Vance & Hines Fzr1000
VANCE & HINES FZR1000
ONCE THE INITIAL PLANS were laid for our Built for Speed fest, the last thing we expected to see was the arrival of a well-balanced motorcycle. We were looking for two-wheeled rebels that would cause disruptions in the social fabric whenever we started them and played with their throttles. The Vance & Hines FZR1000 doesn’t do that, though it does make a good case for horsepower with refinement, kind of like Arnold Schwarzenegger dancing with the grace of Fred Astaire. Vance & Hines (14010 Marquardt Ave., Sante Fe Springs, CA 90670; 2 l 3/92 l-746 l ) decided that for the Built for Speed contest, it would build a motorcycle that would perform equally well in all three parts of our test. To keep the bike manageable on the street was the main priority. As a result, the company conceded going in that its bike probably would not win any one leg, but felt that it would perform respectably enough on the street and the test venues to end up near the top.
With those goals, it's not surprising that this bike relies on no exotic gases or plumbing to make it faster than stock. It relies instead on traditional hot-rodding techniques. Thus, it chokes down gigantic doses of fuel metered though four, 40mm magnesium Mikuni carburetors as expensive as they are rare—actually, there is no price for these because they are not available to the general public. That fuel is sucked into cylinders which have been enlarged to displace a total of 1040cc—stock, the FZR measures I003cc. A Wiseco piston kit fills the larger bores, and the heads have been ported and use cams from a Yamaha OWOl race kit. The last engine modification was to toss the stock pipes and mount up a Vance & Hines Supersport exhaust system.
Because the Yamaha’s stock chassis is so sound, the only thing Vance & Hines did to the suspension was to put on an Öhlins rear shock, which offers a wider range of adjustments than the stock damper. Steel-braided brake lines, Dunlop Sportmax radial tires and an RK chain were the last of the items put on the bike.
Then came the paint, applied by Girard Design, which made the Vance & Hines bike the visual standout of the bunch. Looking just like the Vance & Hines Superbike racers, the Built for Speed bike, with its bright yellow and fuchsia scheme, drew rave reviews everywhere it went.
As its builders suspected, this bike was not the best in any one performance area, but it was a great all-around motorcycle, nicely balanced and beautifully finished. It is also one of the more cost-effective performers of the bunch, with its engine mods—not including the trick carburetors— costing $2838, less than all but the NOS Hurricane.
But perhaps the best part of this machine is that it is simply a better FZRIOOO. It was unflappable on the street portion of our ride, as well as at the dragstrip and on the top-speed runs. The modifications made it stronger than stock, but allowed the integrity of the base machine to remain.
—Camron E. Bussard
