Yamaha FZ1S

You may notice that there's a modest groundswell of opinion out there that frankly admires the current top-end sports tackle, like the R1s of this world, but also sees them as impractical. Beautifully crafted, wickedly fast, and wonderful on the track. They are just not a great proposition for the road. But, look a little across the Yamaha range and you meet the FZ1, which still has loads of potential - particularly when you leave it in the culpable tuning hands of the folk at Stafford Motorcycles in Melbourne.

The big Fizzer is now in its second major generation, with the 2006-2007 version going down the usual route of being lighter, sharper, more powerful and all those other wonderful things.

WHAT'S NEW?
Wading through the corporate blurb, we discover the machine has scored a new powerplant - essentially an updated R1-based engine, retuned for what is hopefully a fatter midrange. A healthy 148 horses is the power claim, which translates to around 135 at the back wheel. It's certainly no slouch in that department. This is the result of milder cams, 11.5:1 compression, a 12,000rpm redline and the retention of the R1 fuel injection instead of the previous model's carbs.

The really big alterations have been reserved for the chassis, with the list of mods clearly pointing towards a sharper and more sporty handler. The first FZ1 was hardly a slug in this department, but Yamaha figured it could get more out of the package. So the engine got moved forward a huge 33mm, and the fuel tank was shortened 63mm to assist in moving the rider forward, to meet lower, but slightly closer, handlebars. The frame itself claims to be much lighter and more rigid, and even the wheels have come in for a 10 per cent diet.

Wheelbase is up a little on the previous model, while the rake has been steepened a full degree and the suspension travel reduced a little. There's full adjustment at both ends, though compression and rebound damping up front are restricted to one leg each.

MODDED
This particular bike is lightly modified, with an $1849 stainless steel and titanium exhaust system from Over Racing, plus some careful set-up. I've had the chance to play with several of Over's products over the years -- including a full titanium system on my Hayabusa - and have walked away a happy camper on each occasion.

As a rule they seem to flow well without being deafening, a useful combo in this day and age. In this case, the bike ran to 153 horses on a Dyno Dynamics dynomometer - that's at the back wheel -- which is damned impressive in anyone's language. It's more than enough too make life at the handlebars a pretty interesting affair.

Throttle response is super sharp and may take a little familiarisation for some owners to get comfortable with it in the upper ranges of its performance.

As a package, the machine feels pretty much the way the new specs would suggest. There's sharper steering than before with a definite and more forward weight bias. In combination it makes the machine more flickable (still not as quick as an R1) and very reassuring through a set of turns. The good manners seem to hang in there regardless of the speed.

Suspension is a fair bit firmer than I would have expected and it's clear that this is very much pitched at the sports rather than all-rounder category. The range of adjustment is fairly broad, so it should be possible to find the compromise you're looking for.

There's been some comment about the relatively tall gearing on this bike resulting in slightly less stunning acceleration than might be expected. That's easily fixed with a change of drive sprockets, or by doing what's been done to this machine. Believe me, by the time you get this thing into the midrange, lack of urge is the last thing on your mind...

Braking is pretty much what we've come to expect from the ubiquitous Yamaha monobloc front end package - strong, with good feel.

ON BOARD
The ride position is canted a little forward, without being a wrist-breaker. Meanwhile the handlebars are wide and offer loads of feel, while the seat is on the firm side. There's respectable legroom available and the fairing provides a useful level of relief from the airstream.

Info from the dash is reasonably comprehensive, with the usual combo of analogue tacho and digital display for everything else.

Fuel consumption was working out to be in the high teens for the brief time we had the machine.

The previous FZ1 had long been a personal favourite as a sporty model that actually worked on the road. This time around the package is even stronger as a performance bike and, with the addition of the Over kit, is an absolute hoot.