The Incredibly Nimble, Insanely Fun Yamaha FJ-09 - Review

Motorcycling is a business. Dollars invested had better be dollars made. Money rules everything around us (dollar, dollar bills ya’ll). Sometimes that need to make a profit is a good thing.

Yamaha FJ-09

The Yamaha FZ-09 is one of Yamaha’s best selling platforms yet (especially if you add the sales numbers of the FZ-07). So, thinking like Hollywood, Yamaha decided if they make a sequel to their best bike, it had to work.

READ MORE: First Ride: 2014 Yamaha FZ-09

Reviewing statistics, Yamaha found more people are doing more things with their motorcycles - riding further, and in a greater variety of conditions - with fewer riders simply commuting and performing short trips.

Take that data and add it with the tremendous increase in sales of the Sport Touring market since earlier this decade, and Yamaha produced a bike they expect to make them big money.

The FZ-09 is one of the best values on the market right now, but it has been saddled with an engine that many feel overpowers the bike. Like a bucking bronco, the FZ’s suspension can't keep up particularly when coupled with a jerky throttle response. Yamaha created a fun, but hard to ride bike. Now Yamaha has produced just simply a fun all-around bike with little in the way of sacrifice.

What’s New (What’s Unique)

It’s less about what’s new and more about what’s different from the FZ-09, a lot. It rides and feels like a totally different motorcycle. The FJ-09 is happily not just an FZ-09 with a bunch of added accessories and options.

Can you take this bike to the track and strip it down to an FZ-09? No. The power plant, tire package, suspension and ergonomics are track worthy, but the FJ-09 has more comfortable attributes.

All of the unique parts share the same “less-aggressive” characteristic. The handlebars are the most obvious (the FZ-09 does have handlebars, not clip-ons) - they're much taller and wider than those on the FZ-09.

From the outside you'll see a totally unique fairing and headlight assembly, adjustable windscreen and a LCD display. A 1.1 gallon larger gas tank, longer and wider subframe and hand guards round out the obvious changes to the FJ-09.

The suspension has vastly improved from the notoriously terrible suspension on the FZ-09, with progressive action and a much softer, more responsive feel.

Ergonomics

This is the real selling point for Yamaha - the FJ-09's improved ride feel. You’re up off the bars, with your feet under you, tank up and on your chest, butt down into the bike and bars up and in front.

The seat has three settings of on-the-fly adjustment you can do with no tools, and the windscreen can be adjusted without any tools as well. Even though I never adjusted the windscreen, at max height it worked great.

I sat in the FJ-09 as opposed to the upright, aggressive position that points a rider up on top of the bars. The bigger tank gave me something to sit behind and helped me grip the bike harder for a more comfortable ride. It’s more difficult to be up on the pegs, sliding your butt off the seat and drag a knee, but it can still be done.

The longer subframe, which translated to a much more comfortable ride for me, increases the overall length of the bike, while the wheelbase remains the same.

While the ergonomics are great, luckily it’s not the only thing you’re dishing out the extra $2,500 for.

The Ride

Our Yamaha media launch started at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, a high class resort with a friendly staff and beautiful scenery. We rarely needed to leave other than to ride.

The entire week was covered with heavy rain, forcing the first wave to change route. We headed out early in the morning for a series of rainy photo stops up Hwy 33, a two-lane road that weaves though a tight valley, tunnels through mountain walls and criss crosses over the stream. Once we started heading up into elevation, the weather cleared up and we laid the hammer down.

One of my favorite things about riding with the Yamaha crew is the fact that our leader (same as on many of the Yamaha intros) is a former flat track and motorcross racer. He’s a smart and fast rider, watching the road that was constantly changing from flooded areas, gravel and even snow and ice.

There were four of us in the front group and we broke off from the rest. It was fun and the perfect bike for riding in a group. We’d round a corner fast with braking and suspension potential left over in case we met with anything sketchy mid-corner.

How to Ride It/Technology

Luckily there are only about three things you need to know before taking off. The bike now has stability control which will keep the rear tire in line and the front on the ground. It's always on; simply hold the TCS button on the dash for several seconds, once the TSC light comes on, then it’s off.

The riding modes include: A, Standard and B. Simply shift through them via the right-hand toggle button. B can be viewed as Rain mode, and it's the setting we rode in for the first part of the day. It’s smooth with some limit on the throttle. Standard is self explanatory and A mode is what we called "FZ-09 mode." It’s aggressive and choppy with the throttle, but according to everyone that rode that day, it’s a lot smoother than the throttle response on the FZ.

The Engine

Yamaha’s 847cc, crossplane crankshaft triple is a phenomenal engine and a surprisingly perfect choice for the FJ-09. It’s insanely smooth all the way through the rev range, torquey in every gear, responsive and torque was linear with no clear sweet spot in the rev range. The first iteration of this engine design was covered in negative reviews saying it was too torquey and hard to ride at low speeds, but those issues are no more.