yamaha R-1 sport bike engine with a slightly different tune and put it in a more upright and relaxed geometry frame. Other than that similar design philosophy the bikes are completely different. My FZ is a first generation model made from 2001-05. In 2006 they updated the bike with fuel injection and an aluminum perimeter frame instead of the steel cradle frame that mine has. The second generation lasted until 2015. The FZ-10 came out in 2016.

Here is the heart of the beast. An inline four cylinder, 1000cc cross plane crankshaft power plant derived from the R-1 sport bike engine. Just like my FZ's engine it has been tuned for a bit lower peak horsepower, more mid-range torque and a lower RPM redline to make it more of a street friendly motive source. I can't attest to any differences between the R-1 and the FZ1 as I have yet to ride a real super sport/super bike level of bike. I can say that I find my FZ to be cranky under 2000 RPM, reluctant under 4500 RPM and a right monster above 7000 RPM. One big comparison I wanted to evaluate wad the difference between my FZ's carbureted engine and the FZ-10's fuel injected engine with different ride modes and a ride-by-wire throttle.

Since this bike is a computer controlled modern machine, the dash loses the analog charm for yet another digital display. You might be able to discern how I feel about digital displays from that list sentence. I don't mind some information being displayed digitally. After all I did add a digital gauge to my FZ. The difference is that I like the easy readability of an analog tachometer as the center point of my dash. I did get used to most of the dash during my short ride and in this world with all of the electronic features modern bikes have it is almost a necessity. The left side control cluster had a few extra buttons and switches that are needed to change both the power mode, ABS and traction control mode settings that the ECU has available.

Now for the ride. The spec sheet has the FZ-10 topping the charts at 131 HP and 73 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel while the FZ1 has very similar numbers of 125 HP and 74 lb-ft of torque measured at the same spot. The biggest difference is the wet curb weight with my FZ1 coming in at a portly 509 lbs and the FZ-10 coming in at 468. A 40 lb difference can make the power numbers feel very differently between the two bikes. The other overall size dimensions are so close that I couldn't really feel any difference. The seat shape and hardness were very different. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but it wasn't comfortable either. I think I could get used to the harder seat since it was wide enough to support me without making hot spots.

The dealer rep put the bike in TC mode 2 (the middle setting) and power mode STD (for standard or the middle setting). Right away when he fired up the bike it was missing something. The sound. My bike has a Two Brothers Racing slip-on muffler which gives the FZ1 a raucous race bike roar. The FZ-10 had the stock exhaust and it was quiet, too quiet. I'm not a load pipes saves lives guy, but I missed the melody of that lovely engine in its uncorked state. He let me take the bike around a few laps of the parking lot to get a feel for the ergonomics and power. After about 5 seconds I stopped and put the bike in power mode A (the most aggressive). Ahh thats better. In STD the bike felt stuffed up compared to my FZ1. In A mode it was much better and I would say equivalent to my ride, just much quieter.

He grabbed his Daytona sport bike and lead me on a route behind the dealership that had a few nice curves for about a 15 minute ride. I was very conscious of both the $13K price tag and the brand new tires so I kept a smooth steady throttle hand to ensure I wasn't going to be explaining to the wife why a wrecked bike was sitting in the garage. The suspension settings would need to be dialed in and I'd have to spend some time adjusting handle bars and foot pegs, but overall it was like being on my FZ1. I could feel the weight difference, but the power came on just like my FZ. The brakes felt a little numb, all those magazines pointed out the same feeling several times. My FZ1 has a similar issue though not as pronounced as the FZ-10. I did change over to stainless steel braided brake lines and maybe I will change to a different brake pad compound when the time comes for new ones which should help brake feel.

It is another great bike from Yamaha and I could tell why it was such a hit. Yamaha sells side bags for the bike along with some frontal wind protection to turn this bike into a sporty canyon carving tour bike. Except for the hard seat, I could see it being just that. My FZ1 makes a great sport tour bike and 300 mile days are no issue for me or my bum. I hope you like this simple comparison between the bikes as it was fun to ride another one of the awesome machines that Yamaha has been cranking out over the last few years.

Upcoming content will include some shop stuff as I get set to expand my capabilities for fabrication and repair. I also have a track day coming up at a new track in the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon!

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