Rolly
Junior Member
Hi Folks.....newbie here!!...My name is Ian (my friends call me Rolly) and I live in France for half the week and the UK the other half. I am a long time Kawasaki ZZR rider but following an accident just before Christmas, I decided I needed a UK bike more suited to the commuting and one up riding that I do over here. Found myself a lovely FZ6N on ebay and collected it yesterday.....thought you might be interested to see the "first ride report" that I posted on my usual ZZR based forums........
Went to pick up the FZ6 yesterday in Stevenage which is about 100 miles away. Rode the bike back in beautiful sunshine without hitting a motorway or major dual carriageway for more than about a mile or so…..it was great to be back on two wheels!!……I knew I had missed it in the 2+ months since my accident with the Zed but I had truly forgotten just how much I love having the time to buzz around on a bike in the sun……it really put a grin on my face that is still there today!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
So, here’s my initial assessment of the bike:
For the first mile or two, it seemed hopelessly underpowered and despite having bought it BECAUSE it was smaller and a bit slower, I admit to initially feeling a bit disappointed. This didn’t last long though as I quickly reconditioned myself to a different style of riding. Of course MOST things would feel underpowered next to the ZZR1200 but I had to force myself to remember that this isn’t a Zed and couldn’t hope to do what the Zed does by any stretch of the imagination!! What it DOES do well though is allow you to have lots of fun in the slower and twistier stuff. It is so light and nimble that it almost begs to be pointed at corners…….you don’t realise how much effort it takes to heave a ZZR into a corner until you ride a bike that takes absolutely no effort at all!! By the time I’d covered the hundred miles home, I was looking for corners and roundabouts to spin round because it is just so much fun!!!
Yes, I know that most of the s----hot sports bikes (as opposed to sports tourers) will turn like this as well but the difference with this bike is that you can wring it’s neck in the process……lets face it, over throttling an R1, Blade or ZX10 in a corner wouldn’t be advisable and whilst I’d love one of those in the garage, having a bike as planted and forgiving as this is just such a blast!!
Other observations so far……..comfortable, upright riding position. Seat quite hard but I did an hour and half this afternoon without feeling like my arse would explode (more than can be said for the Zed’s stock seat!). You HAVE to work the gears a lot to get the best out of it – I had gotten very lazy as the Zed has so much grunt everywhere, it never really mattered which gear you used in most situations. Slightly buzzy engine at just over 6K which is a bit of a bugger cos that equates to 70MPH in top on the FZ. Ordinarily, I would just say bugger it, I will go faster but with my impending court case, I’ll have to mind that attitude for a wee while!!!
As I said before, I arrived home with a grin on my face which was priceless as far as I was concerned. This bike is just a year old, is virtually new (1500 miles), looks nice (IMHO), feels nice to ride and I got a bargain buying it on ebay. I’ll be getting another Zed as well for longer distance rides and touring but in the meantime, the commuting and one-up hooning that I bought this bike for will be a pleasure. Very impressed so far……obviously it’s early days yet and a nice shiny new bike always makes you look at things through rose tinted specs…….all I can say for now is that I am very pleased with my new toy!!!
Ride safe everybody!!
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