Races on the road are frowned upon but when a pack of modern superbikes get together, ego, madness and machoness takes over from common sense and, even, the laws of the land.
My FZ featured a race 4-1 exhaust, open carbs and suitably adjusted carburation. These minor mods must've had some effect on the power output, which standard was 100 horses, as it'd accelerate like a bloody rocket all the way up to 150mph whereas before it lost its pace at 135mph. The only thing to slow me down was a clumsy gearbox that continually tried to show me up by selecting a false neutral. I'd bought the bike with 9000 miles on the clock and it hadn't turned intransigent until 22000 miles were done.
It's a common complaint on hard used FZ750s, solved by fitting new selectors if you have the time, energy and money. I hadn't, thus with 38000 miles on the clock I had the most sensitive left foot in the UK. Take it slow and steady, which goes against the grain on such a fast revving engine, and it'll select gear OK on the way up through the box. Coming back down it's dead easy to become completely lost, end up with a locked and screaming back wheel.
Under such mistreatment the back end will move around a little, but never so badly, other than in the wet, as to throw the bike down the road. A White Power shock and a fork brace with the forks on their highest settings, are necessary adjuncts to such sterling stability; the stock fare goes distinctly mushy after the first 15000 miles to the extent that even straight line stability goes a little wild.
A similar effect can be produced by running the FZ on worn out tyres, equivalent, if the boredom of modern life ever really gets to you, of living on a razor’s edge. The bike squirms over every road imperfection, the tyres slip and slide every time the throttle is hit in anger and just the slightest bit of water is an invitation to an early meeting with the Grim Reaper!
All that is in contrast with running the bike on newish tyres and well set-up suspension. Then the FZ feels so well attached to the road that it seems miraculous and the faster I went the more weight the 475b bike seems to shed. Ground clearance is as prodigious as the angles of lean made possible by the tyres’ grip, the frame’s strength and the cleverly devised weight distribution from the canted forward engine.
And what a neat bit of high technology the motor contains. Yamaha's (almost) unique five valve head, gorgeous castings and a quality of build that none of the other manufacturers can match (the gearbox apart). Put in this way, the internals are entirely as they came out of the factory, the valves have stayed so exactly in tolerance that they have never needed any attention and power is still so stunning that the engine seems not to have worn one tiny little bit. The only thing I've ever had to do is adjust the carbs every 3000 miles!
The way it produces power is just as good. Even the almost straight through exhaust has failed to stop it knocking out a useful amount of torque below 6000rpm. It's quite possible to ride in town without ever exceeding this limit and still kill just about every cage stone dead. Moderate use of the throttle puts it into a frugal mode where 55 to 60mpg is available and consumables don’t seem to wear at all.
The joy, though, when the revs rise and the exhaust wails means it's a hard heart that can resist the odd dash into the red. The first few weeks it used to blow my mind right away, requiring a completely new perspective on taking traffic gaps and when my brain couldn’t keep up with the surging acceleration some frantic work on the triple discs, which even when they howled the tyres seemed only just adequate to the task.
Any bike that makes 100 horses renders maximum cruising speeds entirely theoretical. It's more a matter of what your mind and licence can take than what the motorcycle can churn out. Anything, in the UK, over 100mph for more than a few moments is just asking for Big Brother, via cameras or loitering patrol cars, to confiscate your licence if not the machine and income for the next several years. The only way out if you really want to speed is false number plates and an unwillingness to stop for anything; I'm a little too old for that amount of stress.
Odd bashes on German autobahns revealed the FZ as entirely capable of withstanding speeds in excess of 125mph for as long as my brain could take it. Or my pocket, as fuel seemed to go through the engine at an incredible rate and layers of rubber were left behind (30mpg and about 1mm of tread in 300 miles). The half fairing that was normally tolerable became quite effective as the 125mph gale whipped around it, entirely missing my body if I crouched down slightly.
The only weak spot in high speed, long distance touring was the seat which went a touch hard and eventually took to soaking up water. It ended up with a rather twee cover and an extra thin layer of high density foam, which helped but did not entirely cure the discomfort on really long distance tours.
Much more problematic were the discs, both fore and aft, which suffered from just about every fault ever caused by brakes in the history of motorcycling. A certain mushiness was the first symptom which I thought would be fixed with Goodridge hose and new hydraulic fluid but the lever would still come back to the bars under repeated use. That was down to caliper seals that were starting to leak. That presaged much seizing of calipers in the following winter, which after several rebuilds meant they were so worn out that | had to run around breakers looking for replacements.
I even went so far as to buy a brand new set of calipers that, some 16000 miles later, are starting the terrible cycle all over again. They probably took offence at the discs which had begun to warp after becoming so thin that they pinged. This was an '88 bike, they may have got better with newer models but somehow I doubt it. When everything was set up to perfection the brakes were quite tolerable. I preferred Ferodo to Dunlopad or EBC brake pads as they lasted longer and worked slightly better in the wet, but don't expect them to go for much more than 5000 miles.
Part of that wear comes from racing with my friends down our favourite country roads, where the real lunatics get the front wheel up in the air at 100mph. The FZ750 has the edge on the better 600s and can even give the litre bikes pause for thought, especially where there are more curves than straights. The expense of running the FZ is about on a par with the bigger bikes rather than the 600s, although it pales into insignificance against the cost of fully comprehensive insurance. TPF&T is bad enough, as these kinds of bikes are prime targets for thieves.
The only time I was ever traumatised on a long distance run was when the back wheel's bearings started to break up. Some wild back end wobbles resulted. I was about 120 miles from home and in a bit of a panic as each mile I put on the clock the wobbles became larger and larger. My mates had a great laugh, especially as I hadn't bothered with the AA (the engine was so tough I figured it would never break down) so I had the option of pushing it or riding at about 10mph. I gave it a brief burst of speed from time to time to stop myself going completely insane but it felt like the swinging arm was going to fall out of the frame.
Back home at about 2.00am I couldn't sleep so pulled the wheel out to see the extent of the damage. The spindle proved reluctant to come out and only did so when the one bearing broke up completely. The bearings were full of rust and the spindle was bent. It didn’t help me sleep! New bearings and a used spindle soon had the FZ back on the road.
Another major expense was a Dream Machine paint job on the tank and plastic, in Yamaha yellow and black. The original shine had faded rather than rusted away, something that couldn't be said for the forks which eventually became so pitted I had to have them hard-chromed. I fitted gaiters when I got them back two years ago and they are still perfect now.
The White Power shock and rear suspension linkages get covered in crud every time it rains due to a stupid lack of mudguarding but they have resisted the huge amount of wear that normally accompanies such lack of thought and design. Some of the plastic prongs on the fairing and panels broke off. Superglue held them for a while, but I ended up fashioning my own and welding some tabs on the frame to hold nuts whilst using screws and rubber to mount them. This had a pleasant side effect of making the fairing less susceptible to what little vibration the engine put out... it never got through to the bars or pegs.
One friend has owned an FZ that has done 123000 miles from new with just the replacement of one camchain and tensioner in the engine (the gearchange action beggars belief) although most of the chassis has been renovated, replaced or upgraded. He has set his chassis up so nicely to suit his needs that he has no intention of trading in for a new bike but will get a newer engine when his fails or when the gearbox becomes totally inoperable. It seems like a good path to follow, as there’s certainly no need for any more power or a better frame. Maybe the FZ marks the end of the throwaway Japanese motorcycle.
Pat Linder