Yamaha FZ6
Sport Touring(?) comes in a small package
Yamaha’s latest addition to the FZ line is a practical 600
model with all the power and performance of the R6, it’s called the FZ6.
Versatility is the name of the game. If you like riding
sportbikes, but feel the need for a chiropractor after a hundred miles, the FZ6
offers the ergonomics of a well-built street standard along with the agility of
a sportbike when you want it. If you like doing overnight rides, camping and
multi day trips, but don’t like the weight of a hefty sport touring bike, the
FZ6 provides the power and a fluid framework to hit the road for many miles.
 I enjoy an overnight ride about once a month during the
riding season. For those who aren’t interested in the larger sport touring bikes
the FZ6 makes a perfect choice offering the rider good around-town/day trip
ability - but throw a few bags on the back and you can hit the road for
literally weeks at a time. The FZ6’s competitors in the 600cc class such as the
Suzuki SV650 and Honda 599 didn’t afford the ability to throw a set of soft
luggage over the back seat like the FZ6. Did Yamaha ever expect the bike to be
put into Sport Touring duty? It’s hard to say, but based on the construction it
seems like engineering had an inkling.
Yamaha hit the nail on the head when they placed it’s
already-proven R6 sportbike motor into the framework of the FZ6. During initial
testing the motor was docile and showed no signs of a performance monster, but
once the odometer struck 1,000 miles, the motor sprung into action and began to
deliver the results expected. The fuel injected R6 motor seems to have found a
fine domestic home in the FZ6.
The transmission and power plant are ever so forgiving
providing good torque in the low RPMs as well as the mids and highs. With this
machine if you miss a downshift and suddenly find yourself in 5th
gear at 2,000 rpm, you can still hit the throttle and get the power you need to
execute your next maneuver. Its sweet spot seems to lie about 5,000 – 7,000
rpm.
Wind buffeting is an issue with this bike. The solution is
simple, Yamaha makes an optional larger windshield for $100 offering about 3
more inches of vertical height to lift the buffeting wind overhead, however a
good set of 30 decibel earplugs inserted snuggly into one’s ears provides the
still-needed hearing protection.
Styling? You bet. The FZ6 gets the looks. With the four
into 2 exhaust system snugged up under the seat and it’s metallic blue or silver
color choices, the FZ6 captures the eyes of many an enthusiast.
How about those tires? We dumped the stock Dunlops from
the test model immediately and went for a set of Avon Azaros. After all, if
you’re serious about sport touring, get rid of the sport bike tires and get
something with some meat on it that performs at highway speeds.
The multi-faceted interface for the
speedometer/odometer/trip meter/tachometer housing takes a few hundred miles to
get used to. You can read the tach info either by way of a digital bar graph, or
click the odometer over to a digital numeric read out. Once the tank reaches
reserve the trip meter starts counting from zero alerting the rider to how many
miles they’ve traveled on reserve. You can get about 50 miles out of the bike on
the highway before it goes bone dry.
Other pluses include a 5.1 gallon gas tank with an average
of 50 miles to the gallon (highway) during testing, making the FZ6 a rare site at
the gas pump. The price is right too at just $6,599.
But here’s the clincher. If you went looking for an FZ6 in
the late summer of 2004, its first model year, chances are you couldn’t find
one. By September there wasn’t a state within 1,000 miles of the Northwest that
had one in stock. Yamaha has built a practical machine that’s a winner in more
ways than one. The market has responded and one can only hope 2005 production
will come closer to meeting demand – but don’t bank on it. It it’s the bike for
you, snap it up now!
PT/Fall 04
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