[Coreytrevor]

I hadn't seen many owner reviews yet so I thought I would post up my impressions of the bike, since I always like to read that kind of stuff. I've had a lot of bikes and miles under my belt so I guess I have a lot to compare the FZ-09 to.
I'm also a die hard twisty road guy.

I really like the bike overall, but I'm really picky so some things always bug me, usually the ones you can't do anything about.


The good:

-Awesome throttle response and low/midrange power in A or std mode.

-Handling seems really predictable, it's pretty flickable but not twitchy or nervous feeling. Stable enough in a straight line for being so light. Really neutral in corners.

-Riding position seems really comfortable to me, kind of feels like a big dirtbike, but needs some wind protection as I usually do pretty long rides.

-49 to 50 mpg so far, can probably do a few things to get a little more.

-Love the sound, just need a little more volume. Triples have a great intake sound, maybe open the airbox a little?

-It's really light, and I can make it lighter.

-The mpg gauge seems almost accurate.


The bad:

-Even though I love the response in std. mode, it is a little hard to control in bumpy corners and sometimes I end up with more throttle than I wanted exiting corners, could maybe cause big problems. B mode control is good but kills the addictive responsiveness and torquey feeling. A mode is too hard to control. I'm hoping there will be a way to tune the YCCT to suit each rider. I'm going to try to make the throttle tube/pulley progressive like I have on a lot of other bikes with good results.

-Seems to have a lean spot right off idle, making throttle control jerky at low speeds.

-The shock sucks. It has a weird floaty feel to me over rolling type bumps, lifting me off the seat sometimes, never felt a shock do this before. Also pretty harsh on the sharp bumps, too much high speed compression damping probably. I haven't really noticed the forks much, probably a good sign.

-The seat slopes forward too much for me and hurts after a couple of hours. I'll probably try Spencer's seat mods eventually.

-The rear tire scares me, it's spun a few times coming out of corners when it shouldn't have. It's a Dunlop.

-Scrolling through the gauge functions is a pain and too distracting when moving. Why can't Yamaha give you 3 or 4 things up at the same time. I want trip odo, coolant temp, air temp, and avg. mileage at least. At least the clock is always there. I'm going to see if I can convert the HL flash button to be the select button to make it easier and safer. And the tach seems about unusable to me.


It might look more bad than good but that's not really the way I feel about the bike. I know I can address most of the issues I have with the bike, and I'm sure it's a keeper, I keep the ones I like a really long time.

One other thing: did anyone else notice the bike seemed to gain a huge amount of power and responsiveness after the first 50-100 miles of break in. The difference really surprised me, wonder if the computer is set up to limit power so you can't hurt the brand new engine.


That's it so far. Thanks for reading, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep!

 

[Bryon Farnsworth]

I pretty much agree with every thing CoryTrevor has said. But I solved the off idle roll on abrupt feel by switching to "B" mode. Smooths it out a bunch.
The FZ-09 is an awesome first effort from Yamaha and a pioneer in the "do everything" mid displacement sportbike catagory. The suspension is middle of the road and could use better damping adjustments and a more stable travel range. But you get what you pay for. At $7990.00 MSRP it is not going to have Ohlins standard. I am getting 50 plus MPG during break in and have two tanks run through it so far for 300 miles. Very acceptable I think for a new bike with this much power.

 

[W8andC]

Sounds good, thanks for that, it was not at all long-winded. Please keep us up-to-date as you put on the miles. Probably a new shock will cure much of your suspension ills. Spring rate is likely not the best and very light damping. I had to toss the shock on my FZ8 right off and change out the fork oil to 10 wt which made a huge difference.

 

[cjhorton]

hmm..my rear tire is a Bridgestone

 

[Coreytrevor]

I've been switching to B mode in town also but I wish I could have B mode up to maybe 10% throttle and std. mode after that. Maybe someday...

 

[cjhorton]

Picky reviews are the best IMO. Thanks for being so detailed!

I hadn't seen many owner reviews yet so I thought I would post up my impressions of the bike, since I always like to read that kind of stuff. I've had a lot of bikes and miles under my belt so I guess I have a lot to compare the FZ-09 to.
I'm also a die hard twisty road guy.

I really like the bike overall, but I'm really picky so some things always bug me, usually the ones you can't do anything about.


The good:

-Awesome throttle response and low/midrange power in A or std mode.

-Handling seems really predictable, it's pretty flickable but not twitchy or nervous feeling. Stable enough in a straight line for being so light. Really neutral in corners.

-Riding position seems really comfortable to me, kind of feels like a big dirtbike, but needs some wind protection as I usually do pretty long rides.

-49 to 50 mpg so far, can probably do a few things to get a little more.

