Yamaha’s FZ was a good idea. The company got many things right including
starting their engineering from the width of the rear tyre – which
remains a startlingly popular and sticky Indian predilection. When it
arrived, it had a plastic tank (cover) which was a new idea, styling
that looked right (both for the time as well as its global design) and
it also had the traditionally excellent Yamaha build quality as well. In
short, the FZ was a promising motorcycle. Since then, it has done well
too. It’s led Yamaha’s volumes back up the charts (though the scooters
arguably have a vital role in this as well). It’s remained popular while
the company lost its dynamic edge and embarked on an FZ-based adventure
that involved mostly the fairing plastic, suffixes and stickers. Until
now.
Yamaha have (finally) rolled out the new FZ version 2.0 with a
not-so-subtle FI suffix. At first glance, it looks like an FZ but subtly
different – which is the way product updates have to be. You cannot
make a dramatically different product without significant risk. In any
case, it isn’t as if the FZ needed a dramatic style upgrade. What the
version 2.0 does get, though, is more sculpting. I’m not averse to it
but I’m not a fan of busy designs any way. All the body panels have more
sculpting and the frame below the tank (sort of like a faux radiator
shroud) is now a vastly more complex shape. But credit where credit is
due, the bike does look sharper and fresher except for the all-covering
overwrought splatter guard that suggests that Yamaha is out to ensure
that Tide, Ariel et al will be out of business before the rains are
over.
The big change is Yamaha’s new Blue Core technology. We have a detailed explanation
up already so we will not go into it here . What it means is that the
FZ engine is brand-new for all practical purposes. It gets a slightly
smaller bore and hence displacement is down to 149cc. Yamaha have also
worked the whole engine over leaving only the gearbox without updates.
Even the final drive has changed with the rear sprocket gaining a tooth
and becoming a 41 tooth unit.
The smaller displacement does mean that power has come down by
roughly 1PS to 13.1PS at 8,000rpm while torque is down by roughly 0.8Nm
to 12.8Nm at 6,000rpm. While that sounds like spec sheet suicide, the
bike also loses 3.5kg, thanks to an all-new frame. So when you’re out
riding, you won’t notice any drop in power, I promise.
I found, in fact, the engine feels about the same as the old one but
with markedly improved refinement across the rev range. It feels a
little more urgent in acceleration and what I really like is that unlike
the old FZ, it doesn’t seem to lose steam and flounder even when you’re
about to bash into the redline. The old FZ actually got quite
flustered, comparatively speaking, at the redline and it was the
(expensive) Yamaha FZ Race Kit that actually returned some semblance of
top-end to the bike. Well, if you can get 14 per cent better economy
(Yamaha claims), better 0-100kmph performance (seems possible) and it
feels better overall then I don’t think the loss of displacement should
be a sticking point at all.
On the move, the FZ, again, feels very familiar. There was this
reassuring stability and feel to the FZ chassis that the new chassis
retains and it feels a bit more agile but that could just be my
imagination – we will verify at the road test after a more extensive
ride. Ride quality feels gentler too but I rode the bike near the Delhi
Airport which is awash in fresh pothole free tarmac so again I’m going
to request you to wait for a longer ride before I confirm.
Yamaha have also made other changes to the FZ, most of them clearly
useful. For example, the new FZ V2 gets all-digital meters like the old
one, but all the graphics and gimmicks have been left behind. So there’s
now a clear set of meters with a large digital tacho that I had no
trouble reading even in the bright noonday sun. The meters include a
green Eco light that subtly prompts you to ride for better economy. But
there are also a few omissions that I thought were unnecessary. For
instance, the all-digital meters don’t have a clock which is very hard
to explain. Similarly, the tail lamp which is redone and sits in a
eye-catching black and metal extension under the tail light still isn’t
an LED unit.
Overall, the FZ V2 update is limited in scope because the motorcycle has
to enter a very well-defined playing field and in that sense the
pricing and options latitude is limited. That said, I think the FZ V2 is
better in every respect (road test pending) than the outgoing bike and
that’s how updates are supposed to work. It retains all the high points
of the old bike – easy to ride, easy to live with, good city manners,
light clutch operation etc and improves in almost every critical area.
Yamaha are pricing the FZ V2 at Rs 76,250 ex-showroom Delhi while the
FZ-S (in the pics) is Rs 78,250 ex-Delhi. This makes the FZ V2 roughly
Rs 5,000 more than the old bike. Fuel injection alone explains the price
difference and there’s no question that the V2 is the better bike of
the two.
The 150cc commuters haven’t seen much action in ages and it looks like
we’re headed into exciting times for the segment. Bajaj is expected to
launch the Discover F150 next month while the Suzuki Gixxer
is also expected to be around the corner. Will the Yamaha update be
enough to keep the FZ’s momentum going in the face a handful of all-new
machines? Stay tuned for action.
