Disclaimer:- There are few fabricated words only few will understand but i am sure you will learn along the way.
A brief history of useless information. Skip if you want to :)
You do realize over time that you are not someone who jumps into new bikes. Testimony is the 12 year old Royal Enfield Standard 500 that i still ride every day. But circumstances and travel has helped me to have fun with quite a variety of bikes that include the Rx100, fatboy, softtail, Honda Valkyrie, Enticer, Classic bullet 500, R6, FZ6R and even a couple of rides on the R1. Some of them i owned at least 6 months before having to move out of that state/city that includes the 2013 KTM 390.
Here is the line up of those bikes that did stay with me long enough to take at least a picture while the bullet 500 is now getting close to fitness certificate zone(a true classic purely by age i guess). In specific order the favorite of these list is the bull 500(coz it stays with me for ever i guess) & FZ6R, then KTM 390 and the rest.
Start with the 500
and this was right after getting involved in a small accident, breaking the head light doom and right brake lever. Early days where we used to travel on saturday 6AM when the planning would happen at 545.
The Valkyrie
The Beautiful Six cylinder
My 390 and The 1974 Bull i got restored for my Brother
Few of my FZ6R - Beloved parter
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The harley soft tail
What is special about this bike that i am after it for the last 12 years
It was in 2005 when i first saw the FZ1. This was the last year of the carb version of a bike that caught my eyes. It has always been the bike i wanted to own. In 2013 i was very close to buying one in India before the prices jumped over to 12-14L. Again in 2014 in the states(USA) i saw, tested and was so close to pick one,but ended up getting an unused Fz6R considering i was going to sell it while returning back to Motherland.
Simply put this was the bike i have been luring after for years. It had/has everything in it and (has)a mad fan following even today across the globe.
FZ1 ownership was simply the hole that i needed to plug in, in this life time. Each one of us have something like that. I have no second thoughts about what would be my next bike as it will be another FZ1 while i will cheat on her once a while with an R6 or a CBR600RR if i get a chance. Its just a different animal. Its not modern with multitude of technology aids, its not super fast than so many offerings these days and its not even attractive looking to get a glance like a Ninja for instance. Its as plain as Jane/Jack can get.
OLXing is a Bad habit but creates opportunity Search tips - Search Yamaha, sort descending by Price and voila you find your own FZ1's for sale.
Fast forward to 2016.
OLX'er is not a fabricated word. Its a real person and someone who religiously goes through OLX everyday and searches random stuff and actually negotiates to buy something. It was a casual search and i found this white FZ1 in Mangalore. I am sure the owner is here in this forum, for this bike was on sale in this forum and i have seen that ad as part of OLX CBI(ing).
OLXing inside your own city meant surprises:-
At the same time i found another Fz1 which was available few streets away from my home in Chennai.
Rejecting this bike was a learning for both heart and head.
This was indeed a bike that i know through friends who ride on weekends. I also knew who the previous owner was. Got some good feedback on the history of the bike and the new owner had done enough mods to demand an asking price. I took a test ride and knew it was not the bike i wanted. The ride was not at all smooth. Multiple reasons to it and i list here for potential buyers.
What went against buying this bike:-
- Too much over selling. Over selling means, basically selling a micromax phone while comparing it with an Apple and actually trying to convince you apple is bad.
- The owner hardly spoke and a guy who runs a work shop was selling the bike. To put it blunt it was a mechanic selling the bike
- The original owner had given feedback about issues with clutch but the seller hardly mentioned it.
- Blings were being highlighted over things. Like what kind of service, who maintains and what is done to the bike was never majorly highlighted.
- "In the End, It did not matter", I didnt feel this transaction had everything except honest ownership details. It was TN registered and easy to transfer. Another day i would have not wasted time to pick this up. Head said no after one ride and there was no wasting time here.
Neither heart said go for it nor head. And this bike is still on OLX for sale. Over 6 months time and unsold means that i probably dodged a bullet or a Honda or a Kawasaki. Pick your hate.
Back to Pan India OLXing.