-Love the sound, just need a little more volume. Triples have a great intake sound, maybe open the airbox a little?

-It's really light, and I can make it lighter.

-The mpg gauge seems almost accurate.


The bad:

-Even though I love the response in std. mode, it is a little hard to control in bumpy corners and sometimes I end up with more throttle than I wanted exiting corners, could maybe cause big problems. B mode control is good but kills the addictive responsiveness and torquey feeling. A mode is too hard to control. I'm hoping there will be a way to tune the YCCT to suit each rider. I'm going to try to make the throttle tube/pulley progressive like I have on a lot of other bikes with good results.

-Seems to have a lean spot right off idle, making throttle control jerky at low speeds.

-The shock sucks. It has a weird floaty feel to me over rolling type bumps, lifting me off the seat sometimes, never felt a shock do this before. Also pretty harsh on the sharp bumps, too much high speed compression damping probably. I haven't really noticed the forks much, probably a good sign.

-The seat slopes forward too much for me and hurts after a couple of hours. I'll probably try Spencer's seat mods eventually.

-The rear tire scares me, it's spun a few times coming out of corners when it shouldn't have. It's a Dunlop.

-Scrolling through the gauge functions is a pain and too distracting when moving. Why can't Yamaha give you 3 or 4 things up at the same time. I want trip odo, coolant temp, air temp, and avg. mileage at least. At least the clock is always there. I'm going to see if I can convert the HL flash button to be the select button to make it easier and safer. And the tach seems about unusable to me.


It might look more bad than good but that's not really the way I feel about the bike. I know I can address most of the issues I have with the bike, and I'm sure it's a keeper, I keep the ones I like a really long time.

One other thing: did anyone else notice the bike seemed to gain a huge amount of power and responsiveness after the first 50-100 miles of break in. The difference really surprised me, wonder if the computer is set up to limit power so you can't hurt the brand new engine.


That's it so far. Thanks for reading, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep!

 

[eolith]

hmm..my rear tire is a Bridgestone

I've read these bikes are shipping with either Dunlops or Bridgestones. I have no idea why the mixup, or if it's anything other than random determination for what you get.

 

[GoldForks]

I've read these bikes are shipping with either Dunlops or Bridgestones. I have no idea why the mixup, or if it's anything other than random determination for what you get.

yeah i got a bridgestone on mine too

 

[Willowbilly]

Great post. Honest and concise. Keep us up to date.

 

[Stellmon]

How did you decide to break it in? By the manual, or did you break it in hard?

 

[nickv09]

I hadn't seen many owner reviews yet so I thought I would post up my impressions of the bike, since I always like to read that kind of stuff. I've had a lot of bikes and miles under my belt so I guess I have a lot to compare the FZ-09 to.
I'm also a die hard twisty road guy.

I really like the bike overall, but I'm really picky so some things always bug me, usually the ones you can't do anything about.


The good:

-Awesome throttle response and low/midrange power in A or std mode.

-Handling seems really predictable, it's pretty flickable but not twitchy or nervous feeling. Stable enough in a straight line for being so light. Really neutral in corners.

-Riding position seems really comfortable to me, kind of feels like a big dirtbike, but needs some wind protection as I usually do pretty long rides.

-49 to 50 mpg so far, can probably do a few things to get a little more.

-Love the sound, just need a little more volume. Triples have a great intake sound, maybe open the airbox a little?

-It's really light, and I can make it lighter.

-The mpg gauge seems almost accurate.


The bad:

-Even though I love the response in std. mode, it is a little hard to control in bumpy corners and sometimes I end up with more throttle than I wanted exiting corners, could maybe cause big problems. B mode control is good but kills the addictive responsiveness and torquey feeling. A mode is too hard to control. I'm hoping there will be a way to tune the YCCT to suit each rider. I'm going to try to make the throttle tube/pulley progressive like I have on a lot of other bikes with good results.

-Seems to have a lean spot right off idle, making throttle control jerky at low speeds.

-The shock sucks. It has a weird floaty feel to me over rolling type bumps, lifting me off the seat sometimes, never felt a shock do this before. Also pretty harsh on the sharp bumps, too much high speed compression damping probably. I haven't really noticed the forks much, probably a good sign.

-The seat slopes forward too much for me and hurts after a couple of hours. I'll probably try Spencer's seat mods eventually.

-The rear tire scares me, it's spun a few times coming out of corners when it shouldn't have. It's a Dunlop.

-Scrolling through the gauge functions is a pain and too distracting when moving. Why can't Yamaha give you 3 or 4 things up at the same time. I want trip odo, coolant temp, air temp, and avg. mileage at least. At least the clock is always there. I'm going to see if I can convert the HL flash button to be the select button to make it easier and safer. And the tach seems about unusable to me.


