Quick Ride
YAMAHA YZF750R
Quick Ride
Cut-rate corner-carver
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THAT race-replicas have the career span of a 14-year-old Olympic gymnast. Gold may come once, but by the next time the five-ring circus unfolds its tents, the winning gymnast is less newsworthy than last week’s lottery number, replaced by yet another pre-adolescent tumbler.
Of course, in the case of Yamaha’s YZF750R, the company couldn’t even translate early outstanding performance into any but the critic’s gold. That first YZF in 1994 was the then-performance king of the 750cc race-replica class, the best-balanced bike of the bunch. But it was also by far the most expensive, the only 750 to shoot close to the tengrand barrier at $9799. Positive reviews couldn’t overwhelm that price tag, leaving the ’94 YZF capable of winning anything but the sales race. Yamaha didn’t even bring in a ’95
model, and when the ’96 version arrived, carrying a bigger radiator and other improvements, it was stuck with a $10,499 price tag-and that in the same year that Suzuki announced its best GSX-R750 ever for $1500 less.
Obviously, someone at Yamaha finally got the point, because the Daytona-winning ’97 YZFfor all practical purposes the same as last year’s bike-is tagged at $8799, $400 less than the ’97 GSX-R. What you get
for that money is a machine no longer at the cutting edge of 750cc performance, but one that still offers an outstandingly balanced package that’s matched by few other motorcycles.
Compared to any other racereplica, the YZF offers a rela-
tively expansive riding position, with bars up fractionally and pegs down slightly, a riding position that doesn’t have you instantly wilting at the thought of freeway miles. Its suspension soaks up bumps better than almost any other motorcycle, and its precise, light and linear steering still sets the standard.
The 20-valve, EXUP-equipped engine may give away more than 10 horsepower at the very top to a GSX-R, but it responds smoothly through the powerband, accelerating hard from 6000 rpm on up. Even when ridden on tight mountain roads with as sexy a piece as Suzuki’s new fuel-injected TL1000 V-Twin, the Yamaha can hold its own; in fact, it even shows an edge in steering precision, in off-idle throttle response, in its suspension calibration and minimum amount of steering torque when trailing the front brake into a corner.
Unfortunately for Yamaha, however, the YZF is now no more a star than a Barcelona gymnast. It offers a subtly wonderful performance combination in a package that’s all too familiar, one that lacks the pure emotional appeal of newer machines. It may be the motorcycle many sportbike enthusiasts would love if they owned it, but the question remains: Even at the new lower price, does it give them enough reason to actually buy it? - Steve Anderson
