Yamaha FZ: Lord Of Streets

FZ was launched in India in 2008 and was named as Lord Of Streets.Being a handsome bike & filled with low end torque, it was kinda Lord..

Remember the year 2008,when this bike was launched in Indian market, nothing came close to its looks & performance.You can see FZ spinning its wheels in the streets & leaving every Splendor, Passion, Shine behind. I’m not making fun of these commuter bikes but that was the type of bikes which were running on Indian roads. The most modern bike was Pulsar back in the day but FZ overtook the Pulsar too, but only in performance not in terms of sale numbers because Pulsar was loved by many.

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Yamaha FZ was powered by 150cc  single cylinder carbureted 4stroke engine which made 14bhp & 14nm of torque. The best characteristic of this bike was its low end torque, which was there from the very beginning of the rev range & the handling which was offered by this bike was unmatchable. It was & still is one of the best handling motorcycle & can totally gives you confidence over sharp turns.But even after being a good city bike it didn’t quite matched the Pulsar sales numbers back in the day. But why?

1~ Brand Image:

For decades the Yamaha sold it’s R series like RX100, RX135, RD350 which were totally different from the FZ. So people weren’t expecting this much appealing bike from Yamaha,hence it took sometime for Yamaha to settle down in Indian market .

2~ Reliability:

Setting a new trend of naked bikes in India was on shoulders of FZ,but being a trend setter means you have to do something away from the path. This is where reliability issues kicked in.

I own 2017 FZ & I can confidently say that it has some issues.Like the engine is glorious but some parts of it aren’t.. The clutch & throttle cable breakdown very frequently. The front oil seal leaks for like every 20 minutes.. Don’t mean literally but it does leak quite often & you have to change it very frequently.

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Then comes the physical parts of the bike which aren’t upto the mark. The indicators of the bike looks & feels really cheap & they are actually.. Just a slight tap can damage them & even after so many years Yamaha didn’t bothered to change them,same is the case with R15.. You can observe the new gen 2023 FZ & R15, the indicators looks like I made them.. Seriously they just doesn’t go with the bike.

 Last month both front & rear brake of my FZ decided not to work, I don’t know why but they did. The front brake cylinder leaked all of its fluid & the rear brake shoe was worn down completely, but I was done with the issues so I decided to leave it as it is. The only problem was I had to stand on the brake pedal  to make it stop which was quite risky & a bit of a pain in my feet. So the very next day I replaced them.

Mileage: Its a thirsty bike.Currently my bike is in the condition that I can walk into Yamaha showroom & can keep it in the display & pretend that its 2017 again,meaning it is in quite good form. But even after maintaining it gives me the mileage between 30-35 kmpl, which isn’t appealing to me.

Now whats good about it?

This bike is pretty fun to drive without being too showy..It gives you thrills & a sense of joy when you twist the throttle & allow the petrol to pass in it. It has a great low end to mid range torque which is pretty good for the city ride. The fat rear tyre is really helpful to keep you away from gravity while turning, meaning it won’t let you fall & the brakes are very sharp & precise so you can stop at check post in no time at all.

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Verdict:

Yamaha FZ is a great machine which is very fun to operate & Yamaha has improved it over the years in terms of engine,mileage & looks, except they totally forgot to focus on indicators.Right..nowadays many people are buying FZ over Pulsar & they should, cuz there are limited amount of motorcycles which can offer a nice decent performance without being too fancy.