Then I saw another bike in Mangalore. Call it cupid attack or 7.5 man(my friend Saturn) taking over me, but i liked it at first sight. Got the bike number and started some investigation and it was a long process(OLX CBI'ing). It involved my favorite activity which is playing the role of cyber detective(cyber stalking realistically) which is basically trying to find every possible online footprint about the bike that includes Facebook, linked in, olx and anything you can do with google. I started building the history of the bike.
Guidelines:-
- Use seller information and dig history about both seller and bike. Use fb, twitter, linked in or anything you can think off.
- Use the invoice and trace the original owner
- Use invoice, call dealer who sold the bike to check legality and confirm serial and registration number.
There is the criminal records online portal and the "AM_VAAHAN seva via SMS" which can confirm more about the bike using its registration number. In summary i was trying to find how genuine the bike was.
Seller:- The seller felt and sounded genuine. He was open, honest (i sincerely hope till date :)) and answered every question i had. I did not have many questions either way as I was already smitten. My family knows how mad i am about FZ1 for they actually said, if you want it go ahead and get it. The last time i asked, they told me to wait and i listened.
Lesson:-Listening to elders works on the long run.
Things that i felt worked and why i should check the bike include:-
1) It looked stock
2) The seller spoke about DIY to take care of his own bike.
3) It was a 400 odd km journey that i had to make to get this checked and worst case i lost a day and half travelling.
Note to potential used bike buyers:-If you drilled down to the most common sense based logic(list) that everyone has advised you when it comes to buying used super bike you will find nothing checking out in that list in my buying experience. You throw them to dust when the decision purely taken by a heart beat.
Chapter Derail - A parallel story
The worst enemies are like minded nut jobs. They hate everything you hate, they dont get offended if embarrassment is used as weapon and they talk the same waste topics like you talk. They dont mind wasting whole day about topics that add 0% value to any living or non living organism in this world/universe. Yes,I am talking about Prasanna(prassy or prasanadhana), CGB, Niranjan, Vignesh, Rahul, Group Favorite(Mahesh), the doctor RC and the doctor no 2 Visakan, Benji.
Importantly everyone in the group works on a tangent. For example if three said ktm is bad today and the others took the other side, the next day it would simply be reverse. The 0% value add i am talking about is real.
When i thought these guys would help me sway away from plunging nose deep into financial nightmare of a buy viz fz1 they didnt help. These are not guys but jokers, nut jobs or as we refer in corporate terms as key allies.
The request was to help with decision, but the result was the following comments.
"Are you planning to change the exhaust"
"Are you going to remap"
"Are you getting Aux lights"
"Are you planning to take this to Leh/Ladakh"
And in 4-6 hours these comments moved to another level.
"How was the ride"
"Did you change oil"
"Did you change tyres"
"I think you should have picked a Versys 650"
Note to self:- <There is no bike purchase without one person saying versys 650 is the god of all bikes. I tend to disagree. I think RD350 is the god of all bikes ever>.
So now You can see the pattern. They started with, "Yes" you should buy and in 6 hours they have confirmed your purchase and are already giving you expert advice and questions. So the group consensus was I should get it.
Sub track diversion- This is very much the essence of taking so much effort to write this experience. THE GROUP
So what is this group?
A group of fools/tools that will make your life miserable and will wait for an opportunity to pick on you 24/7. The Only whats app group that i have seen being active almost everyday for last 6 months. Quite an achievement really.
The best part is that this group was formed from a bigger group where some oldies had issues with open discussions. So the group finally ended up with young minds who could care a hoots about anything and have fun talking about bikes 23.8/7 a week and car may be 1 hour a week.
This group has data scientists, true contributors that run schools and serve the country in a realistic way, 30K plus kms on bike riders, riders who are supremely skillful in both bikes and cares, riders who are stuck with a slow D200, couple of bakra elements and a lonely sad lover boy. The lover boy needs a girl by the way :)
The Buying Process or otherwise known as Bleh Bleh Bleh!!!
