Yamaha FZ-09 Triple

[Silverbird]

Good on the price.  Hopefully it will stop Triumph and others from overcharging, or at least keep their prices form going any higher.

[Sport-Touring]

[Cricket1]

Yup, and the larger Yamaha dealer network will help too.  

[james_g]

Is that the range you've been getting from your 3.7 gallon tank?

No, but my mistress is only getting 30ish mpg. I'm assuming that this bike will get at least in the mid-40s. If the Japanese do anything right it's economy.

I really think this is a cool bike and am glad to see Yamaha doing this. I would love to see them dump the R6 and put this motor into that frame.

james

[Silverbird]

Lets just for fun say it got 60 mpg, which I'd imagine it does with such a small tank.  That's still 170 miles (they are always optimistic on how much fuel you can get in there) with another 40ish to get to a gas station.  Hell, a VFR1200 ridden hard won't even do that! My XX before it was broken in would go on reserve at 180 miles.  I don't thing the fuel tank will be as big of an issue as we first thought.

Unless it's fast as all hell, then we're talking Superhawk range but I doubt that would happen. The bottom line is this sucker weighs next to nothing compared to other Jap bikes in general and less fuel is a fair compromise if they insisted on keeping it as light as possible, which I heavily applaud.  Also to keep ABS off for now keeps the weight down and for those of us that know how to ride, who needs it on something so light and nimble?

[james_g]

Fuelly.com shows the FZ8 getting mid-40s. That's 50lbs more than the FZ9 so I imagine it will get at least that for mileage.

james

[2RR2NV]

i just want to hear the sound... it's gotta be SWAWESOME!!!

[mugwump58]

It certainly is checking some of the boxes.

[mugwump58]

[Volfy]

Lets just for fun say it got 60 mpg, which I'd imagine it does with such a small tank.  That's still 170 miles (they are always optimistic on how much fuel you can get in there) with another 40ish to get to a gas station.  Hell, a VFR1200 ridden hard won't even do that! My XX before it was broken in would go on reserve at 180 miles.  I don't thing the fuel tank will be as big of an issue as we first thought.

Unless it's fast as all hell, then we're talking Superhawk range but I doubt that would happen. The bottom line is this sucker weighs next to nothing compared to other Jap bikes in general and less fuel is a fair compromise if they insisted on keeping it as light as possible, which I heavily applaud.  Also to keep ABS off for now keeps the weight down and for those of us that know how to ride, who needs it on something so light and nimble?

60mpg?!  Your logic just cracks me up.  Street triple 675cc should get 70mpg then, huh?  'Fraid  Fuelly shows 30-47.  Those Triumph riders must be bouncing off the rev limiters all day.

[crispiegee1]

Lets just for fun say it got 60 mpg, which I'd imagine it does with such a small tank.  That's still 170 miles (they are always optimistic on how much fuel you can get in there) with another 40ish to get to a gas station.  Hell, a VFR1200 ridden hard won't even do that! My XX before it was broken in would go on reserve at 180 miles.  I don't thing the fuel tank will be as big of an issue as we first thought.

Unless it's fast as all hell, then we're talking Superhawk range but I doubt that would happen. The bottom line is this sucker weighs next to nothing compared to other Jap bikes in general and less fuel is a fair compromise if they insisted on keeping it as light as possible, which I heavily applaud.  Also to keep ABS off for now keeps the weight down and for those of us that know how to ride, who needs it on something so light and nimble?

A gallon of gasoline weighs 6 pounds. To put a reasonable sized tank (4.7 gallon) tank on the bike would add six pounds of wet weight, and if you're THAT concerned with the weight of your bike, you're a little too concerned with the spec sheet. The fact is, these bikes won't be competing on a race track... I'm more concerned with losing six pounds from my own frame than I am from my bike's frame.

[Silverbird]

60mpg?!  Your logic just cracks me up.  Street triple 675cc should get 70mpg then, huh?  'Fraid  Fuelly shows 30-47.  Those Triumph riders must be bouncing off the rev limiters all day.

