Highly tuned engine

[hobbit]

i did a 2x3hr stints on the second day of ownership and got off both times really comfy ok it not cruiser comfy but its still comfy

 

[OneTrack]

I can tell you this...my FZ6's seat feels like I'm sitting in a Benz after that 2x4 excuse for a "seat" on my XT225.
I read a lot in the bike magazines about the FZ6 being "revvy" and "not really suitable as a commuter". These guys obviously have no concept of fun....what do they want us to ride to work....Sherpa's?
The last thing on my mind when riding my FZ6 is that it's performance challenged. If I feel old and slow, it'll go old and slow; if I feel young and sporty, it'll go young and sporty.

 

[opds9091]

Ok, i am so new to motorcycles, but, i bought my 07 FZ6 on aug 1st. It's been a month, and I can't get enough of the bike. I have 2100 miles in one month. I'm in FL, and have taken the bike to New York (yes from florida to york and back). The motor sounds a little loud at low rpm's but the second you hit the gas, well the fun starts agian. NOT that the bike is not fun all time, but when I hit the gas, it just wants to take off. any other thoughts.

 

[hunterfz6]

=(

I'm really envious of you all who can take off for 8 hour trips and such, My wife wont let me. Oh I can, but I have to pay for it by nagging and guilt trips. So I try to do extra housework, do the laundry etc, so when I do take off for a couple hours she cant leverage me hehe. " honey, i'm going for a ride on my bike", did you vacuum the floor, did you wash the dishes? etc etc.
Wife is also going from 2nd shift, my prime time bike riding time, to going to school and working part time. Somebody hold me!

 

[sportrider]

I'm really envious of you all who can take off for 8 hour trips and such, My wife wont let me. Oh I can, but I have to pay for it by nagging and guilt trips. So I try to do extra housework, do the laundry etc, so when I do take off for a couple hours she cant leverage me hehe. " honey, i'm going for a ride on my bike", did you vacuum the floor, did you wash the dishes? etc etc.
Wife is also going from 2nd shift, my prime time bike riding time, to going to school and working part time. Somebody hold me!

take her with you. if that don't work, SAC UP and just tell her " I'm going riding Saturday I'll be home when I get done." then just leave at first light, normally I get back around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. there is the occasional 5:00 though, but sometimes I get home earlier. after a while she'll get used to it and any resistance you currently have will diminish. also NEVER I REPEAT NEVER tell her about any close calls, top speeds,or god forbid other riders going down!!! that will just open up the "speach" you know the one. the one about the "dangers" of riding or "what would I do if..." gotta love umm.

 

[trailblazer87]

take her with you. if that don't work, SAC UP and just tell her " I'm going riding Saturday I'll be home when I get done." then just leave at first light, normally I get back around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. there is the occasional 5:00 though, but sometimes I get home earlier. after a while she'll get used to it and any resistance you currently have will diminish. also NEVER I REPEAT NEVER tell her about any close calls, top speeds,or god forbid other riders going down!!! that will just open up the "speach" you know the one. the one about the "dangers" of riding or "what would I do if..." gotta love umm.

Yeah, I've heard the speech plenty of times, but I still tell my Girlfriend. I want her to know that I can be open and honest with her, and that she can be with me. She also knows I'm not going to stop riding any time soon. I am trying to share the realities with her as I want her to start riding as well, but with her eyes open and nothing glossed over. She wants to learn to ride and I am going to teach her on a nice safe TT 125 that I am borrowing from a buddy! Once she gets the mechanics down then she can start practicing on my FZ in a parking lot. By then I'll probably be married (scary thought sometimes) and she'll have a GS500 or a Ninja 500, something along those lines.:thumbup:

 

[sportrider]

right on!:rockon: I don't hear the speech from my wife anymore. it took me about 5 years to get her on the back of the bike for real rides, and around 3 more to start riding herself. I'd recommend getting her a Ninja 250 as a first bike. that's what I got my wife. it has enough oomph to get me up to a 112MPH (speedo indicated) I think I'm going to take the lil Ninja to palomar tomorrow just for fun!!