I Basically took a bus from Chennai to Bangalore & another bus to Mangalore. Got dropped off at 5:30AM in the middle of no where. I Woke up the seller while i gulped a local road side coffee. I also carried a huge military bag with the gears, cameras and an extra Tee. We went to his house and i gaped at the bike. Bone stock with some modifications done and removed.
First sight inspection
The rivets were slightly lose and overall looked like how an used bike should look like. No effort went into making the bike look out of the world just for selling. My guess was a basic wipe with a cloth. The bikes tyre's looked good and the bike was very cold. The seller simply handed over the keys, took his KTM 390 with him and we went for a ride.
The first real ride
Cold starts say a lot of story and this cold start simply said, you bought yourself a FZ1. I was SOLD by the time we hit the main road and i twisted the throttled. The bike launched well, had a little bearing noise coming from either the neutral bearing inside the stator casing or something, Who cares when you start seeing the digital speedo dancing to your throttle tunes.
Physical Signs
Bike showed signs of weather based "sitting idle" symptoms. Definitely the bike was sitting in his garage. The oil was changed recently and anything that was altered was probably fitted back into the bike. He did confess about maintaining the bike on his own for which i had no issues with(I am a DIYer myself). The bike visibly did not have any crash based signs and the worst thing i felt could have happened was a stationary tilt over. In my mind i had bought the bike.
Treating your potential buyer irrespective of the outcome
I was prepared for the worst case scenario of something bad that was hidden but that fear was also taken away. The seller fed me nice breakfast, allowed me to use his entire ground floor to rest and even take a nap and get myself prepared for the return journey irrespective of whether i bought the bike or not. He did came out genuine.
Seller Attitude
Most importantly he did not over sell the bike. He said what he knew about the bike, about the previous owner, his rides and his maintenance schedule. To me if someone is talking too much about their bike accessories as well as claiming that they never rode above a specific speed thinking that helps a buyer take a decision, i would say thats a whole bag of lies there and walk away from there. I am fairly confident anyone with a litre class would have tested their life line atleast twice during their ownership.
The seller basically sold this because he had just picked a ZX14R. And saw that mini van parked next to the Fz1. IT WAS HUGEEEE.
Cut the chase and get to the end
So post formalities, food burp confirmed and banana for the road trip Potassium requirement was completed, i started getting into my space suit. Suited up, helmet on and bidding thanks and good byes to the seller, started my 5-6 hr journey back to Bangalore. I am not new to bikes but i was definitely cautious about the cops, dogs, cows, excited humans, depressed humans and Rossi's(in kutti yanai). So the first 1 to 2 hours was all about getting comfortable and more importantly giving time for the butt to get tuned to the new seats.
Final Summary:- Oops this is not a review. There are enough reviews in the web. But here are the likes and dislikes post 6 months of ownership, 3000 plus kms, daily rides to work in Chennai traffic and a whole lot of getting my hands dirty DIY's.
Likes:
I am not going to share what online reviews already covered but if you decide to buy this bike, here is what you will get.
-The FZ1N will do good speed in first gear and it has six. It turns a leisurely 4000rpm to 5000 RPM at 110km/h and it revs to 12,000rpm. This is on stock 17/45 sprocket
- The front does not feel loose. Almost makes you feel the weight balance is towards the front. 51% claimed weight distribution at front. But it feels more.
- Result of the above point is that it translates to enjoyable twisties, no unnecessary wheel ups, shakes or tremors.
- You do not need a steering damper even on tracks.
- Exceptionally strong braking power with those nissin. The engine breaking is legendary and takes care of slowing the bike to major extent
- Two bikes in one . A simple 70 bhp motorcycle till 6000 RPM and then there is a TREX who is always ready to give you shivers if you decide to wake him up.
- Most importantly the TREX is alive in ALL 6 gears. Just hit 7K RPM and TREX is right on your rear.
- Around 15 litres usable fuel tank. Average distance you can cover around 200-240kms purely based on how much you wake up the TREX.