Cracks you up?  Let's hope you are good looking because your sense of humor leaves a little something to be desired.  Yamaha NOT Triumph,  FJR's get 50mpg with only 5 gears. Lots of bikes are getting higher and higher mpg. BMW's 800 is way up there.  Since they put such a small tank on it, 55+ is certainly feasible, especially on a triple developed with the latest technology.  

[Volfy]

Cracks you up?  Let's hope you are good looking because your sense of humor leaves a little something to be desired.  Yamaha NOT Triumph,  FJR's get 50mpg with only 5 gears. Lots of bikes are getting higher and higher mpg. BMW's 800 is way up there.  Since they put such a small tank on it, 55+ is certainly feasible, especially on a triple developed with the latest technology.  

Only you would back-extrapolate the MPG from the tank size.  Regardless of whiz-bang "new technology" you think Yamaha puts on a budget 847cc triple, it is highly unlikely that it will get substantial better mileage than a 675cc  triple of any make.  Not unless it uses Direct Injection and has unusually high gearing.  Regardless of how much you wish it to be to save face.

You've often ragged on other makes' small tanks.  Those same arguments of yours all-of-a-sudden don't apply to Yamaha - your favorite darling motor company?  Convenient, isn't it?

I like Yamaha.  My very first 3 bikes were all Yami.  And the FZ-09 is one of the best efforts I've seen coming out of any of the Japanese makes - for the US market.  I have no doubt it will be a big seller for Yami.  But let's face it, 3.69 gal is what it is.  For a naked streetfighter, urban brawler, or whatever you want to label it, a small tank isn't that big a deal.  The '08 S83 I rode had a 3.4L peanut tank.  It fit the styling of the bike, and it was a ride-around-town tool with no touring pretensions.  100 mile between fill-up was no big deal.

Yamaha probably justified the 14L tank size from the Monster 1100 EVO's 13.5L tank.  I rarely ever heard Ducati Monster owners complain about tank size.  They fit with the character of this genre of bikes and are appropriate for their mission.

If you want to argue for argument sake, at least argue it right.

[Dave the slave]

Okay, so lets argue that this is a platform bike instead...

If it IS a platform bike, you could probably squeeze a bit more gas in a tank on a bike with a fairing or half fairing like Kawasaki did with the Z1000 and Ninja 1000.

Then the rumor about an FJR800 has legs too and based on the tune of this engine (at least from the specs Yamaha gives) this engine would really not need any changes.  It's already torquey and with such a light package in the FZ9 you could build a sub 500lbs sport tourer that would have similar output to the venerable VFR800 in a lighter more modern package.

Next up is the capacity of this engine... Notice that it is a very short stoke motor but STILL makes gobs of torque, how hard would it be to stoke this motor and make an updated FZ1 with minimal engineering (since the current FZ8 is actually a sleeved down FZ1 engine) this is probably not very far fetched.


Edited to add:

I'm sure they could add a beefier subframe for luggage, a full fairing and 1.5 gallons of gas for less than 85lbs of weight gain.  This would make it 50ish lbs lighter than the last VFR800 generation that was about 550lbs wet.

[Silverbird]

Only you would back-extrapolate the MPG from the tank size.  Regardless of whiz-bang "new technology" you think Yamaha puts on a budget 847cc triple, it is highly unlikely that it will get substantial better mileage than a 675cc  triple of any make.  Not unless it uses Direct Injection and has unusually high gearing.  Regardless of how much you wish it to be to save face.

You've often ragged on other makes' small tanks.  Those same arguments of yours all-of-a-sudden don't apply to Yamaha - your favorite darling motor company?  Convenient, isn't it?

I like Yamaha.  My very first 3 bikes were all Yami.  And the FZ-09 is one of the best efforts I've seen coming out of any of the Japanese makes - for the US market.  I have no doubt it will be a big seller for Yami.  But let's face it, 3.69 gal is what it is.  For a naked streetfighter, urban brawler, or whatever you want to label it, a small tank isn't that big a deal.  The '08 S83 I rode had a 3.4L peanut tank.  It fit the styling of the bike, and it was a ride-around-town tool with no touring pretensions.  100 mile between fill-up was no big deal.

