Yamaha SZR660

Of course I can understand the logic. Why have a nice easy-going mount when some tuned-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life superbike replica can be so much more practical.

That mentality has meant that toys like Yamaha's tasty SZR660 have disappeared off the retail radar screen through no fault of their own.

Exactly how I ended up with the demo bike is a short and ugly story. A group of us had stopped for a photo session during a recent ride. "Hmmm, nice scale model. When are they bringing in the real one?" quoth I with a wisecrack that sealed my fate. Wootton was staring through me with that faraway, dead cuttlefish, look in his eyes and broke the news that yours etcetera was in fact pencilled in to do the ride impression.

Terrific. Pick the biggest ape in the pack and put him on the smallest bike. I bet the W had trouble fitting the square and round pegs through the right-shaped holes in kinder, too.

One lung
Yamaha seems to have more or less owned the slim pickings in road-going one lungers, thanks mostly to the SR500 (1978-81 in Australia) and to a lesser extent its SRX600 successor (1986-88). The SR is still available overseas in various guises and has developed international cult status.

By way of coincidence I got a chance to ride a couple recently ­ both owned by fellow Lemmings MC members. One was a more or less stock chassis with a bored-out powerplant and the other a very tidy Tingate special.

A well-sorted one is still a lot of fun to ride so long as you're not expecting neck-snapping horsepower.

Much the same can be said for the SZR660, though there is a significant leap in straight line performance over its SR and SRX predecessors and there's not much required in the sorting department.

Belgarda
There's an interesting development story behind this bike, related by Alan Cathcart in these pages a few years ago. Here's a quick recap.

Not surprisingly, this machine was developed in Europe with the Sounds of Singles road race championship in mind. Belgarda, Yamaha's factory in Italy, was responsible for all the creative work, employing a mix of a frame borrowed from the TZR250 two-stroke twin and powerplant compliments of the XTZ660 dual-sport.

The SZR, or Sizzler as it's inevitably become known around the office, was Belgarda's first world model. Previously it had concentrated on small-capacity local market kit.

The end result is an interesting amalgam of Japanese and Italian components, assembled in Italy. The Nippon elements include the powerplant and precut frame pieces.

From Europe comes the upmarket Paoli USD front suspenders, Boge rear shock, Tomaselli clip-ons, Brembo brakes, CEV clocks...and so the list goes on.

On board
Let's get the size issue out of the way first. If you're my size (XXL Galoot), forget it. The Sizzler fits someone who's anything up to around 170cm (5'8") perfectly ­ from there it's likely to be a struggle.

The main reason for that struggle is the SZR is carefully designed to envelop the rider as far as possible, rather than leaving you plonked on top. Therefore it has deeply scalloped spots for your knees in the tank, a forward-sloping seat that encourages you to keep the weight over the front end and a fairing designed for speed rather than comfort. Then there's the high footpeg position, making the most of the bike's cornering clearance.

To someone like me, it's a real task getting on board and into something resembling a riding position. For my 162cm spouse, however, it looked and felt as though it had been custom-built.

Hauling
The real surprise is that this thing hauls along at a phenomenal rate, particularly given it's modest powerplant specs. I clocked Bracks (from another bike) at over 180kmh at one stage, despite the fact that he is also too big for the machine. With a claimed the 48ps on tap, the five-valve powerplant runs XTZ tuning. It likes about 3000rpm on the clock before it really gets interested in the game, and will spin happily to the 7000rpm cut-out. That's not a heck of a lot of revs to play with, but I rarely ran out of revs mid-corner in the tight stuff which indicates that the gearing is about right. The five-speed gearbox shifts well enough to be unobtrusive.

Where the Sizzler really picks up performance is from the chassis. There's good, fully-adjustable suspension at each end, reasonable (though not spectacular) brakes and good sticky sports rubber. Holding it all together is a frame package that's more than up to the job.

You can hold some fairly sick corner speeds on this thing and give more powerful machinery a real run for its money in the right territory. That adds up to a lot of fun and the suggestion that if you can tie this chassis in knots, call Yamaha. They've probably got a works ride for you.

The package has a real ratbag element to it and has a tendency to sucker you into going a lot quicker than you intended. More than once I found myself using the local traffic as a mobile chicane on the way down to the local shops. Great fun.

All-up
As an all-up proposition, the SZR is a good thing. Though there are a few niggles. Like the indicators that change flash rate radically as the engine revs rise. Or the tacky stick-on black panels under the handlebars in the fairing. The gaudy SZR660 and Super-Single stickers don't do a lot for me, either.

Fortunately the panels and decals look as though they are easily removed, which would leave a much cleaner-looking machine.

A final roasting goes to the monster exhaust, with its tack-welded heat shield. The sheer size is an necessary noise reg evil, I guess, and there are bound to be some interesting accessory alternatives out there.

In fact the tuning potential is significant, with scope for bigger piston sizes and breathing mods. Sizzler-based bikes have been racing overseas long enough for there to be plenty of tuning knowledge about, though you'll probably need an internet connection to find it.

Of course you'll have to pay for it, and the SZR comes in at $10,450, which makes it around two grand more than something like a Suzuki Freewind and a grand less than BMW's Funduro. Given the high spec of the bike, that sounds about right if a big single is what you're after.

Story: Guy Allen