- Every part reads Japanese and i mean it. Quality is TOP Notch
- Exceptionally city friendly. Heat is not an issue for those heat haters. But this is definitely not a bike that you can take around wearing shorts. Will BURN your thighs.
- Head dissipation from body is pretty good and for city rides that is long, slow and behind turtle traffic you will feel the tank getting warm and truth be told,hot.
- Takes regular Fuel. Feed speed if you want to but it runs happily on regular fuel
- Forget which gear you are in. Its a litre class and there is always power at all RPM. Just throttle and move over.
- Gets least of attention. I park it at my work and hardly anyone even bothers.
- Actually pocket friendly to an extent.
Additional Likes
- Huge support online
- Ease of spares though Yamaha only
- Some experienced Service professionals(Bangalore- Naga)
- Ease of getting things from both US and Europe
- Major supply of parts even from Asia
- Parts are cheap. Max wait time was 25 days.
Dislikes
- Slightly stiffer throttle which can be fixed with some basic DIY
- Absolutely no place to mount anything
- Pain in the wrong place to clean up the pipes and front of engine
- Poor lights and poor horn.
- Invites lot of squids to check out the bike.
Luckily everyone thinks its a FZ250. Gives a little edge when it comes to local chennai cops who wont give a damn about silly bikes, bullets and fz250's.
Taking her home story.....
Filled her/him/it up with 97 and had to go through some initial traffic zones. I never expected to make up mind to pick the bike from mangalore. So it was pretty hectic the first 30 minutes to get used to more clothes on my body, a military bag on the back and literally trying to get used to the long gearing of this bike. But finally after 30 minutes, took a small break to get some fluid in the system, set up the cameras and the map and headed in the first stretch of lovely roads.
The first ride after paying the mooolah....
https://youtu.be/-XSizz8DubQ 
The roads around shirdi were pathetic that i blew a
fork seal.
But once you hit the 4 lane the roads get heavenly again. Very few pictures i am posting here as i made very few stops.It really made no sense to stop when you can ride and ride and forever enjoy that wind blast.
Big Fat Rear
There are two reasons why you see big tyres as power starts to move up. One is to keep the bike grounded, as massive torque runs through the rear. Two is to provide you the traction needed to stop. This bike runs 190/50/17 as stock. I think i will upgrade to 55 next time when the change comes around. The air pressure is 36 at front and 42 in the rear. I stick to recommended pressure.
The tyre gives a beautiful stance to the bike as well. It also holds quite well on the lean and currently is running on RP2
What i mean is..its just massive 
Reached Banglore
By evening i reached bangalore and was staying at KR Puram. I borrowed my cousins activa cover and did whatever i could to ensure no one even notices the rear tyre. I simply was paranoid that bike has lot of potential to attract and get stolen. I was just ambitious to think people will notice. But i had to do what i had to do.
At Banglore - Check up at Yamaha
The next day morning, rode to yamaha in Bangalore and Naga who is probably the only guy who knows about these bikes in India from Yamaha perspective started his work. He was very kind and did a thorough check up.
We did the following:-
- Brakes checked and replaced.
- Rear brakes flush and refill.
- Radiator flush and refill.
- Suspension check, oil seal and dust seal fixed and rebuilt.
- I had 16/47 sprocket procured in the mean time which was also fixed.
- Complete clean up and a verbal certificate that the bike was stock and running good.
- We also cleaned up the injectors (using injector cleaners this time).
Few things came up including rusty regulator plate, front sprocket rubber disintegration
The day before heading to chennai. AKA taking her/it/him to home.
One day before i decided to take it to Chennai had to park it at a spot(friends house) where there was no closed parking. I went questing unknown neighbors to use their parking spot. I told them i would take it out by 6am and requested that I will probably end up sleeping on road if this did not work out. Good Samaritans still exists and i was allowed to park.
Final Journey and arrival at Chennai. The eagle has landed moment.
I was physically sick with fever. I knew i was falling really sick and the only thing that kept running in my mind was to get the ride going. I took the bike to Yamaha, Naga who helped me with last minute sprocket change and finally had to start from Bangalore at around 730PM.
