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Impression Yamaha FZ 750
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Damn it, at least when it comes to miracles, time should pass a little less. More respectful. Or more gracious. It seems like yesterday that Yamaha’s FZ 750 ?? A collection of technical refinements turned revolution? all but really all under its spell. And now it’s there, with 130 rear tires, too much weight and a steel frame. An old motorcycle? No, an old miracle, and that is still a huge difference.
GSX-R and CBR 900 become GSX-R and CBR 900: The modern two-wheeler scene is amazed at the computer-aided calculation with which Japan’s engineers develop existing concepts that are close to perfection. Not so long ago, however, there was the purest search operation in the universe of technical possibilities, and nobody would have been surprised to read in MOTORRAD that morning at breakfast that Nippon’s sons had invented the bike a second time. Much rounder. Rummage: for high-horsepower solutions, for stable chassis variants. Try: weight-saving materials, something special – what the others don’t have. Pioneering days. Those times go back a good 15 years, and anyone who automatically thinks of R1 at Yamaha today can hardly imagine that this brand was obsessively refining its four-stroke profile back then.
IFMA 1984 in Cologne, presentation of the Yamaha FZ 750. You did it: five valves dance over each of the four cylinders. Three for the inlet, two for the outlet. You are speechless. On the other hand, what is an even rounder wheel? Four had just been raised to the standard. Honda only recently turned to the V-Four, now Yamaha is opposing it and triumphing: Four-in-line, forever, amen. But so compact that the whole block is just 415 millimeters wide. The cylinder bank is inclined forward by 45 degrees. You look and think immediately: logical. Asks: Why hasn’t anyone thought of it yet? And at this moment you succumbed to FC because its technical consistency enchants you.
Because of course it is logical to tilt the engine forwards in order to save overall height, to shift the center of gravity to the front wheel and downwards. In order to realize intake paths whose straight lines are more electrifying than the hottest curves imaginable. Fall current is the magic word. Sounds a lot more potent than flat current. With the carburetor slide and inlet valve open, you can see the piston crown. Is it [called. Up to the point where the inlet port splits in front of its three valves, there is not the slightest kink that could prevent the incoming mixture from filling the cylinder up to the stand-up collar. Thick intake ducts yaw up into the airbox, directly under the front half of the tank – and not hidden in the frame triangle. FC stores a large part of its 21 liters of fuel there. Center of gravity lowered, again.
You can’t stop looking again and again. 16 inch front wheel. Internally ventilated disc brakes. Aluminum swing arm, frame main tubes straight from the steering head to the swing arm mount. Brochure data is spinning through your head. 100 hp at 10500 revolutions. Makes 130 hp per liter of displacement. Over 230 peak, and if it weren’t for the brand new Suzuki GSX-R 750, then the FZ would be light years ahead of the entire three-quarter liter competition. Not to mention Yamaha’s own four-stroke engines: Although the tuning fork brand had already given a progressive template with the four-valve twin XS 500 in the mid-1970s, after technical problems they immediately withdrew to conventional two-valve models, which from then on – see XJ 900 – cavorted in the border area between athletes and tourers. The XJ 1100 ventured a tentative step into the modern age, but there was still no real proof of competence. The two-stroke specialist wanted to swim free. And the FZ was like the big DLRG badge.
Spring 1985. The first FZ shows up at the motorcycle meeting place, tips over onto the side stand and is the focus. Driver included. Do people need water cooling? I’ll turn my valves on in half an hour, and you? Have you ever changed a candle? The new fights against the past, for whom the fact that their ohv engines always start is enough to see them as the final solution. Four guys in timidly colored leather are getting closer to the matter, asking about high-speed commuting, acceleration. You have already read everything: She wiggles her rear a little over 200, but much less than the new Suzi. It takes 3.3 seconds to 100, and the best part: this 750 pulls through almost as well as the best big bikes.
You let the others discuss, sneak around the motorcycle. 40 kilos heavier than the GSX-R. Okay, the steel frame will weigh a few kilograms more than the Suzuki’s thin aluminum mesh. A couple of pounds go to the account of water cooling. The half fairing looks a bit rough, the brake discs and four-in-two exhaust are quite massive. The whole motorcycle is very mature. Almost too mature for an athlete. The others have just arrived at the 16 inch front wheel. The driver prays down: »… turns in very softly. No, no, nothing with treacherous positioning when braking. “
Stop it now. You have to drive it. The local Yamaha dealer knows your blue RD 250 very well. Fortunately, he knows your account balance less precisely: test drive. And at the end of that test drive, your town has its Eddie Lawson too. Because you could tame the beast. Yes, this racing machine followed you like a lamb. Stop an go to the end of the village, then ripped up the first three gears on the arterial road. The alternating curves in the valley, zack, zack, zack. Everything done right. In the evening with a beer you come to and have to admit very quietly that you can’t go wrong on this motorcycle. It doesn’t matter whether you are in second or third gear in the changing bends – the FZ simply slips through. Whether you start to overtake in fourth, fifth or sixth – just pass it.
Ten percent more filling than with four-valve valves. Says Yamaha. In addition, a combustion chamber design that extracts the last bit of energy from the mixture. Theory and practice: you drove it, it works. Does 1500 tours or more, when the other four-cylinder units are still hanging powerless on the gas cable, does up to 11000. The fun begins from 4000, from 6500 the hurricane rages. But you are never at the mercy. This wonderfully stepless trigger on the right handlebar end makes you the ruler of these powers. Technical progress has seldom brought so much progress, seldom has it been more pleasant, more useful, more civilized.
Fifteen years have passed, and the last FC were sold in Germany six years ago. Your little shrine in honor of their development director still stands, but check them out; Overweight, underpowered, with a chassis – so touchingly delicate. But! Unlike the GSX-R, the FZ has combined drivability and performance. That is the standard by which the Honda VFR or Kawasaki GPZ 900 were later built, and every motorcycle that went beyond this led a marginal existence. It gave important impulses for chassis construction. A line from the steering head to the swing arm mount, and the main tubes encompass the engine. Sure, massive profiles today, but basically the same as with FC. Above all: It has proven how important milestones are, motorcycles that really move everyone. Around the time they appeared, motorcyclists around the world learned more about valve arrangement, filling level and the masses to be accelerated than in the 15 years before and after. Because there was no regulars’ table where the magic five wasn’t discussed.
S.Finally: some motorcyclists want variations on the same traditional themes. Others want what is technically feasible. Bundled, as complete as possible, highly topical. Then FZ, today R1. So keep your shrine and cherish it. Drive. But be gracious, because the FZ is not that old yet, so old that it makes you happy just because it drives. So imagine how the others yelled on the track 15 years ago, and how they stiffly strutted through alternating curves. How you had to squeeze them to get their 85, 90 hp. Throw them from one bend into the next and laugh at your 200 slippers. Then: Take one of the last FZ, the one with the FZR 1000 brakes, and imagine that the frame is a bit more stable. You see: no one needs more touring athletes even today. What wonder.
Technical specifications
Engine: water-cooled four-cylinder four-stroke in-line engine, 749 cm3, bore x stroke: 68 x 51.6 mm, 74 kW (100 hp) at 10500 rpm, two overhead camshafts, five valves per cylinder. Chassis: double-loop tubular steel frame, telescopic fork o 38 mm, central spring strut with lever system, double disc brake at the front, disc brake at the rear, tires 120/80 x 16 at the front and 130/80 x 18 at the rear, weight with a full tank 241 kg. Driving performance: Acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h solo 3.8 seconds, Top speed solo 231 km / h, price 1985: 12,798 marks, construction period 1985 to 1993.
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