Can FZ6 Tour?

[Zapp22]

I know little of this bike but spent some time looking at it yesterday... touchy feely. A hair lighter than my Vstrom 650, in-betweener ergos, peppy engine from what I read, popular following.

can this thing be luggaged and toured? fuel range??? reliable???

educate me the quik way, pls.
z

[fz6kd7]

I haven't really toured on mine a few overnight trips from vegas to utah, no luggage yet but there are plenty to choose from givi mainly for hard luggage.
A very fun bike around town or in the twisties. I've put 14k on my 06 and it makes me glad I bought it every ride. no trips to the mechanic yet for anything but oil, tires.

[KTMRyder]

Zapp, my buddy rides an FZ6 and went with us on 3500 mile one week trip in September. we did Colorado, Utah and part of Idaho.

We convinced him to go and he did buy some Givi luggage.
he only got them the week before we left, they bolted up nice but he had to make some bracket to relocate the turn signals.

The bike ran perfect and his gas mileage was good. I was on the Wee, another friend on an older model FZ1 and Dick on the FZ6.
we usually tried to stop every 150 miles, I doubt 175 would be a problem.

Here is a picture from the trip with his bike.



He has a Bagman tankbag setup and I believe he has a Corbin seat.

[phlatlander]

A friend and i went touring last summer in colorado. She averaged over 50mpg. One tank was 65mpg calculated, and one she didn't fill but based on my fuel ecomony hers would have been in the 80's mph. Yes that is correct 80mpg. Think hers is a 05. The bike just plain impressed me. One cavet is that she had surging/fueling issues when in higher elevations. Never did find out what the cause was.


However, for my size 6'1" 220#'s the bike felt a little small to me. To tour on it i would have to make some changes, but i think i could get it comfortable enough.

[fz6kd7]

the only bad points you will here repeated are the friction zone on the clutch is short but if you just dump it and go no problems
touring I would definitly but some driving lights on it(I'm in the process now of deciding which ones)

[vicsar]

With a few mods (seat, hardbags, throttlemeister and windscreen) you can put some serious miles comfortably. This guy ride his FZ6 across Canada and the US last summer.

http://www.sportbikes.net/forums/fz6...ht=caladin%27s

[Mike Butt]

A modern R100S. Hell yes.

[Zapp22]

Sounds like a well-done middleweight 'tweener to me. sort of a half-step between an SV and Vstrom .. a lot faster than a V-strom 650. Did I read a review somewhere... top speed 140'ish?? that sounds high. Anyway, its passing power that comes in handy

[Cortez]

Originally Posted by Zapp22

I know little of this bike but spent some time looking at it yesterday... touchy feely. A hair lighter than my Vstrom 650, in-betweener ergos, peppy engine from what I read, popular following.

can this thing be luggaged and toured? fuel range??? reliable???

educate me the quik way, pls.
z

Long story short - YES.

Fuel consumption is about the same a Vstrom when you're taking it
easy (you said touring!), never heard anyone had reliability problems
with the FZ6 (even some of my friends who prettymuch keep it above
10krpm most of the time).

As for comfort and wind protection, it's somewhat worse then your
Strom, but again, I did 7k miles on my ER6F in 3+ months with one 1,5k
mile trip in 6 days without any problems, and the FZ6 has even more
comfortable seat and better wind protection then the ER6F.

The only thing I disliked about it was.. no torque..
The engine is VERY smooth, and the power/torque builds up evenly from
2,5k rpm up to 10k when you get a sudden burst of power.

Not really a touring engine.. you'll need to work that gearbox a bit
for overtaking.. but droping it to 5th at let's say 60-70mph will get
you the torque you're used to having at that speed in 6th on your
Vstrom..

Howerer.. you can drop another cog.. and WOOOSH a lot faster then
on your strom

Just my $.02

[Thinman]

Had an 04 FZ6 and included a 2300 mile trip averaging 300 to 500 miles a day. A little tiring on the slab, but worth it once you get on the backroads/twisties. This was one-up - would not want to do an extended two-up trip though.

[giblets]

a riding bud of mine has a yamaha FZ6-S2*, the 98 horsepower version, which i've driven a few times. great all-around bike for city/highway applications. a higher windshield might be desirable for all-day stints in the saddle.

as for reliability: he is brutal with it. the poor bike gets an oil change once every two years (i chit you not... i have even offered to change the bike's oil myself, to no avail), the chain has never been adjusted, and it gets washed only when he needs to read the clocks or oil fill window. the bike has performed spotlessly in 22,000 kilometers, although i'm convinced that someday it will just spontaneously combust from neglect. as a result, i try not to park too close to him at rest stops.



as for touring: he's gone all over europe with the FZ6, including several trips from vienna to croatia. additionally, his family lives 750km away, so he makes regular all-day trips on the autobahn to visit the rents. one of the croatia trips was with his girlfriend sitting sozius, and he said the bike performed well.

FWIW.

*in the EU, here are three variations on the theme fazer: the 34hp version, the 78hp version, and the S2 with 98hp. they all have the same engine/chassis, just different outputs. it's possible that the only version stateside is the S2.

[Foxy]

Originally Posted by giblets

*in the EU, here are three variations on the theme fazer: the 34hp version, the 78hp version, and the S2 with 98hp. they all have the same engine/chassis, just different outputs. it's possible that the only version stateside is the S2.

There are? The 34bhp machine is just a restricted full power machine. Never heard of any 78bhp version, are you sure that isn't just the power at the rear wheel?

Oh, and of course it'll tour, any bike will tour.

[Cortez]

Originally Posted by Foxy

There are? The 34bhp machine is just a restricted full power machine. Never heard of any 78bhp version, are you sure that isn't just the power at the rear wheel?

Oh, and of course it'll tour, any bike will tour.

He got it mostly right.
There's actually all 3, but the 78hp version is the old Fazer now,
NOT the S2. You can still buy the now old Fazer here, but it's been
detuned to 78hp for some reason.

The new S2 is avaliable as mentioned with 98hp, like the old version,
and restricted in some countrys at 34hp.

Also worth mentioning is that the S2 is reworked a bit, and it's not only
cosmetics, so it SHOULD be a better bike.

Only one downside, and it's a big one considering the subject of this
thread. The windscreen is _smaller_ and sits lower then before, and
most mags have reported that the wind protection is worse then on
the old model

[SnappNBrrap]

Id go 500+ miles on mine anyday. And the sudden burst of power kicks in at about 7.5-8k rpms. Givi makes a good bag setup, puig makes a tall screen, there is a headlight mod to turn on both low beams, and yes the bike is capable of 140mph. iv had mine almost to 130 and there was plenty of RPMs left and my bike is completely stock other than a windscreen.

[Cortez]

+1

I've done 20k+ miles of touring on a less comfortable bike with worse
wind protection and less power. Other then torque, the FZ6 is an amazing
mix of sport and touring with almost no compromises IMHO.

Maybe a Bandit 650/650S/GSX650FA is a better choice, but the FZ6 is
a riot to ride, and it's electric motor smooth up to about 6000 (and
you can lug that engine all day long, it's smooth from idle up).

But after 8k, it's turbo-time, yeah baby!