My Hooligan Adventure: 2015 Yamaha FJ-09 | 5BikeChallenge

By Ian Kelso, Contributing Editor
Photos by Ian Kelso unless otherwise noted.

They say that first impressions count, so to be honest, things didn’t start out very well.

The very first time I laid eyes on her...my heart sank. Hmmm, how can I put this gently: she was just plain fugly.

I had placed the FJ-09 on my shortlist of bikes to review because she looked so great on paper: stellar reviews all round in fact. But looking at her those very first moments I thought to myself that this simply could never work. It would be the first time in my short career as a moto-journalist that I would write a really negative review.

But I was wrong. Completely wrong, in fact.

The FJ-09 not only turned out to be one of my favourite bikes of the summer, I ended up totally falling in love with her looks. But only after a bit of a makeover. Let me explain.

#5BIKECHALLENGE

My ongoing assignment, the #5BikeChallenge, is to seek out the five bikes I would own if I could be so lucky as to be able to afford it. All riders know that one bike is not enough to cover every need, want and desire. Five bikes should cover enough ground though. Now it took me a long time to figure out just how to categorize the different styles and substyles into a range that made sense though. After riding thirty bikes over the past three months, I recently arrived at a set of definitions for my five essential bike types.

The FJ-09 is a plausible fit for at least two of those categories: adventure touring and all-rounder. And within those particular categories, appearance shouldn’t account for much. The R1200GS is the reference bike for the ADV format, and it is hardly a sexy beast (sorry GS owners!), though it does have a certain rugged allure that may inspire certain romantic fantasies of wilderness camping with Ewan McGregor -- if that’s your thing. I have come to realize though, that physical attraction is actually a very important factor in your relationship with your bike no matter what type it is. You simply just have to love how she looks.

THE 5-MINUTE MAKEOVER

When I got home from Yamaha I gave the FJ a real hard look up and down. She was a press demo bike and Yamaha had intentionally optimized her for touring. They had equipped her with the optional hard plastic panniers which certainly gave her an appearance of added girth. The cases weren’t badly styled, but though practical, luggage always takes away from the badass personality of a motorcycle. Off with the bags. But there was something else that was bugging me and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Aha! Yamaha had also swapped out the stock windscreen for an elongated touring windscreen, one that looked vaguely like...a duck bill! Five minutes and four screws later and the screen was off.

There is a scene early in the 2001 Garry Marshall film _The Princess Diaries _where the gawky, unpopular high-school student played by Anne Hathaway realizes she is heir to the throne of some remote European country and she undergoes a glamorous makeover. She loses her glasses, re-styles her hair, and suddenly her entire character dramatically changes. Hardly original filmmaking, but definitely a tried and true “Hollywood moment”.

But taking off that windscreen was like removing that pair of horn-rimmed coke-bottle glasses and realizing that all along behind them was Anne Hathaway. My heart fluttered.

CHARACTER

My everyday bike is a BMW F650GS which shares some similar characteristics with the FJ-09 including its middleweight 798cc displacement. Both are also pretty light and make for great all-round city bikes that you could take almost anywhere in a pinch. But when it comes to personality, the two bikes couldn’t be more different.

The parallel twin in my F650GS is very smooth and agreeable. It is like a friend who is always cheerful and up for anything. Enthusiastic and supportive, it sometimes feels like a little too submissive and dependent. The FJ-09s inline triple however, has a much more aggressive disposition. Its raspy voice is constantly tempting and taunting you, and complaining when you are not responding fast enough. It wants to go, to have fun, and to push limits. And when the action starts, it can become a bit loud. But not so loud that the neighbours have to call the cops. And when the party is over you close your eyes and drift off to sleep with a smile on your face.

