Yamaha FZR 1000R EXUP

Review

by Trevor Franklin

Yamaha FZR1000 Exup

Nobody who rode the Exup returned without a smile. A big, Cheshire cat-sized smile. Without exception everyone's first words were blasphemous, foul or unintelligible. Nobody was unimpressed.

For what is basically a four-year-old bike the Exup still delivers the goods in a fantastically composed and powerful package: explosive bottom-end torque and arm-stretching top end power. Ride it fast in the wet and all of a sudden you begin to appreciate just how powerful it really is. Like anything else with 125bhp and only two wheels, it'll bite you if you treat it cackhandedly.

But there is an inbuilt level of safety. It's so stable at speed you'd swear it's running some sort of ground-effect system. It doesn't matter whether it's a fourth gear sweeper with a mid-corner dip or a kink over a crest; the Exup never waggles, wobbles or weaves. Compared with the more unruly GSX-R it's a big pussycat.

This year's six pot front brake calipers have made the already safe Exup safer still. There's an incredible amount of stopping power now; one finger's enough to scythe off speed with such ferocity it really does tax your forearms. One rider said the Exup's brakes felt more powerful than the engine. A 125bhp engine and 130bhp brakes: just what you need for staying alive.

The brakes provide the new Öhlins USD forks with the ultimate test of bendability. They're set up for a comfortable ride, with soft springing and compression damping, but they aren't prone to flexing — far from it. Where the forks do fail is under hard braking (with one finger, remember) over rippled surfaces. As soon as they get the slightest hint of front brake they dive for cover, leaving no travel for bump absorption. Approaches to bumpy corners leave a series of small skid marks as the front wheel struggles to stay in contact with the undulating tarmac. Even with a cut ^ slick fitted.

But through faster, smoother corners the Exup has impeccable manners. You'd be hard pressed to find a bike that feels as composed when you're really tonkin'. Fitting slicks is probably the worst thing you could do to this legendary high speed stability; they bugger it completely, making a beslicked Exup an unpredictable monster through fast corners. Will it tankslap you into a ditch? Will that twitching turn into something more serious? A bit like a Fireblade, really.

On stock rubber, though, there's none of this funny business. The standard Dunlops are much nicer than cut slicks in a variety of situations. That crucial moment — the transition from vertical to lean — is much less worrying on the OE tyres as the cut slicks made the Exup wobble like crazy in really fast corners. Once it was actually at full lean it was fine, but those moments before it would dance around like a CX500 with knackered head bearings.

Although the cut slicks could find an unbelievable amount of grip at the apex and exit of a turn, the steering would go horribly light and unpredictable as the bike powered out. Yes, give us road-based rubber any day. Rupert summed up the Exup on slicks: "It's bloody horrible. It feels like an old GSX-RU00K." Nail on the proverbial head.

You see, normally, the Exup is a delight to ride quickly and smoothly. The way it delivers its creamy-smooth power means that the rider isn't constantly stirring the gear lever to keep the engine on the boil. Even the mighty GSX-R1100 engine feels a bit wheezy by comparison. On a twisty B road the Yamaha rarely needs more than 6,000rpm to blur the hedgerows. You can rev it harder, or go faster, but it'll scare the pants off you, as well as whoever's coming the other way/following. The fastest and smoothest way from A to B is to shortshift through the five gears and wind open the throttle. There's enough midrange torque to humble a Harley.

FZR1000 comfort is a moot point. Some people, me included, think the Exup is one of the most uncomfortable long distance bikes ever: back ache, wrist and neck cramps, numb bum and an excruciatingly painful perineum. Others, like Trevor Franklin, think the Exup is actually comfortable, but he's a bat fastard with more padding than me. Roop says it's fine at 120mph on German autobahns. To fit an Exup perfectly you need a short back and very long arms. Like a gibbon.

But bloater or not, everyone was impressed by the new YZF-style fairing which successfully shields the rider from tiring lOOmph wind blast, exploding bumble bees and those huge flies that are filled with what looks like rhubarb and custard. The fairing also houses the much-acclaimed and celebrated fuel reserve switch, which I'm not going to say anything about because it's more boring than aYamaha trade seminar.

Grumbles? Yes. Yamaha could learn a thing or two from Suzuki on the gearbox and clutch front. The GSX-R1100, like every other Suzuki in the range (except the RGV250), has one of the slickest, sweetest, smoothest, most trustworthy transmissions in the business. The Exup, by comparison, has one of the worst. Gear selection isn't a problem — although it's not as light and positive as the Suzuki's  it's that bleedin' 'orrible clutch action. Progressive and predictable it is not. Noisy, grabby and feeble it most certainly is. Why, oh why, oh why haven't Yamaha done something about it? I mean it's not as if we haven't complained about it before.

The Exup is still a great bike; dated, yes, but its massive power and stability remain a valid alternative to the lighter, sharper, twitchier Fireblade. Sadly, every dog has its day and while the 900 Honda is still in its prime the big Yamaha is approaching creaky old age. Roll on the YZF900.

