I did my FZ1S test ride today, thanks for all your advice it was a big help. So how did it go ?
I went out for about 45 mins, some city, some highway.
The engine is super sweet, I loved it. The roll on acceleration on the highway had me grinning like a maniac, and I never even got past 6K.
In town it had good manners, I can see commuting on it would be fine. The steering was fine for me, I felt confident tipping it into corners.
The feel on the gears is way different to my KLR. The FZ1S needs more definite pressure to select each gear than I'm use to and has a more solid 'clunk' sound when a gear was selected. That would just be something for me to get use to.
The size of the bike fit me well (I'm 5"9' & 95kg) I didn't feel crunched up, but I was able to tuck in to the tank and under the screen when required.
Seating position put some strain on my wrists for the first 5 minutes, but after I experimented with different seating positions I worked out one that suited me fine and there was no more wrist strain.
I didn't find the seat comfortable, but that's so easy to change and for me its a minor issue.
Dropping the throttle gave me an unexpected experience, it seems to engine brake the bike and propel me forward much more than I was expecting. I've ridden 2 other EFI bikes and it was not as noticeable as it was on the FZ1S. Something I would have to learn to manage on a powerful bike.
Overall the FZ1S engine more than met my expectations and now anything less will not do. The ergonomics worked well for me to.
Result: FZ1S is still on the top of my shortlist.
)
