Yamaha fz9

ya its like an 847cc triple. and its a crossplane so it sounds fukn bad ass.

Guy that pulled in was 72 years old and an absolute blast to talk to. Looks like I'll be building him up a custom trailer for him and his wife to haul out to the west coast. He was like you wanna ride it just ask. I don't normally ever want to toss a leg over anyone's bike , I was tempted though!


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I've got one as a company bike. It's fucking brilliant.
I have a penske rear shock coming, and new fork springs/valves.

Great commuter, and i just did a quick (1000k round trip) up the coast along some twisty roads and maybe and hour of freeway.
even with shit suspension, knee/toe and peg down occassionally (solo), and it handled a 5km section of hard packed dirt/chunky gravel fire trail in a national park 2 up.
It's more fun than my vfr streetfighter. I need to do some work so the fighter is more fun.

And it's an MT09, not an FZ. You wacky Americans.

I did notice the rear shock was garbage, the forks are what they are , but the rear shock was a pogo stick.


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there are a few companies making complete new cartridges for the front forks to add compression damping adjustment($1000 plus), or just new springs and a new valve stack so that the non adjustable compression damping and the adjustable rebound damping actually do something ($250).

I went with a new rear shock and the $250 option on the forks.

Yeah it needs upgraded suspension, and it's awfully small for me at 6'3" and 250lb but it was a barrel of fun when I did a demo ride on it.

converted from metric to american, i'm 6'3 and a trim 220lbs.
even with my ti rod reinforced leg and foot that isn't quite straight its roomy enough. I was impressed with the seating position, actually. not sure what voodoo yamaha did to make such a small bike so comfortable without sacrificing lean angle.

keef said:

converted from metric to american, i'm 6'3 and a trim 220lbs.
even with my ti rod reinforced leg and foot that isn't quite straight its roomy enough. I was impressed with the seating position, actually. not sure what voodoo yamaha did to make such a small bike so comfortable without sacrificing lean angle.

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I'm sure I could get used to it. The reach was much shorter than the ZX9 I was coming off of, so that probably played a part as well.

It seems to have a very similar riding position to the KTM 640SM i used to own, and to the KTM 1290 I took a test ride on - my brother had a bigger budget than me and test riding with him was fun.
The MT rides really well when you tip it under you at slower speeds, motard style, and still good when you lean with it at higher speeds, too. A lot of bikes prefer one style or the other, this does both really well.

Guy I was talking to said something about there being 3 modes to choose from.


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tlstreak said:

Guy I was talking to said something about there being 3 modes to choose from.


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Yeah it's all in the throttle/ecu since it's "fly-by-wire." You get B mode (rain or other poor traction), standard, and A mode (super sharp throttle, race-type setting). I personally found the throttle to be twitchy at low openings, but again, probably something you get used to.

Yep, 3 modes. The different modes basically slow down the connection between the throttle and the injectors. I try to use B mode in heavy traffic because it's not as jerky, but the lack of acceleration shits me, so I mainly use standard mode. There is a massive difference between the 3 modes. You can richen it up via the dash for very slight throttle openings which helps a bit, but it needs to be re flashed to get it properly sorted. That's $125 for the US ECU, or a fucking ridiculous $495 here in Aus.

Lots of Yamaha's I've driven of late have a very twitchy throttle response. You do get used to it after a bit though I could see it could be problematic for a beginner. It does make city riding kind of tedious, since the slightest bump in the road can send you rocketing off or slamming into the handlebars. B mode quells that twitchiness, but then it's also very hesitant if you do want a burst of power. Standard kind of splits the difference.

Apparently only the Euro or MT09 badged bikes can be adjusted through the dash, the US market FZ09 have that feature disabled, probably due to emissions laws.

I richened mine up through the dash, but it only effects something like 0% - 2% of throttle opening. it helps but only a bit.
I think proper suspension will help to, at the moment both ends pogo/see-saw up and down, which makes it a bit harder to be smooth on the throttle.
It seems to be twitchy for emissions. When you close the throttle, it supplies almost zero fuel, which causes massive engine braking. It's still a better bike than my old 2005 speed triple.

Was thinking the guy told me he was switching them at will trying to find what setting he liked best. As for a jerky throttle the big twins all seem to have the same issue in stock form. I would think a lot of them do it's just so easy to learn to ride around it on a new bike and then start adjusting things the way we like it , it just get fixed along the way.


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