REREVIEW...from your fave Ex-Cruiser Rider

[thestache]

Well, yesterday I posted a review after a 3miles ride. Today, the bike now has 75 miles on it.
 
Guru said the bike felt natural, for me it hit me today, FUN. This bike makes me grin like a little kid who just got a new bike for Christmas. Where do I start...
 
First, I musta had 3-4 people just wanna talk to me about it, that made the old dude feel kinda cool. One long time Litre Supersport rider said, man this thing just looks freakin nasty(that's good for you Canadians :P )
 
SEAT + SEATING POSITION
Let's start with the seat, and the position. I totaled my cruiser about a month ago, and have experienced a lot of tailbone pain, some so bad I was literally in tears and on heavy pain meds. Also, in the Star Bike community, Yamaha is known for making less than comfy seats. I took the bike on a 75 mile ride around town so I could get on and off the throttle and gears to help with engine break in, and UNLIKE my Star bikes 1st seat, this bike blew me away. I experienced some pain, but that is from my accident, not due to the bike. The seat has plenty of room, I can move around in it, and it is pretty comfortable. Now the position on the bike is just VERY natural, on my cruiser the joints between my hip and thigh(Hip Flexor) would sometimes cramp up. I can siot very upright, slide back and lean over a little, comfortably put one foot down at stop lights...etc. Gets an A+ for me
 
RIDE(engine breaking, brakes, throttle response, shifting...etc.)
Engine breaking is a huge part of motorcycles, a lot of people don't know what it does or why it's there. The engine braking on the FZ07, is very noticable, but after riding for sometime I easily adjusted to it and found it helped get me more easily adjusted to making sure my RPM's matched my downshifts to eliminate it when I didn't need it(check on yuotube, as there are some good videos that talk about this)
 
Brakes, so with ABS being the thing on bikes, if you read a lot of comments from people on mags, they say stuff like, "How can Yamaha release a bike with no ABS, this is 2014"...hush noob. The brakes on the FZ07, are MORE than adequate, remember, I mentioned an accident above, the accident would not have happened on the FZ07, as I could have easily stopped the bike. At first coming from Cruiser land where squeezing brakes(and yes I use them both) seems to result mostly in....look ma, I am slowing down. I scared the crap outta myself when I grabbed the front brake on the FZ07 and the bike was like, "U wanna stop....NOW?" :P it took me a couple of tries, but I easily was able to get used to the breaks and can just say, wow...awesome
Throttle Response, not gonna spend forever on here, but all I can say is, after seeing what this bike does, I can never see why I would need a litre bike. Flick the wrist, look where you wanna go...zing, we are there. Now it is not snatchy, or abrupt to the point of being scary, but it immediately responds and that Parallel Twin just purrs to life. I rode all over town today, some speeds as low 25mph, and some as high as 80mph(or so) On a stretch of road where cars are usually going 70mph, I got stuck behind the infamous....I AM GOING 45mph WITH MY LEFT TURN SIGNAL ON person. Now before you get on me, know I am always thinking about, what if's, defensive riding etc. So, I checked the blind spot, signaled, flicked it...zing, seemed like in no time I was doing 75mph...and grinning the whole time
 
Shifting, this for me is the hardest part to get used to. On a cruiser my shifter is in a completely different location, and operates completely different. I quickly learned that the FZ07 has something in it that once I shift, if I leave my toe on the shifter and do not pay attention, when I go to upshift, I miss, because I did not let the shifter reset. But when doing it right this combination of engine, transmission, clutch is just a dream...Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki...you have been put on notice.
 
OTHER STUFF
This bike just makes me grin, if you have never see the below video, you GOTTA WATCH THIS. If Cagers laugh doesn't make you understand how I feel...then you never will...my FAVE FZ07 video ever, especially the 1st 5min. I love the quote, "All of the excitment of the MT09, none of the panic"
 
[video src=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htRg9Vky3VA]