The Yamaha FZ-16. Review on Yamaha FZ16

The Yamaha FZ-16. I don’t know where to start from.

When it was launched, it made a lot of noise and I was very expectant about its launch. It looked just awesome from the front and I just adore the broadness of its rear tire. It is one bike that you just can’t really help show off. The moment you get on it you can already feel your “Cool Quotient” rise.

I wasn’t really surprised when it turned heads around. This bike inherits its naked front look from its bigger brother, FZ-6 S-2, a 600cc Performance bike, which too has a naked look. Nothing like this has ever been launched in India and Yamaha were hoping that the surprise factor would work in their favor. And guess what? It did.

I don’t really know the exact figures but from the no. of FZs I see on road these days, I think the bike has been a success story, but is the bike really that good?

Let’s start with the ride. The riding position is quite comfortable and the ride quality is pretty good and the bike is pretty quite a lower revs and comfortable for city riding. The bike also feels quite well balanced; I guess that’s because of those gorgeous broad tires. It is very stable under heavy breaking and you shouldn't be scared to stamp on the breaks. All’s good now what happens when you thrash the bike around?

Well I rolled the throttle as hard as I could, revved it and started shifting up quickly. The bike touched 70 KMPH but the stretch of road I’d used I was hoping I would go a bit quicker. At first I thought it was the weight of my friend who was sitting behind me. I dropped him off and then tried again. I tried twice after which my friend called me in, worried that I would destroy his bike. I did manage to get to 85 but I was still quite disappointed.

Yamaha claim the top speed of the FZ is 115, trust me getting there is going to be a laborious task. I was expecting a bit more performance from a bike with such killer looks. If it only had been the performance, I think I could have made a compromise but there are other things I don't like.

It does look fantastic from the front but I find the rear a bit disappointing. The Silencer feels like it’s been chopped into half. I think it’d been better if they made it a little bigger. The other complaint I have is with the fuel tank. It looked fantastic and very muscular from far away. But when I got on the bike, I thought it felt very weird and trust me if you love your balls, don’t crash that thing at high speed.

Another big complaint I have is not with the bike but with the FZ riders. I’ve formed an impression that most FZ riders are obnoxious cocks(Labads in Hindi). Almost anyone seems to own as FZ these days. They all drive foolishly and tilt their bikes unnecessarily. If you see an opening take it straight, you don’t need to shout out about your broad tires by tilting around, changing lanes unnecessarily, getting into people’s ways. Its creates a sort of bad impression of all bike lovers.

With that kind of prize tag I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I’d expected a lot of decent people to own the bike. However, I’ve heard rumors that you can get an FZ with no down payment and on Rs2500 EMI’s from private Finances. If true, That is just sad because I think the bike is good, but because of such things more cocks are going to be able to own the bike.