It might look more bad than good but that's not really the way I feel about the bike. I know I can address most of the issues I have with the bike, and I'm sure it's a keeper, I keep the ones I like a really long time.

One other thing: did anyone else notice the bike seemed to gain a huge amount of power and responsiveness after the first 50-100 miles of break in. The difference really surprised me, wonder if the computer is set up to limit power so you can't hurt the brand new engine.


That's it so far. Thanks for reading, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep!

I am jealous of your fuel mileage lol I do not think I have saw over 40mpg hahahahaha but I know the reason why, I have a problem with my right wrist.....

Did you adjust your rear shock at all ? Stock setting were terrible for me, but after setting preload for me and slowing the rebound down(yamaha shocks are famous for being pogo sticks) I actually found it was not bad at all. After messing with it bike hooked up alot better in exit of corners, but still same feel as most dunlops, when they let go they let go haha. I am also going to try dropping the front end a few mm's to see if that betters the balance of the bike on the exit of corners. High speed sweepers on the gas front end is WAY LIGHT!

I also agree with the power after that first tank of gas, the bike really began to wake up and exhaust actually has gotten quit a bit louder as it breaks in.

 

[Coreytrevor]

How did you decide to break it in? By the manual, or did you break it in hard?

I like to use a lot of throttle but not high rpm to load the rings and seat them, but intermittently so as to not heat things up too much. The rings need to break through the oil film on the cylinders to mate with the shape of the cylinder. If break in is too gentle, the rings may never seat properly, but this probably wouldn't ever happen with a modern engine. I've probably just been working on engines too long.

I am jealous of your fuel mileage lol I do not think I have saw over 40mpg hahahahaha but I know the reason why, I have a problem with my right wrist.....

Did you adjust your rear shock at all ? Stock setting were terrible for me, but after setting preload for me and slowing the rebound down(yamaha shocks are famous for being pogo sticks) I actually found it was not bad at all. After messing with it bike hooked up alot better in exit of corners, but still same feel as most dunlops, when they let go they let go haha. I am also going to try dropping the front end a few mm's to see if that betters the balance of the bike on the exit of corners. High speed sweepers on the gas front end is WAY LIGHT!

I also agree with the power after that first tank of gas, the bike really began to wake up and exhaust actually has gotten quit a bit louder as it breaks in.

I only tried turning the rebound in a bit but it seemed to make it harsher on compression. You're right, I need to set sag front and rear and play with the clickers after that. I've been running Conti Motions on my SV650 and they seem great to me. They feel really hooked up pushing hard in corners, they are super cheap and they last. They are lighter than most sport touring tires too. I didn't notice the exhaust being louder but I always wear earplugs.

 

[PeteO]

I hadn't seen many owner reviews yet so I thought I would post up my impressions of the bike, since I always like to read that kind of stuff. I've had a lot of bikes and miles under my belt so I guess I have a lot to compare the FZ-09 to.
I'm also a die hard twisty road guy.

I really like the bike overall, but I'm really picky so some things always bug me, usually the ones you can't do anything about.


The good:

-Awesome throttle response and low/midrange power in A or std mode.

-Handling seems really predictable, it's pretty flickable but not twitchy or nervous feeling. Stable enough in a straight line for being so light. Really neutral in corners.

-Riding position seems really comfortable to me, kind of feels like a big dirtbike, but needs some wind protection as I usually do pretty long rides.

-49 to 50 mpg so far, can probably do a few things to get a little more.

-Love the sound, just need a little more volume. Triples have a great intake sound, maybe open the airbox a little?

-It's really light, and I can make it lighter.

-The mpg gauge seems almost accurate.


The bad:

-Even though I love the response in std. mode, it is a little hard to control in bumpy corners and sometimes I end up with more throttle than I wanted exiting corners, could maybe cause big problems. B mode control is good but kills the addictive responsiveness and torquey feeling. A mode is too hard to control. I'm hoping there will be a way to tune the YCCT to suit each rider. I'm going to try to make the throttle tube/pulley progressive like I have on a lot of other bikes with good results.

-Seems to have a lean spot right off idle, making throttle control jerky at low speeds.

-The shock sucks. It has a weird floaty feel to me over rolling type bumps, lifting me off the seat sometimes, never felt a shock do this before. Also pretty harsh on the sharp bumps, too much high speed compression damping probably. I haven't really noticed the forks much, probably a good sign.

-The seat slopes forward too much for me and hurts after a couple of hours. I'll probably try Spencer's seat mods eventually.

-The rear tire scares me, it's spun a few times coming out of corners when it shouldn't have. It's a Dunlop.