Mark Forsyth

Suzuki GSX-R1100W

Wrenching open the throttle at 6,000rpm should have produced enough power to push the rear tyre solidly into tarmac and hoik the front end skyward. Sadly, and to my disbelief, it wasn't. The Suzuki bogged down as if receiving only quarter throttle.

Hurried clutch slip gave the necessary drive to miss 38 tonnes of Renault truck and, in the safety of the adjoining B-road, I tried again, with only marginal wheel-hopping success. Exaggerated clutch slip with a good pull on the clip-ons gets it up, missus, but at the possible expense of mechanical destruction.

What a difference from the old oil-cooled 1100 phased out in 1992. Suzuki have fitted the watercooled engine with huge, 40mm carbs for top end power, then restricted it to 115bhp: worst of both worlds.

"It takes a long time to get to a hundred," remarked Technical Editor Theodopilus Robinson after a morning on the GSX-R. I agree, but the quarter miles shame both our ramblings: GSX-R: 10.93s @ 124.5mph. Exup: 10.96s @ 126.1mph. Either old age and raging senility has affected us or standing start acceleration is a useless measure of midrange throttle response.

Helping keep the GSX-R on the pace is one of the best five speed gearboxes ever. Bimbling around town two-up with a tight chain gives no notchy clunks up or down the box. Even under the severest abuse, using the rev limiter instead of closing the throttle, gear changes are precise. Better still, numerous quarter mile attempts and tread-wasting long-distance wheelspins (Mark won, on the FZR) failed to upset the Suzuki's hydraulic clutch. The Yamaha's became so grabby after only two launches it was put to one side and ignored like a naughty schoolboy.

GSX-R1100 suspension gets more than its fair share of complaints: over complicated, can't get it right, what suits one doesn't suit the other.... It's all justified if half-wits disrupt standard settings in a vain attempt to better them. The WR isn't perfect, but it doesn't take a lot to put it right.

There's nothing seriously wrong with the front end. It dives alarmingly when all 12 caliper pistons clench the discs as tightly as your bum cheeks in a last-hope braking manoeuvre (yes, the brakes are the sort to cause a tackle-to-tank collision; awesome). My cure: up compression from the stock seven clicks to nine and wind the preload in three lines.

The rear shock works fine on A-roads and motorways, smoothing out the bumps even over cats' eyes and approach warning lines at roundabouts. Bumpy B-roads and tight corner exits make the bike wallow (feels like a flat rear tyre) then squat under power. It's nothing scary; it just makes the bike a bit harder to pick up for the next corner. Because it happens in the low gears, where the chain is wrenching the swing arm upwards most strongly, it's better to use extra preload rather than compression damping. I left it alone, hoping a lack of food on the journey north would compensate.

Over the years, GSX-R engine specs have changed. Shame the frame design hasn't. Apart from extra bracing and a stretched wheelbase, it's still based on the original 1986 twin rail jobbie. Too high, too much metal needed to make it stiff.

The bodywork has undergone more annual surgery than anything else to keep up with the opposition, but it's choice — true race replica in design and it looks the business. The Lazer 4-2-1 we fitted helps; even Mark, who's used to racing exotica, pronounced the bike fit-looking.

The screen isn't raked as high as the FZR's endurance-derived item, forcing the wind into your throat. A loaded tank bag is a better deflector but obscures the instruments. The high pegs are a pain in the knees after 50 motorway miles; relief is effected by riding flat footed, heel on the pegs, gumby style. Given that the headlights are set back and enclosed, night roads get a good spread of light (the FZR's dip cuts off far too short).

Standard D202 Dunlops suit the GSX-R perfectly. In pant-staining bends they give plenty grip with a balanced feel between front and rear: fine for public roads but previous track sorties have shown they do overheat. Mark's suggestion of fitting cut slicks for attacking the Lake District was ideal. At the time.

Prior to having a tread pattern cut into the rear ex-race Michelin, I spied P Mc Fl 4 laps on the sidewall. Good stuff: an ex-Phil McCallen TT tyre. To my nicotine-fugged mind it seemed I was receiving the same service as the racing greats.

Back in the real world I was disappointed. At low speeds you can feel the extra grip — on Delugrip-covered roundabouts the front tyre feels like it's turning in glue and needs extra force on the bars to aim it. Out on faster, dryer roads it's the opposite. On the M6 (120mph ish officer) the front goes very light, bangs off cats' eyes alarmingly and is sensitive to any shift in weight or bar input. At least it didn't suffer high speed weaves like the Exup. On coarse road surfaces in the Lake District the slicks gave exceptional peg-scraping grip but highlighted the need for suspension adjustment — more than the standard setup can offer. My advice is stick to normal road tyres: it's healthier for you and your licence.

The GSX-R1100 struggles to hold its head high in the monster capacity class. New, exciting models like the GSX-R750, Honda's Fireblade and Kawasaki's ZX-9R have stolen its thunder in the last couple of years. Only if, like me, you think big is best, does the Suzuki win, as it always has done.