Fj1200

FJ1200

Making A Good Thing Better

IF YOU LIKE THE FJ1100, YOU'RE going to love the FJ1200; if you already loved the 1100, you’re going to be utterly bewitched by the 1200. Because for 1986, Yamaha has taken the most beloved of the FJ1100's characteristics and enhanced them. The result is a motorcycle that does everything the FJ1100 could do, but does it better.

The most significant of those enhancements is a 3mm increase in bore diameter, which has bumped the displacement from 1098cc up to 1 188cc. That has effected a healthy power increase throughout the entire rpm range—not that the 1 100 was exactly feeble. But when you roll open the throttle on the 1200, you'd better have someplace to go, because you're going to be there almost instantaneously. The biggest power increase is in the mid-range, which allows the new FJ to have roll-on acceleration that just might be second to none. But really, the 1200 has absolutely decadent amounts of power anywhere and evenwhere in the rpm range.

YAMAHA

Not only will that added power do wonders for the FJ’s pure-sport competence, it will further the FJ1100’s well-earned reputation as a sporttouring rig. So will the redesigned fairing, which now is narrower and has a lower, more swept-back windscreen. The turnsignals have been incorporated into the fairing in a way that allows them to provide some hand-protection from the wind, and the mirrors have been mounted on longer stalks so a broad-shouldered rider can see what’s behind him. And a nice, useful touch is the addition of a digital clock on the fairingmounted dash panel, just above the gas gauge.

Behind that fairing lives an aircooled, four-cylinder engine that is now in its third season—an eternity for a large-displacement sport motor. But it’s still a highly competitive powerplant, despite its age and absence of leading-edge technology. Which proves that even in the hypercompetitive world of big-bore sportbikes, simplicity and obsolescence need not be one and the same.