-Scrolling through the gauge functions is a pain and too distracting when moving. Why can't Yamaha give you 3 or 4 things up at the same time. I want trip odo, coolant temp, air temp, and avg. mileage at least. At least the clock is always there. I'm going to see if I can convert the HL flash button to be the select button to make it easier and safer. And the tach seems about unusable to me.


It might look more bad than good but that's not really the way I feel about the bike. I know I can address most of the issues I have with the bike, and I'm sure it's a keeper, I keep the ones I like a really long time.

One other thing: did anyone else notice the bike seemed to gain a huge amount of power and responsiveness after the first 50-100 miles of break in. The difference really surprised me, wonder if the computer is set up to limit power so you can't hurt the brand new engine.


That's it so far. Thanks for reading, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep!

I actually fueled up yesterday when the low fuel light went on. I had used exactly 2 gallons of fuel in about 110 miles. Not too shabby.

 

[Coreytrevor]

That's impressive, I'm shooting for at least 55 under my normal riding conditions. My 1150GS always gets 49 to 51.

 

[stillkickin]

At last some info on tires and comments on break-in. No one has mentioned the Bridgestone suffix (S20?), or Dunlop (Sportmax?Q2, Q3?).
I would be interested to know thoughts on break-in, since it is such a subjective topic and seems most people have their own theories.

 

[Stoltec Moto]

My bike shipped with the Bridgestone. They are the S20(R?) - I have to check.

You guys suck; I've not gotten over 35 mpg! Then again, I've left it in A mode and don't intend to change it. YMMV, but I appreciate the engine response. Incidentally, see this thread: http://www.yamahafz09.com/forum/6-fz-09-general-discussion/322-so-kinda-like-poll-but-not-exactly.html

Definitely take a look at your shock settings. Even though basic, it DOES make a difference. Now that said, I do find it to be undersprung with too much high speed compression damping. All in due time...

I personally like a quick steering bike. Although not a pig, this doesn't change direction as quickly as I like. Given the 4.1" of trail and 25 degree rake, this isn't surprising. I'll be dropping a couple mm's at a time until I get the response I'm looking for. Alternatively, the Penske will have ride height adjustment on the rear, so that is an option.

I hear your comment on the wind protection. This is not my touring or cold weather bike, so I'm not terribly upset by it. But it does flow a LOT of air. The good news is that it is very clean air with no buffeting (for me). This will be welcome during the summer, but it definitely adds to the chill on those 30 degree AM's. Thank God for heated gear!

 

[nickv09]

I like to use a lot of throttle but not high rpm to load the rings and seat them, but intermittently so as to not heat things up too much. The rings need to break through the oil film on the cylinders to mate with the shape of the cylinder. If break in is too gentle, the rings may never seat properly, but this probably wouldn't ever happen with a modern engine. I've probably just been working on engines too long.




I only tried turning the rebound in a bit but it seemed to make it harsher on compression. You're right, I need to set sag front and rear and play with the clickers after that. I've been running Conti Motions on my SV650 and they seem great to me. They feel really hooked up pushing hard in corners, they are super cheap and they last. They are lighter than most sport touring tires too. I didn't notice the exhaust being louder but I always wear earplugs.

I cringe at "cheap" tires lol. I expect to be through this rear in just a couple thousand miles and will be putting either Q3 or Power 3 or Supercorsa's. I ran Pirelli slick's when I raced, and love the feedback and predictability of the Pirelli's, still trying decide to take this bike to the track or not........

 

[deadduck357]

I like to use a lot of throttle but not high rpm to load the rings and seat them, but intermittently so as to not heat things up too much. The rings need to break through the oil film on the cylinders to mate with the shape of the cylinder. If break in is too gentle, the rings may never seat properly, but this probably wouldn't ever happen with a modern engine. I've probably just been working on engines too long.

100% agree. I think your the first I've heard here that does the same as I during break-in.

 

[Stoltec Moto]

I'm guilty of that as well. I've never had an engine burn oil where I followed this logic. On the contrary, I've had gently broken in engines drink oil. I worked for a tier one automotive supplier years ago and we broke in all of our engines in on the dyno, per the OEM's instructions. The break-in procedure was not 'gentle for the first 500 miles with no racing the engine over 5000RPM' or some other nonsense.

 

[deadduck357]

I'm guilty of that as well. I've never had an engine burn oil where I followed this logic. On the contrary, I've had gently broken in engines drink oil. I worked for a tier one automotive supplier years ago and we broke in all of our engines in on the dyno, per the OEM's instructions. The break-in procedure was not 'gentle for the first 500 miles with no racing the engine over 5000RPM' or some other nonsense.

Yep, load 'em not rap 'em. I like that.