Yamaha probably justified the 14L tank size from the Monster 1100 EVO's 13.5L tank.  I rarely ever heard Ducati Monster owners complain about tank size.  They fit with the character of this genre of bikes and are appropriate for their mission.

If you want to argue for argument sake, at least argue it right.

Convenient arse, you don't know anything about me    This is my second Yamaha ever.  The only bikes I've ever had are a Seca II, 900RR, VFR800, 929RR, 600RR, CR125, CB650, CRF230, XR100, CBRF4, two XR650L's two XX's and lots of miles on my Dad's ST1300 and Goldwing.  Why did I switch? Cause Hondas suck now, not because I'm a fanboy defending the idiotic design decision made by Honda recently.

As far as the tank size, you bet I rip on the VFR1200 because it's a 1200 that is going to get thirsty and it's also (considered by some) designed to do some traveling.  There's a stretch in Nevada to Tonopah you could be concerned about make on a V12 at 80-90, that's just inexcusable.  I don't see a single touring features on this 800 so the smaller tank is excusable especially since it will get better MPG than a V12.  I agree with you it's a play bike where range isn't as much of a concern.  The V12 is not so much, and I'm justified for ragging on it, and I'm not the only one.  

Smartass remarks of mine aside, how does the budget of the bike effect MPG ratings?  There are lots of budget bikes out there that get the best MPG, Ninja 650, Versys, 250's, I had a DRZ400SM that got 75.  Low cc's but still...

[2RR2NV]

Okay, so lets argue that this is a platform bike instead...

If it IS a platform bike, you could probably squeeze a bit more gas in a tank on a bike with a fairing or half fairing like Kawasaki did with the Z1000 and Ninja 1000.

Then the rumor about an FJR800 has legs too and based on the tune of this engine (at least from the specs Yamaha gives) this engine would really not need any changes.  It's already torquey and with such a light package in the FZ9 you could build a sub 500lbs sport tourer that would have similar output to the venerable VFR800 in a lighter more modern package.

Next up is the capacity of this engine... Notice that it is a very short stoke motor but STILL makes gobs of torque, how hard would it be to stoke this motor and make an updated FZ1 with minimal engineering (since the current FZ8 is actually a sleeved down FZ1 engine) this is probably not very far fetched.


Edited to add:

I'm sure they could add a beefier subframe for luggage, a full fairing and 1.5 gallons of gas for less than 85lbs of weight gain.  This would make it 50ish lbs lighter than the last VFR800 generation that was about 550lbs wet.

me likey that idea. but the sound.... that's what I want to know.

[Volfy]

Convenient arse, you don't know anything about me    This is my second Yamaha ever.  The only bikes I've ever had are a Seca II, 900RR, VFR800, 929RR, 600RR, CR125, CB650, CRF230, XR100, CBRF4, two XR650L's two XX's and lots of miles on my Dad's ST1300 and Goldwing.  Why did I switch? Cause Hondas suck now, not because I'm a fanboy defending the idiotic design decision made by Honda recently.

As far as the tank size, you bet I rip on the VFR1200 because it's a 1200 that is going to get thirsty and it's also (considered by some) designed to do some traveling.  There's a stretch in Nevada to Tonopah you could be concerned about make on a V12 at 80-90, that's just inexcusable.  I don't see a single touring features on this 800 so the smaller tank is excusable especially since it will get better MPG than a V12.  I agree with you it's a play bike where range isn't as much of a concern.  The V12 is not so much, and I'm justified for ragging on it, and I'm not the only one.  

Smartass remarks of mine aside, how does the budget of the bike effect MPG ratings?  There are lots of budget bikes out there that get the best MPG, Ninja 650, Versys, 250's, I had a DRZ400SM that got 75.  Low cc's but still...

Okay, you were in bed with Honda for the longest time, and like a relationship that went sour, the more you were in love, the more you now hate.  Now it all make sense...   A lot of girls are like that with their ex's.

