Yamaha Motorcycle: Yamaha FZ8

Yamaha Motorcycle ; Rationalisation in the Fazer8’s design it is a Fazer 1000 with the engine reduced in capacity to 779cc through a 9mm bore reduction to 68mm. The stroke is the same but the crankshaft is lighter, but the nature of the engine has been changed too, from the performance focussed peakiness of the 1000cc version to a softer, torquier nature for the Fazer8. This is achieved by the use of smaller valves and less aggressive camshaft profiles, bringing down maximum horsepower to 105bhp, where if it was in the same state of tune as the 1000, it would have around 120bhp. Depending on whether you’re feeling like a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of person, you could either say the FZ8 feels like a 600 – but with power like a strong 750 – or you could say it’s like a detuned, lighter FZ1.
To begin with, the FZ8’s four-valve-per cylinder head is all new, as are its shorter lift and duration camshafts, and new intake funnels – 125mm-long for cylinders 1 and 4, and 150mm-long for cylinders 2 and 3 – that help broaden its powerband.
Coupled with its 35mm throttle body – 10mm narrower than the FZ1’s – these features enhance torque while still allowing for a respectable top-end rush. amaha doesn’t make power claims, but the FZ8’s 11,500-max-rpm mill reportedly peaks at around 105 hp, and 61 ft-lb torque when measured at the crankshaft. So new riders coming to the FZ8 could play the machismo displacement game and cite R1 credentials to save face, while veering away from the 600cc-sportbikes that 20-something new riders and emergency doctors know and love. Sitting a rider upright and comfortably the FZ8 will give new(er) riders a fighting chance at seeing the dangers around them in comparison to a craning and straining sportbike head-down-ass-up seating position.