Fzr1000

FZR1000

CW RIDING IMPRESSION

The greatest FZR yet

IT’S TOO BAD THAT EVERY AMERICAN DOESN’T HAVE A racetrack in his back yard. It’s a shame that you just can’t step off your patio and into a paddock; that every motorcyclist can’t take a few hot laps between supper and bedtime. As it is, most riders will never know what a remarkable motorcycle the new Yamaha FZR 1000 really is.

The FZR is a bike that, by all rights, should be sold with an inflatable Laguna Seca stuffed inside the toolkit. To confine this bike to the city streets and freeways of America is to do it a felony injustice. It longs, if not for the -racetrack, at least for the twistiest, most racetrack-//Ac roads on earth.

Last year’s FZR 1000, of course, had the same only-theserious-need-apply mission, and as we found out in our Superbike comparison test, it was the best-handling big sportbike available. But for 1989, the FZR’s mission has been focused more sharply than ever. Now, the machine has a new frame with fewer bends and curves for more rigidity, and a whole host of engine changes. The cylinder bank is angled at 35 degrees from vertical, which is 10 degrees more upright than last year’s, allowing the engine to be moved forward in the chassis for better front-wheel tracking through hard corners. To do this, Yamaha had to shorten the top end, accomplished in part by shorter valve stems that allow a more-compact head casting.

Another big change is EXUP, Yamaha’s so-called Exhaust Ultimate Powervalve. This device was used last year on the California-model FZR400, and it basically alters the tuning characteristics of the exhaust system as engine rpm changes. According to Yamaha, the end result is a wider powerband.

No argument here. Besides being incredibly powerful, the new 1000’s engine has an amazingly smooth powerband that delivers no violent power surges anywhere in the rpm range. Thanks in part to the EXUP system, midrange power is potent enough to produce arm-stretching roll-on acceleration. And if you hold the throttle open past 9000 rpm (redline is 1 1,500 rpm), the FZR will kick into a distance-gobbling hyperdrive. But that should be no surprise; we are, after all, talking about an extremely potent 1000 that Yamaha claims pumps out “in excess” of 130 horsepower. So, it’s simply got to be a brute someplace. In fact, so outrageous is the engine’s top-end kick that the FZR was able to turn a 10.39-second quarter-mile ET, at 134.52 mph. That’s the quickest time Cycle World has ever achieved on a stock motorcycle; and although our machine was, admittedly, a pre-production, European-spec model, the production units could very well be quicker and faster.

But, believe it or not, the engine isn’t even the FZR’s strongest feature; its biggest asset is its handling. The bike is dead-nuts neutral and completely unflappable, no matter what you ask it to do. Indeed, it’s so confidence-inspiring that you can easily get downright carried away on it. A few laps on the racetrack will have the machine dragging its footpegs, and then its oversized muffler, in right-hand corners—not because these components are low, but because you can lean the FZR way, way over. The suspension is consistent and firm, and traction simply isn’t a problem. The FZR comes with the newest-generation Pirelli radial tires: the ultra-low-profile MP7 Sports. These may be the best original-equipment tires to come on a Japanese sportbike, and are responsible in no small part for the FZRlOOO’s miraculous handling traits.

Of course, on the street, it’s hard to push those tires—or, for that matter, the engine, the chassis or the brakes— anywhere close to their limits. It’s also impossible to appreciate the FZR’s triple-digit handling capabilities when you’re locked in city traffic. In those tight confines, you’ll notice that the bike is a typically uncomfortable racerreplica, with a footpeg-to-seat relationship that is even tighter than the smaller FZR400’s.

But that can’t change one all-important fact: On a favorite section of backroad, the FZR may well be the ultimate weapon. It’s a born racer, a lOOOcc injection of racetrack fantasy that makes no secret about how serious it really is. And it expects its rider to be just as serious.

With a bike as good as the FZR 1000, finding riders with those intentions shouldn’t be a problem.