 

[pchbreeze]

on a typical weekend ride I'm on the bike for around 8 or 9 hours. you'll get used to it!!!

I'm with him...I ride many hours a weekend and no problem. I had a girl on the back one time for many hours, and no complaint from her...and she loved to complain.

Danny, we should ride around...you probably do the same type of 'sport touring' that I do. :rockon:

 

[gt89stang393]

Heck, I tell my wife of any high speeds or close calls on purpose. She don't like to hear about it but tough, its a fact of life. She loves riding along with me, her biggest complaint is vibration, which isn't terrible really. I want to go on a long ride with her, but I am waiting on my 15T sprocket and speedohealer V4 to arrive before I do that.

 

[Nelly]

They dont handle so well. They were at deals gap when we were. Its not the place for them.

Mate thats only the blue ones

I can't speak about 2-up riding because I haven't had a passenger on my FZ6.

I would like to say that the bike does not need to be ridden at high rpm to perform nicely.

There is definitely an increase in power at 9 to 10K rpm, but I rarely go there.

If you want to be mellow, 5 to 7K has no trouble dishing out the acceleration when you need it unexpectedly.

Keeping it at 8 or 9K keeps the real sweet power very close at hand. But keeping it at this level makes me feel like I am being too aggressive for my daily commute.

I doubt you will find anyone riding this bike that feels it is under-powered, even in the "less than optimal" rpm range for the power band.

It's still a 4 cylinder, so I think the accessible power band is much winder than any of the 2 cylinder counterparts.

Anybody disagree?

BTW - since you mentioned weight concerns on other bikes. This guy at work just bought a Hayabusa, specifically because he wanted something that could easily handle 2 riders and still perform. I sat on it and the thing is huge. But what I could not believe was the dry weight. That thing weighs over 900 lbs!

I know it's a 1300cc but geez. Put some gas in that thing and you are riding around on like 1/2 ton of pure hp. I really wonder how it handles?

I agree totally with your thoughts, I would like to add that I do a lot of riding in towns at 30mph. The engine is only reving to 3000 rpm at this speed. I have found that by being aware of the other traffic and planning my filtering. I have no need to constantly go up and down the box.

Nelly

 

[bmccrary]

I have my bike set up for long distance 2 up riding and I must say that it has plenty of motor for my girlfriend and I plus gear. I am around 190 with gear on and she is roughly 115 with gear on, in addition to ~30 pounds of gear.

I have installed a J&M intercom system that allows Jordan (my girlfriend) and I to talk back and forth easily. It has an aux input so I can listen to my iPod and it has has a 19 channel CB radio and 7 channel weather radio. My parents have the same radio on their cruzier, so it makes it nice to be able to communicate with them. Also, there is a passanger key up button that allows the passenger to talk over the CB as well. However when the passanger Keys up, the rider can not hear what the passenger is saying and it goes the same for when the rider has keyed up.

I also installed a Givi rack and cut the tab off the back so I can my tail bags and zip tied a couple of 1 inch OD PVC pipe to help hold the saddle bags straight. With all the bags on, Jordan was able to use them as a secured back rest.

The one big trip we took was 1867 miles, to Southern Fla and back. She has also taken a few trips around for the days with out a problem.

Before the Fla. trip I got some of that reflective insulating tape and put it inside the exhaust cover and under the seat everywhere I could to prevent the seat from getting hot. Jordan has not had a problem with here rear getting warm.

I can run a tank down with out stopping and after a quick stretch I am ok to do it again. I average around 250 to 300 miles per day trips and have seen as high as 450 in a day. I will admit after the 450 I was a bit sore, but not terrible. Not near as bad as my riding partner did riding his GSXR 600. (He has had the bike a year and put 12,000 miles on it)

I do not have any complaints about the seat however I will say that I plan on getting some gel inserts put in at some point down the road.