I had a couple of bottles of Gatorade and a paracetamol. The moment i crossed the electronic city flyover the traffic cleared up and i decided to get the bag wrapped in the rear seat. It was a week day and the traffic was very low from that moment. I did not realize how physical it was untill i landed in chennai. Around mid night i alighted from the bike and only then i realized my body had gone for a toss. Truth be told, i was in bed rest for the next couple of days with high fever. Given a second chance now, i would exactly the same thing. The ride was just super fun.
The aftermath
The FZ1 is almost my go to bike for every day work. I do not restrict myself to riding only outside the city for long tours. In fact the 4-5k kms it has done in the last half a dozen months the majority distance covered was between home and work. It is a perfect city bike and knowing there is always power available at the tap it is so much fun to ride even to the corner samosa shop.
At work luxury for the bike 
Finally catching up with the goons AKA the team above. As always there is no coffee/tea time without the FZ1 
Finally here are some videos to just showcase what a litre class is capable of. These videos are just a start where i have a whole load of videos waiting to be edited and loaded on various aspects Cruising aspect
FZ1 is basically built to cruise all day long. Because it has a big fat engine that does wonderful job at any gear and any speed this naked is one of the most comfortable bikes to cruise all day long. Check out this stretch below.
https://youtu.be/juLqEGr4R98 The second bike in fz1
There are two bikes in one. If you want to enjoy the second bike you need to be above 7k rpm. The rush is mad and can be thoroughly enjoyed yet not scary.
The power availability at all RPM and all Gear
Forget shifting gears. When you want to move forward just throttle at any gear you are at. 6th Gear push from cruising at highway speed.
And finally this has been one hell of a journey to own something i have been dreaming, sometimes chasing and sometimes watching for the last 10 plus years.
Coming soon... Lot of DIY including eliminating DRL, Adding alarm, adding a fuse box and distributor for more connections, adding a horn, cleaning up Headlight wires, oil changes, coil changes, spark plug changes and more. I will try to cover them as much as i can over multiple replies. Hope this gives potential 650 and 900 cc buyers opportunity to chuck them and go for a litre class :)
Congrats on picking up a very capable machine, VW2010. Im glad to see it went from one passionate bike to another. The guy you bought the bike from is a genuinely nice guy and maintained her very well. If not for his profession, he would have put a lot more happy miles on it.
Ride safe! Cheers!!!
Superb review. Looking forward to your diy stories soon.
So, 900RS?
Congrats on the bike and thanks for letting me ride. As you told its really two bikes in one, easy to ride in the city below 5k RPM and really mad superbike above that on highways. Its really easy to ride and didnt felt any different than my D200. Even the engine heat in city is totally manageable. Love that 4 naked pipes, although its PITA to clean.
A motorcycle that made nitninja grin ear to ear when he took it for a spin for the first time and he continued to roam bewildered for the next two days :D. I am pretty sure many of us are sold on that motorcycle. VW2010 was kind enough to let us try the 150 bhp pocket rocket (because I believe he had sprocket reduction) with plenty of instructions on how to handle it for the first time.
Fz1 is one of the best superbikes around.period. It may lack the electronic aids that current gen bikes offer but has that grunt and brutality in abundance. I never thought a bike could be this much fun coming from the old gen(gem) 390. Knowing vw2010 and his love for bikes, im sure this one will serve you a lifetime.
Congrats Vivek and wishing you for many miles. seems to be a very clean bike.
Yamaha FZ1 is my childhood dream and have a blow up stick in my room.
Due to Tennis elbow issue, i have kept my ride (Himalayan) at rest and the plan for a litre class by 2018 is in jeopardy :(
Hope i'll hit the road soon and will ping you for a breakfast ride.
Congrats VW2010, She\'s beautiful. I have a small confusion here, the bike parked with bird\'s eye view is up for sale in Olx. I mean, the same pic is in Olx Chennai and is up for sale. Have the pics got messed up or am I missing something?
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