Previous bikes Pt2

[Mick_J]

In 2005 I was in the market for a new bike, the fairly light weight of the Speed Triple pushed me towards looking at a lightweight bike that still had a bit of poke so started looking in the 600 – 750 class and after a number of demos came down to the Kawasaki Z750 or the Yamaha FZ6n but in the end I settled on the Yam, it looked good and I was given a good deal on one, so that was my retirement present to myself.
The Yam proved to be a reliable little bike that handled well with decent brakes and finish, the only thing I added was a small cockpit screen to cover the clocks and keep the crap off them (did bugger all else).  In all the time I had it I only had one problem with it and it was the paint on the bottom edge of the tank was very thin so rust started to get underneath it, only noticed when I lifted the tank to give it a good clean one year, once sorted with some fresh paint it became a trusted little bike.  A short while later I got a different job further south in Bristol so used it to travel from Staffordshire to Bristol and back which it coped with extremely well.  It took a while to get into the swing of things with the little Yam as it had to be revved to get the best out of it and once I got used to it the bike was great, changing down for a fast approaching corner sounded great with a dab of revs between changes it became really good fun, and that's what the bike was, bloody good fun.  At the time a lot of reviewers were slating the bike for having little or no grunt compared to the previous Fazer 600 but as I had not ridden one I cannot comment.  I found it fine but did have to get used to always changing down to make an overtake work quickly and successfully.  Tyres and pads lasted well and servicing was straight forward and simple.  During the time I had this bike I added a couple of other bikes to the garage, an MZ1000sf and a Suzuki GSX1400ef but still enjoyed a ride on my little Yam as it was an ideal commuter into and around Bristol.  However my job changed slightly and I was doing a lot of travel in hire cars so the Yam got used less and less so I eventually decided to move it on and stick to big bikes (1000cc plus) as I no longer needed a commuter bike.  The other thing that was starting to annoy me after the initial buzz of all those revs, was all those revs, just to ride along, I had to use 2k more than any of the other bikes just to do the same speed and I realised that I am not really a fan of high revs day to day.  So after eleven problem free and very enjoyable years the yam was sold.