250cc getting better mileage?  No kidding, Einstein...  Try to stay on topic with MIDDLEWEIGHTS of similar cc's.  With budget bikes (without expensive techs like GDI, cylinder deactivation, etc.), the only way to get substantially better MPG is what Honda did with the NC700X - design the engine from the ground up for efficiency at the expense of performance.  Look at fuelly data on the NC700X versus two bikes you mentioned:

http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/honda/nc700x

http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/kawasaki/ninja%20650r

http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/kawasaki/versys

All three bikes are excellent budget middleweights.  NC7000X gets wayyyy better mpg vs. the two 650s - at the expense of performance.  I doubt Yami modeled this FZ-09 after the NC700X.  It is afterall supposed to be a mean streetfighter from the "Dark Side of Japan".   Its MPG will likely be worse than the 2 Kawi 650 twins, not better.

That said, there will be a lot of happy FZ-09 buyers that just won't care.  Just like VFR1200 owners like me, who have no plans of riding to Tonopah, Nevada.

[Volfy]

Okay, so lets argue that this is a platform bike instead...

If it IS a platform bike, you could probably squeeze a bit more gas in a tank on a bike with a fairing or half fairing like Kawasaki did with the Z1000 and Ninja 1000.

Then the rumor about an FJR800 has legs too and based on the tune of this engine (at least from the specs Yamaha gives) this engine would really not need any changes.  It's already torquey and with such a light package in the FZ9 you could build a sub 500lbs sport tourer that would have similar output to the venerable VFR800 in a lighter more modern package.

Next up is the capacity of this engine... Notice that it is a very short stoke motor but STILL makes gobs of torque, how hard would it be to stoke this motor and make an updated FZ1 with minimal engineering (since the current FZ8 is actually a sleeved down FZ1 engine) this is probably not very far fetched.


Edited to add:

I'm sure they could add a beefier subframe for luggage, a full fairing and 1.5 gallons of gas for less than 85lbs of weight gain.  This would make it 50ish lbs lighter than the last VFR800 generation that was about 550lbs wet.

I have no doubt the FZ-09 is just the tip of the iceberg.  Yami hinted very publicly the triple is to be the mainstay for their street motorcycles.  Given Yami's history, this a very shrew business strategy to establish Inline3 as their calling card, much as Honda has the V4, and Ducati the L-twin.

I think an FZ-11 or FZ-12 is next up to retire the venerable FZ1.  After that, the FJR will likely transition to the triple.  The budget makeover of the '13 FJR1300 on the same decade old platform is good indication that Yami is saving R&D dime on a real replacement yet to come - possibly two (850cc and 1400?).

It would be mighty stupid of Yami to put a 3.69Gal tank on the FZ-09 if they plan for it to be a do-it-all bike.  Yami clearly wants this to be their "Monster" line.  The teaser and intro all point to an emphasis on character and attitude, not practicality and utility.  I think it's a smart move.

[Cobalt]

Good on the price.  Hopefully it will stop Triumph and others from overcharging, or at least keep their prices form going any higher.

 

[crispiegee1]

 

+1 on the  

Triumph overcharging? They make great bikes for a price people are willing to pay and sell thousands upon thousands. The cost of labor in England is a bit more than that of Japan, so the fact that they're so competitive makes me smile in amazement.

[crispiegee1]

It would be mighty stupid of Yami to put a 3.69Gal tank on the FZ-09 if they plan for it to be a do-it-all bike.  Yami clearly wants this to be their "Monster" line.  The teaser and intro all point to an emphasis on character and attitude, not practicality and utility.  I think it's a smart move.

I see your point, but if Yamaha was saying, "Other bikes in this class have undersized tanks too," I would consider that a poor justification. The Street Triple gets a 4.6 gallon tank. Character and attitude are great, but not if it makes me stop 1/3 more frequently.

As for it not being a do-it-all bike, I recognize that the MT-09 is not designed to be an all-rounder, but it doesn't mean it should be intentionally limited. My YZF600R was never designed to be a do-it-all bike either, but I've found it to be a capable light sport tourer. And even though I get 55 mpg, I wouldn't want an ounce less than its tank carries, which is 5.3 gallons.


I still think the MT-09 looks like it's going to be a great bike, but I'm just disappointed with the fuel capacity and feel that it somewhat limits the bike to urban racerboy riding, rather than actual open road riding for any distance.