Overall it is a great bike for two-up riding. I personally would like to have a bit more motor for the job, but its not horrible. I think if yamaha made a 750 motor to go in, that would be perfect.

I plan on getting the R6 forks and brakes and possibly and Ohlins rear shock some down WAY down the road. But other than that she is right.

For the money and size I dont think you can beat the FZ6, but I would continue to look around and see what you can find.

Good luck and enjoy what ever you decide on.

-bryan

 

[marke14]

Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!

:rof:


Dude 2 up, you'd be better served with a Suzuki V-Strom 650. You can get ABS, plenty of electrical capacity for wired clothing and gizmos, stock with a rack on the back, Givi cases, the list goes on!

A lot of people tour (probably a lot more people "tour" as in shorter distance touring) with the FZ6, but I'd bet the V-Strom would be more fun in the real world. You can't really wring the FZ around so much in town, but I suppose if you live on the periphery you could get away with it more.

I hit the rev limiter for the first time the other day :Flash: ... in town :innocent:

 

[HavBlue]

BTW - since you mentioned weight concerns on other bikes. This guy at work just bought a Hayabusa, specifically because he wanted something that could easily handle 2 riders and still perform. I sat on it and the thing is huge. But what I could not believe was the dry weight. That thing weighs over 900 lbs!

Way wrong. The Hayabusa for 2008 has a dry weight of 217kg. For us folks that don't use metrics this is roughly 477 pounds. Add 40 pounds in gas and fluids and it's still a very respectable 517 pounds. Now, if the two riders weighed 200 pounds each you would hit that magic 900 pound mark but then again, if you put 2 riders that weighed that much on an FZ6 you would be well over the GVWR and still above the 800 pound mark. A 900 pound Hayabusa, that's funny.....

 

[bmccrary]

Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!

:rof:


Dude 2 up, you'd be better served with a Suzuki V-Strom 650. You can get ABS, plenty of electrical capacity for wired clothing and gizmos, stock with a rack on the back, Givi cases, the list goes on!

A lot of people tour (probably a lot more people "tour" as in shorter distance touring) with the FZ6, but I'd bet the V-Strom would be more fun in the real world. You can't really wring the FZ around so much in town, but I suppose if you live on the periphery you could get away with it more.

I hit the rev limiter for the first time the other day :Flash: ... in town :innocent:

I am not sure if the post is to me or in general? If so:

If I ever purchases a bike that had ABS on it, it wouldnt be the reason I bought it. I would promptly remove the system. I have seen the way they work and to be honest I am not impressed. I have a few close calls where I have had to bring the bike to stop fast at which point my 16 years of riding dirtbikes kicked in and I stoped in plenty of time. I am not saying that by anymeans I am a perfect rider or that I will never screw up, but I do feel confident in my riding abilities but I am always learning.

As for electrical, the bike has enough power to do what is needed. Personally if I needed heated grips, vests and other heated accories, then it is just too darn cold to ride, lol.

Not flamming or anything like that. Sorry if it comes off that way. Just stating MHO.

-bryan

 

[Jeremiah]

I've found the HP of the FZ6 to be more than enough for 2 up. I doubt you're going to find many bikes that do a better job in it's price / weight class. The built-in center stand comes in very handy if you like to do your own work (adjusting chain slack / oil changes etc). You can always spend a little more $$$ for a corbin seat if you like to go long distance... but I've not needed one on my 300+ mi trips. The V-Storm is the only other bike close in the price range, but the quality of Yamaha beats the pants of Suzuki. Viva la 30,000 mile valve adjustment interval!

 

[abraxas]

I'm taking the mrs to work and back now some days.
I'm a lightweight 65kg, but she's over 100. Fazer is PLENTY enough for both lane splitting at very slow speed, and hitting the highway and opening her up. I set the rear shock to 7, you have to, and tyres and chain need to be harder and looser.

Taken breakfast runs too, never felt any need for MORE.

The 600 Fazer still the best all rounder i've ever ridden.