Yamaha's naked bike small but sensible

Not a bad review, but I'm sad to see the FZ1 get cut in NZ. Of course, this paragraph made no sense to me at all.

It's such a shift to a "smaller is better" philosophy that it's a bit like Graham Henry replacing Ma'a Nonu with someone the size of Jimmy Cowan to shore up the middle of the All Black backline.
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I assume it's some kinda of sports reference like soccer or rugby or something else wrongly called football :p :icon_beer:
 
HI Adim, Im glad Ive already got my FZ1 here in NZ. Sad to see we have to be sensible here with only FZ8s coming here now. Im DJ NEZZ.
 
It's interesting they reference the era of the 750's being a very popular displacement for the street hotrods. I still remember my Kawasaki 750 GPz. It wasn't a whole lot for low-end torque but when you got the revs going she flew and was a lot lighter than the litre bikes of the era. Maybe this "mid displacement" move won't be that bad after all.
 
Well it doesn't pack much if any less weight than the FZ1. Less crank weight does seem to give it a lighter handling feel.
Still here in the US with numerous used FZ1s selling for less than $4k you could easily perform the naked conversion, dramtically upgrade powertrain, exhaust and suspension and still come away with huge savings (VS new FZ1 or FZ8) and have a machine that is as refined as you want or as monstrous. New FZ1s are slow sellers here and can be had for between $7-8K
I guess for someone who wants new, wants unfaired, and who doesn't want to modify, the FZ8 makes some sense. I guess tameness might fit in the equation too. For Yamaha's sake as well as the future of the FZ line, I hope there are enough of those types out there.
 
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eurban said:
Well it doesn't pack much if any less weight than the FZ1. Less crank weight does seem to give it a lighter handling feel.
Still here in the US with numerous used FZ1s selling for less than $4k you could easily perform the naked conversion, dramtically upgrade powertrain, exhaust and suspension and still come away with huge savings (VS new FZ1 or FZ8) and have a machine that is as refined as you want or as monstrous. New FZ1s are slow sellers here and can be had for between $7-8K
I guess for someone who wants new, wants unfaired, and who doesn't want to modify, the FZ8 makes some sense. I guess tameness might fit in the equation too. For Yamaha's sake as well as the future of the FZ line, I hope there are enough of those types out there.
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Yea, I don't see the FZ8 being a good seller here in the US. Since it's 800cc I doubt there is much of an insurance discount over the FZ1 for starters. With the FZ1 selling so poorly you can get a left over FZ1 for FZ8 money...
 
Cycle World just gave it a good review, testing it with the Monster, Shiver, BMW and the Street Triple. I guess we will see if the intro bike market is getting stronger, for people afraid of liter bikes.
 
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