A friend loaned me his 3000 mile Yamaha 600 for a long weekend, as my own machine was bent beyond repair. I was able to put about 1800 miles on the clock, little in terms of most UMG reports but hopefully sufficient to give an insight into this newest Yamaha four. The tarmac was an interesting blend of motorways, fast main roads and winding back lanes. Although I was on my own I have ridden and owned many middleweights, stretching right back to my days with British bikes.
The most obvious deviance of the new Yamaha from the old XJ600 is having the upper engine canted forward as per the FZR series. This is nothing new, Panther and later even Norton were exponents of such engineering unorthodoxy. Perhaps because such a layout requires a more compact transmission, or perhaps merely because Yamaha deemed it necessary to update the XJ engine into the modern world, the new motor also sports gear primary drive instead of the hyvoid chains that used to need replacing every 60-70,000 miles in the old XJ series.
The XJ600 has been a reasonably tough engine with none of the Suzuki's electrical problems nor Honda’s camchain knackering tendencies. It was always a bit down on power compared with the GPz550 but endowed with more low end stomp. It would occasionally suffer carburation problems, with poor running at some revs, especially after the exhaust system rotted. The new 600 was to prove more of the same, only better.
Looking the machine over I must say I was most impressed by its appearance. All the lines flowed well and the machine was topped off by a useful half fairing that looked so pretty that only the most ardent of retro fans would insist on pulling it off. Naturally, it lacked the width to give hand protection but the Yamaha does have tubular bars that can be easily swapped for something narrower. It had the same kind of overall integration of lines as the first Honda 400 four, and will probably appeal to the same kind of rider.
Not so impressive was a pointless rear disc (that didn’t work as well as a GPz500’s drum), the usual monoshock arrangement, the lack of protection for the chain and the exposed front forks. Par for the course for most Japanese middleweights, I know, but there really is no excuse for such offerings in these financially strapped times when the last thing a new owner wants to do is fork out for new chain, suspension linkages, rear calipers and fork seals as soon as the bloody guarantee runs out! Better mudguards would also have been nice.
Weighing in at 420lbs dry, more than the FZR600, the Yamaha is just about acceptable in mass for it carries it well. For an across the frame four it is relatively easy to scoot through traffic, the gearbox is easy to use and there is plenty of grunt right through the rev range, opening the throttle producing an almost seamless flow of power.
A surprising amount of vibration was evident at lower revs, although it did clear up until reappearing at about 90mph in top. An hour with the machine held at the ton produced numb fingers. A pity because the engine was able to hold this speed come what may and the chassis was as stable as anything you’d care to shake a stick at.
It felt more reassuring than my old GPz500, for instance, although the Kawasaki was easier to manoeuvre through town and faster in top speed and acceleration despite its lack of cubes and cylinders. Weirder still, the counterbalanced twin was smoother at 90mph than the four.
The back roads were where I really enjoyed myself on the Yamaha. The chassis is slightly slow in turning but dead easy to control. On those really nasty bends with lots of bumps and a reverse camber that threatens to toss you off I was amazed at the ease with which the suspension shrugged off the forces and the way the chassis allowed no flex. The frame is a wrap-around tubular affair which looks as strong as it evidently is. I felt no need to play around with the suspension settings - they coped with both large and small bumps, something quite rare on Japanese middleweights.
Fuel, over the long weekend, worked out at an average of 44mpg. Most owners will do better, I’m sure, as I was caning the beast relentlessly most of time. I suspect 50mpg will be more like it (it’s what the owner reports, with 62mpg whilst running in). The oil level showed no signs of movement, which is what you would expect with a new bike. The bike was shod with a set of Metz’s finest from new which had about another 1000 miles left before needing replacement - pathetic, but they stuck like glue. These Japanese middie-weights are not cheap bikes to run, which has to be borne in mind when considering purchase.
I had two brushes with death whilst mounted on the Yamaha. The first was whilst running along in town at about 35mph. A bloody cyclist shot out of an alley into the road without looking at the traffic. I had to stomp on the brakes and wrench the bike to the right. I missed the cyclist by millimetres but put the Yamaha in front of a Transit. The driver screeched to a halt millimetres from my back end, hurling abuse like a docker from the side window. He was distracted from this by a car rear ending him. I toddled off before he could lever himself out of his vehicle and beat me to death. Passing the cyclist I pushed him into the gutter, his front wheel hitting the pavement sending him and machine flying into a tangled heap. I was impressed by the way the Yamaha had responded to the crisis.
I was even more impressed when I had to brake frantically from 80mph after two artics decided to try to crush me between them. I was overtaking one in the slow lane of the motorway and another was overtaking both of us in the fast lane. They both decided they wanted to move into the middle lane and crush me to death. Evidently some new kind of sport invented by bored out of their heads long distance drivers. Acceleration from 80 to 100mph is not that impressive, so rather than try to rush through the narrowing gap I whacked on both brakes. I just made it. In revenge I shot down the hard shoulder, screaming the engine in the red in third and fourth, finally emerging ahead of the lorries with 120mph on the clock in top gear.
This turned out to be the machine's top speed. I kept the bike at this rate for the next 15 minutes to get well clear of the artics. There was a heck of a lot of vibration but the chassis was just as good as at lower speeds. By the time I got to my destination the drive chain needed three tweaks on its adjusters, the first time it had been touched according to the much alarmed owner when I reported this to him.
The rest of the transmission was excellent. I had not missed a change and the clutch was so light and easy to use that only a complete moron could stall the engine. I only did a few clutchless changes, the slight lurch in transmission upsetting the smoothness of the machine's progress. I did not indulge in any wheelies or tyre spinning, it was not that sort of bike.
Owners of XJ600s will find the new Yamaha a useful bit of evolution, but it doesn’t really justify dumping a nearly new bike unless its looks really can’t be resisted. If I had to choose a practical middleweight I would still go for the GPz500 - faster, better economy and much more of a blood and guts feel from its twin cylinder engine than the rather bland Yamaha unit. It’s a bit pathetic that Kawasaki haven’t upgraded its wheels and suspension after all these years of paint changes, but says a lot about its original concept that it’s still king of the practical middleweights.
As a secondhand buy the Yamaha will have a lot going for it - the engine’s bound to be tough, the chassis is spot on and a few sensible additions will sort out the worst of the impracticalities. The market is still wide open for a really practical (but fun) middleweight four - for its power the Yamaha has appalling economy, too many carbs and too much mass. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a fine machine to ride, because it is, just that it's an imperfect old world.
Dick Lewis