Yamaha Street Bike Demo

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fartymarty
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Yamaha Street Bike Demo

Post by fartymarty » Sun Oct 13, 2019 5:38 pm

First off: Yamaha Street bike demo this coming Fri & Sat. October 18th & 19th in Burleson: https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motor ... 0ce49ee141


I went to the Yamaha Demo in Hurst yesterday just for fun as I'm not really in the market for a new bike. I went mostly to ride the Nikon GT, and I also wanted to try the FJR just to compare it to my C14. The Nikon was a fun ride and and once behind the handle bars there was really no indication of it having two front wheels. Part of the guided ride was on a construction area of I-820 and there were several pavement patches and I purposely tried to get it to catch on a patch edge and couldn't. It was more perky than I was expecting with a heavy front end and only 847cc at hand. Still even with most of them priced new at $2000 less than the $17,200 msrp I do believe they are still priced relatively too high, at least when new. The saddle bags on the GT are crap as there is no security with cloth zippers that you could cut right through with a box cutter. Unfortunately there are several other differences between the Nikon and the Nikon GT that would involve a lot of work and research to add if you just purchased the Nikon. (heated grips, centerstand, security alarm, 12v outlet, top case mount, taller windshield, comfort seat.) Still it was a fun ride even with the guided group. It's my understanding that one of it's attributes is that the front end is really planted when leaned over on wet roads. I didn't read about it anywhere but I wondered how it would do on Utah's notoriously bad tar snakes, it would have to be an improvement over just one wheel, right? So it was fun but not probably something most of you knee draggers would even consider.

The FJR didn't differ enough from my 80,000+miles C14 to make me want to get one. In fact the seating position, though possibly closer to the ground, was so wide that I instantly had pain in my 69 year old hips. It felt like someone was grabbing my knees and pushing them apart. The pain went away half way through the 20 minute demo ride. Old man's problems aside, it still was a great ride, plenty of power, crisp new bike shifts, nice handling for a heavy bike. The negatives vs the C14 were no TPMS, and to adjust the windshield you had to go through a menu and a multi function switch instead of a dedicated switch. However to it's credit, the FJR has electronic suspension available where as the the C14 doesn't. The FJR can adjust dampening on the fly and preload when stopped with a push of a button and has (IIRC) 4 saved modes based on luggage and passenger. The FJR has factory cruise control and LED lean angle lighting, and it may also have more of a future since Yamaha has been updating it right along and it is a stand alone bike, unlike the C14/ZX14 cross sharing of parts and frame. The ZX14 being discontinued and the C14 in 2019 and 2020 looking like they're being assembled from Kawasaki's stockpile of spare parts, it seems the end is near if not at hand. If I were to buy new today I'd have to get the FJR vs the C14, but I'd probably have to get new hips as well. :oops:

Photos and video: https://fartymarty.smugmug.com/Yamaha-D ... /n-DZr2C3/
https://butchyoungblood.smugmug.com/Yam ... /n-VzPXNd/
Last edited by fartymarty on Tue Oct 15, 2019 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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fixxervi6
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Re: Yamaha Street Bike Demo

Post by fixxervi6 » Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:26 pm

That was my problem with the gold wing, too wide
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JeffStrom
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Re: Yamaha Street Bike Demo

Post by JeffStrom » Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:09 am

fixxervi6 wrote:That was my problem with the gold wing, too wide
The new Gold Wing feels narrower than the old one. It also dropped a lot of weight, but reduced storage capacity. And now it has a new fork that gives it some of the same attributes as the BMW, but the design is "different." The suspension travel is more vertical while keeping the rake angle. I'm still not in the market for one, but if you needed to slab it to Los Angeles, you could do worse.

Also, I note the irony of someone who rides an R1200GSA complaining about another bike being too wide. Now I realize you are talking about the seating and leg position and not the actual width of the bike, but still, I did get a kick out of it.
Jeff - Street Triple 675R / GSX-R600 / F850GSA

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fixxervi6
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Re: Yamaha Street Bike Demo

Post by fixxervi6 » Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:38 am

The seat on the GS isn't really all that wide
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