So my nephew calls me on Friday afternoon who lives in Simi Valley, Ca and tells me the yamaha/triumph/suzuki dealer there is having a Yamaha test ride weekend on friday and sat. I had plans to ride ACH with my brother in the morning so i did not get out to simi until around 1 to 2pm but was able to secure a spot on the last ride of the day at 415. Had i shown up in the AM i would have been able to do 3 rides.
Anyway for Marthy i picked the FZ-09 to ride, my nephew went big and picked the R1. I wanted to do the R1 too but figured there is zero chance i would ever buy one so let me stick with something that is at least feasible.
first the ride, they seemed to have pretty much the same set up they had at the progressive motorcycle show but just a smaller display board. Guy was pretty nice, told us 415 was all that was left but we could pick our bikes (all except the FZ1 of course because thats what i really wanted to try). This is a group follow the leader ride vs. the Harley Vrod i rode at the show where they just hand you the keys and say have fun.
They took us on a 20 minute maybe 15 mile trip though simi and back into the hills for a second to try and get a good feel for them. he did rip off the stop sign or lite a few times so we could feel the acceleration in our bikes and was all in all good, not as good as here are the keys have fun, but much better than not getting to test ride at all before you buy which is usually the case.
2nd the bike, here is my review of the FZ-09. First off the bike hauls a** especially for the price. Makes the FZ6R seem pretty slow off the line. In fact it seems pretty overpowered for what it is. It is so torc heavy that its hard to keep it from Jerking and learching forward even if your concentrating on it. That might be something you get used to but i consider myself pretty smooth on the throttle and i had to struggle to keep it from doing so. It also feels like there is no front end on the bike and it will lift at times whether you want it or not. im not sure but guess it would make an excellent stunt bike. It seemed to handle well, and some said it would handle better than our bike but i did not feel that way, mainly because i felt like there was no front end under the bike.
Anyway its a blast to try different bikes and if i could figure out what dealer the demo rides are heading to next i would probably follow it down there and try and get on an R1 or the new 07 (they had several and the dealer had already sold several) or even the FJR 1300, and hope they bring the FZ1 to the show in the fall.
Anyway for Marthy i picked the FZ-09 to ride, my nephew went big and picked the R1. I wanted to do the R1 too but figured there is zero chance i would ever buy one so let me stick with something that is at least feasible.
first the ride, they seemed to have pretty much the same set up they had at the progressive motorcycle show but just a smaller display board. Guy was pretty nice, told us 415 was all that was left but we could pick our bikes (all except the FZ1 of course because thats what i really wanted to try). This is a group follow the leader ride vs. the Harley Vrod i rode at the show where they just hand you the keys and say have fun.
They took us on a 20 minute maybe 15 mile trip though simi and back into the hills for a second to try and get a good feel for them. he did rip off the stop sign or lite a few times so we could feel the acceleration in our bikes and was all in all good, not as good as here are the keys have fun, but much better than not getting to test ride at all before you buy which is usually the case.
2nd the bike, here is my review of the FZ-09. First off the bike hauls a** especially for the price. Makes the FZ6R seem pretty slow off the line. In fact it seems pretty overpowered for what it is. It is so torc heavy that its hard to keep it from Jerking and learching forward even if your concentrating on it. That might be something you get used to but i consider myself pretty smooth on the throttle and i had to struggle to keep it from doing so. It also feels like there is no front end on the bike and it will lift at times whether you want it or not. im not sure but guess it would make an excellent stunt bike. It seemed to handle well, and some said it would handle better than our bike but i did not feel that way, mainly because i felt like there was no front end under the bike.
Anyway its a blast to try different bikes and if i could figure out what dealer the demo rides are heading to next i would probably follow it down there and try and get on an R1 or the new 07 (they had several and the dealer had already sold several) or even the FJR 1300, and hope they bring the FZ1 to the show in the fall.