Letter From Japan
LETTER FROM Japan
Where the track and the street meet: Yamaha's FZR400
Racetrack experience makes for good sportbikes. Or so thinks Yamaha’s Teruo Abe, the leader of the team of engineers and designers that developed the TZR250. Mr. Abe’s track experience has now lead to the latest FZR400. And with this bike, Yamaha has surpassed Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki in terms of power and the ability to make a production racer street-legal.
Simply because of the restrictions imposed by its small bore-diameter, the four-stroke FZR400 has fourvalve heads rather than the five used in the other FZ engines. Like Yamaha’s other Genesis engines, though, the cylinders are tilted forward at 45 degrees. Also, the engine is slightly lighter than its predecessor.
Although the engine has a 14,000-rpm redline, its level of mechanical noise and vibration are quite low. With respect to low-end and mid-range performance, the Honda VFR400 is slightly stronger, but the FZR is far superior in topend power. Getting the FZR back into its powerband is easy, not because of an abundance of power, but because the engine revs so quickly.
In this way, riders are forced to use the gearbox more frequently, in a manner similar to what they would do if they were riding a two-stroke motorcycle. Nevertheless, the FZR has a top speed of over 130 mph in stock form, and has been clocked through the quarter-mile in just under 12 seconds.
The Deltabox frame is designed in a way that allows the use of wide, low-profile radial tires ( 110/70VR17 front and 140/60VR18 rear). The sporting feel of the chassis and tires is generally increased by using largediameter fork tubes that help to prevent any front-end twisting.
Overall, the handling is quite stable, and the FZR has a neutral behavior without requiring much rider input. The bike also is forgiving in that you do not have to have the perfect line just to get through' the turns quickly; you can make a mistake entering a turn and not necessarily be penalized. This makes the FZR400 an interesting machine to ride in many ways; but in others ways, it is boring and lacks excitement because it does so much so well. Yet, the average speed of this “boring” FZR on a racetrack is far above that of the other 400s because of its razor-sharp handling.
All in all, the FZR400 may the closest thing yet to a real street-legal racebike. The Honda can be easily converted to a production racer, but the Yamaha is closer to already being one in stock form. Its seating position and its compromised street comfort will certainly make urban commuters think twice. But those same qualities will make it a bike that is destined to prove wildly popular with the racing crowd.
Koichi Hirose
