The Apex Project

THE APEX PROJECT

Yamaha's secret 750 standard

"I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S ANYONE AT HONDA screaming for this bike, but I can tell you, there are four or five of us here who have been screaming for it." The words come from an employee of Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, and the bike he’s talking about is shown here for the first time in an artist’s conception. Its code name is Apex, and it could be in your local dealership in 1993 or '94.

Described by another Yamaha employee as a “renegade project,” the Apex was conceived by Yamaha USA in response to requests from dealers worried that Yamaha’s shrinking product line would leave them nothing to sell except Virago cruisers and FZR sportbikes. In conversation with these dealers, the Fazer 700 name kept cropping up. Sold in 1986, the Fazer was a good motorcycle, described by Cycle World back then as “so competent, so exciting, so much out-and-out fun to ride.” But it was held back by its too-weird. robotic styling, and sold poorly. Maybe a revised version would sell today.

Working on that premise, the company’s U.S. testing department took a Fazer and updated it to 1990s specs. First to go was the bike’s twin-shock rear suspension,

replaced by a single shock and swingarm taken from an FZR600. Next, the upside-down fork and the brakes from a TZR250R were grafted on, and the steering-head angle tucked in 3 degrees to quicken response. The main frame and 698cc inline-Four were left untouched, though production versions would likely get a purposebuilt frame and be bumped to 750cc.

That is, of course, if there is a production version. A mockup of the proposed bike, with “organic,” flowing bodywork highlighted by twin, “cat’s-eye” headlights, was air-shipped to Japan in May, where Yamaha USA officials made a case for the bike being manufactured. By some accounts, the Japanese were initially reluctant, but, presented with the mockup and the results of surveys made when the bike was shown to dealers and focus groups, their enthusiasm for the Apex is growing.

Says a Yamaha man about the project, “I don’t think there’s anything that unique about the Apex, except its styling. It certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel.” And even if the Apex makes it to market toned down from its initial form, he believes the concept is a sound one. “It’s time to get this one on the charts. Let’s take the risk and make it happen,” he says. -David Edwards