FloppyRunner
Motorcycle Noooooooooooob
Whenever I’m stopped with other bikes at a gas station, waiting at the front of the ferries here in Washington state, or wherever it may be, I can’t help but notice that…well, the FZ6 gets no love. Sure, nobody HATES the FZ6, but to other motorcyclists it just seems to be part of the background. Just another “UJM” if you will. A no-compromises shiny new R6, despite being a “UJM”, might get attention, but the FZ6? Too much of a “jack-of-all-trades” bike. Everybody wants to sit and BS about the Ducati, the Triumph, the BMW, whatever, but not the UJM sport/standard in the corner they call the FZ6.
But you know what? In the grand scheme of things I think I actually like it that way. It’s that kind of “blandness” that allowed me to pick up a perfectly good 3.5 year old first bike with only 6,400 miles on it for $3700. I’m fine with UJM if it means easy access to parts, Yamaha reliability, and valve clearance checks at 26,000 miles or whatever it is.
I like my “jack of all trades, master of none” bike. It’s fun in the canyons, but just as importantly it can get you TO the canyons in reasonable comfort, and it can eat up boring miles easily if it has to. Mine will do 55 MPG easily outside of the city. It’s never given me a problem that wasn’t my own fault (my starter once got oil in it because I overfilled the crankcase, so I needed to rebuild the starter). It is a utilitarian tool: always useful, not always pretty.
I’m young and I’m human and I’m always tempted by shiny new bikes. I frequently think about a street triple, an 848 streetfighter, or an R6. But then I think “why?” To throw more money away? I have a bike that does almost as well as any of them for the a fraction of the cost. Then again, buying a motorcycle is never logical.
I’ve only put on almost 6,000 miles on mine in the 14 months since I bought it, but that includes a winter and a half in western Washington and 3 months or so spent studying for a professional exam. No more exam and I hope to be moving to Arizona in the next two months (year round riding!), so here’s to riding the wheels off my UJM!
[/ramble]
But you know what? In the grand scheme of things I think I actually like it that way. It’s that kind of “blandness” that allowed me to pick up a perfectly good 3.5 year old first bike with only 6,400 miles on it for $3700. I’m fine with UJM if it means easy access to parts, Yamaha reliability, and valve clearance checks at 26,000 miles or whatever it is.
I like my “jack of all trades, master of none” bike. It’s fun in the canyons, but just as importantly it can get you TO the canyons in reasonable comfort, and it can eat up boring miles easily if it has to. Mine will do 55 MPG easily outside of the city. It’s never given me a problem that wasn’t my own fault (my starter once got oil in it because I overfilled the crankcase, so I needed to rebuild the starter). It is a utilitarian tool: always useful, not always pretty.
I’m young and I’m human and I’m always tempted by shiny new bikes. I frequently think about a street triple, an 848 streetfighter, or an R6. But then I think “why?” To throw more money away? I have a bike that does almost as well as any of them for the a fraction of the cost. Then again, buying a motorcycle is never logical.
I’ve only put on almost 6,000 miles on mine in the 14 months since I bought it, but that includes a winter and a half in western Washington and 3 months or so spent studying for a professional exam. No more exam and I hope to be moving to Arizona in the next two months (year round riding!), so here’s to riding the wheels off my UJM!
[/ramble]
