I been thinking about a new street bike. I had a Suzuki 1200 '99 before. It was a torque monster and fast after I returned the sleeping 1100GSXR engine. They detuned it for the bandit. I been tossing around a few different makes of bikes. The new 1250 bandit was one of them. The bandit is no longer on the Suzuki website. I found the new Yamaha FZ1 Sport 1000cc motorcycle today. For just $10,000 it sounds like a great bike?? It's a pretty looking bike. Does anyone have any knowledge about this bike? Is it the R1 engine in a naked frame? They offer it in a 900cc too.
From what I've read, that's pretty much it. That bike has been out for a long time and there's tons of stuff out there for them. They are a sharp lookin machine. You should go throw a leg over one and see if it's love.
Yup owned an fz1 it is the R1 motor de tuned. I had a 09 it was fun and comfortable but quite a bit slower than even a gsxr 750. I'm not sure but I think it's still using the old R1 motor and not the cross plane the newer R1 uses now
I would probably leave it stock for now. I'm looking for a dependable reliable replacement for the 1200 bandit I had I want something that's bullet proof. The fz1 caught my eye. Everyone seems to be offering this detuned, uprite sitting sport model now. Kawasaki offers a ninja sport too. But the Yamaha 1000 looks sharp. I just want to go slow now.
So obviously you like sport bikes over cruiser style bikes? And I hear you about going slower on the street. To me any 4 cylinder or 750 or bigger is in the faster than it needs to be catagory. I had an older steel framed FZ1, was very nice, felt like a modern refined JF1200 which is all good. Had one of those too. Anyway the FZ1 is solid, fun to ride, refined, but fast. zip to 100 like it is 30. Cruse along at 90 accidentally. I got rid of mine before it got rid of me. And this is not even a fast bike by todays ridiculous standards. So many good bikes to choose from but as you seemed to like the Bandit a lot why not get one of those used or comparable? Or wheelies...
Take a look at a Lightly used Honda 919. Plenty fast, handles ok. Probably find a 06 for less than $4 k
My problem is I sold my bandit because I found myself going faster and faster heading to work on the highway. I get cut off then get mad and hit warp drive to stay away from everyone. It just wasn't fun anymore. But now I'm retired and moved more into the country area with the nice twistie country roads just waiting for a awesome fun ride. I can stay in the country area and ride for hours. No heavy traffic.
On the occasions I get to actually plan a road trip on the Hog, the main rule is to avoid major highways at all costs and only travel them if unavoidable at non peak periods. The best part of your situation is the time to go test ride all of them and pick the one that's best for you. With the apparent rebirth of the UJM, the world is your oyster and nobody is going to tell a burly dude like you they don't offer test rides I bet.
A slow bike would be a Ural? So many choices. I just don't have all the dealers nearby. That's a turn off too. Some dealers are two hours away. A Yamaha dealer was twenty minutes away and they closed. Or go with a used bike. My dual sport pic is the Honda xl650L. I have no clue where the dealer is yet.
The Ural is slow, but it's almost more of a paint shaker than my Harley. My Dad has one and loves it, but he still has his Strada for real road work. By UJM, I meant Universal Japanese Motorcycle from the late 70s/early 80s. I guess the double edge sword of living in the country is you're far from everything, which means you're far from everything when you actually need to go there. I travel a lot which gives me an excuse to go to lots of different dealers and see how they are. I bought my Husky from a place about 2 hours away.
I ran the gamut of fast street bikes. Then no street bikes now I am building somthing like this from my TT500 so I have a street bike that is relatively slow but still very fun. Working on grafting on a CBR600 F2 front end right now. Hope to end up with something like this...
I gave a Suzuki T500 to build hoping he and his riding buddy would possibly race Daytona during bike week. I got all the porting specs from the net. The Aussie who posted about building it and porting it never won till he followed the porting specs. Unfortunately the build was scrapped. I wish I had more interest at that time. I would even have liked to see it build as a cafe' looking bike something out of the past.
I just had my last cancer injection number 5 they canceled number 6 saying it's not needed. I'm weak from the injections. Its going to take some time now. I looked more on the net at more street rides. Even the triumphs look good. Nothing fast just dependable. One last ride.. maybe.
here is my "slowbike" project... http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/my-little-500cc-cafe-racer-project.79245/
Nice project. I wish I had the time and the patience to fabricate. I wanted to build the Suzuki T500 like that. When my monster garage (the original monster garage where ideas hit reality) was going full bore. My life's desire was to build new custom Harleys mainly from using vendor supplied parts with home breed custom paint jobs to support my 2t habit. But I found no one who was interested. With another pair of hands and ideas we could of road past OCC and been on the heels of Jessie James innovation wise. That ship sailed two decades ago. It's my only regret. I had the shop at the time. There's money waiting to be spent on cruiser style bikes. You out source the frames, the parts and prep and paint in-house. A good fab shop could build the Bentley of cruisers and get big money for innovation. I'm not talking silly theme bikes here but I did like OCC's web bike. I'm talking fire breathing cruisers with style and class.
Bill,you are 100% right ,that ship HAS sailed. OCC is right around the corner from the HD shop I work @. the only cars in the parking lot are the employees and the OCC Cafe customers. that place is a GHOST TOWN. Baggers are the new trend and they come to us to build em.
Trends change you need to follow what's hot this year can be a iceberg next year. Ride the wave and bank the extra $$$ the bottom can be hit at anytime sales wise. OCC should of known that. They were riding high, raking in the $$, too busy fighting about who had the bigger EGO? Too bad. They said they were going to out sell the Harley bikes. They had a nitch while every company wanted there theme bikes. Funny how these big companies don't give there workers raises yet they spend $$ on theme bikes. That's another post. Build a dependable, reliable bike and they will come. Did you look at the five figure baggers on eBay? I chose the wrong job.
$35,000.00 and $40,000.00 baggers roll out of here all the time. it's absolutely amazing . and I struggle to keep these old turds (Huskys) running!