The biggest real “complaint” I have heard about the FJ-09’s sport naked cousin the FZ-09 is that it is too jumpy, especially at the low end trying to stop and go in the city. Yamaha smoothed out this fuelling issue for the FJ-09, but the legacy does live on in one of its riding modes. The FJ-09 has three riding modes: Standard, A (sport) and B (rain). I’m not sure why they didn’t just call the modes Standard, Sport and Rain, but whatever you select the bike will always revert to Standard mode after it is powered off and on again. In Standard mode the FJ throttle reacts like most other bikes do...in Sport mode! Standard mode not twitchy though, just full on linear power. “A” (maybe short for *$%%# Aggressive) was definitely too jerky for my taste though, especially in the corners. I tried riding in A-mode a few times but I got tired of suddenly lurching forward every time I breathed. A (sport) mode was absolutely unnecessary on the FJ, Standard mode was plenty muscular, and it is pretty much illegal everywhere to pull wheelies in downtown city traffic.

HOOLIGAN ADVENTURE

The FJ-09 was introduced earlier this year to compete in the fast emerging so-called Sport Adventure category which includes the Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT, BMW S1000XR and the Ducati Multistrada. To me Sport Adventure bikes are meant to appeal to the ADV enthusiast who still loves sport bikes and who really will never take his or her bike off-road in any serious way.

The FJ-09 is based on the same platform as Yamaha’s very successful sport naked FZ-09, both bikes sharing the same very peppy 847cc three cylinder engine. Though it is actually more of a middleweight compared to its liter-plus peers, its amazingly agile 462 lbs (wet) framework gives it a significant power-to-weight advantage. The FJ just feels as it is: extremely light and powerful. Which to me makes it the ideal bike for just ripping around. And I did just that.

I would reclassify the FJ-09 into a new category: “Hooligan Adventure”.

SEATING POSITION: RIDING HIGH

The FJ-09’s fairly tall and somewhat perched seating position puts it in closer proximity to its supermoto roots in the Sport Adventure category. It’s not nearly as elevated, forward and over the front tire as the Ducati Hypermotard, but it still felt to me to be a bit more an “on the bike” than “in the bike” ride experience. At 33.3 inches the FJ’s seat is loftier than average, but it is adjustable and because it is also narrow you don’t have to be over 6ft tall to flat foot it.

TECHNOLOGY

For the price, the FJ-09 includes a very full-featured electronics package. Yamaha’s D-Mode throttle control with its three aforementioned performance profiles let’s you set the personality of the ride depending on mood and road conditions. The switchable traction control uses sensors on both wheels to control the throttle, ignition timing and fuel injection to keep the front wheel down and the back wheel from spinning out. Finally, standard ABS brakes give you confidence to grab a handful in the case of an emergency.

TRIPPING

Without the windscreen, when it is truly naked, the FJ-09 looks amazing, but it does get a bit breezy moving over 80mph (130kmh) for extended periods. To ride the best roads around Toronto you unfortunately need to get away from the city and spend at least a couple of hours on some pretty tedious highway. That 24” touring windscreen, aside from its unpleasant appearance, was also exactly the wrong size for my 6’4” frame. It forced the wind right into my face on all three of the height adjustment settings. The 18” stock windscreen would probably have been adequate to keep most of the pressure off of my chest however, which would have made the highway portion of my trips a bit more comfortable. I would even hazard a guess that a small sporty windscreen like the one on my F650GS would make a difference.

The stock seat was surprisingly comfy, though I was not a big fan of its design. The flat and rounded black vinyl didn’t mesh with the angular and textured finishes on the bike. I didn’t feel I needed to play with the suspension as it was firm enough to dive headlong into corners, yet pliable enough to take on the back road bumps and potholes with ease. In a surprise stress test, accelerating out of a fairly blind corner on a back road we caught some unexpected air together over an old railway track and the FJ landed it with real finesse.

To be certain the FJ-09 is not as plush as the larger displacement bikes in its category when it comes to real long distance riding. Though it felt planted enough in the corners, it’s did tend to get blown around a bit more on the highway and thus required a lot more constant attention. But I wouldn’t buy the FJ-09 for the main purpose of covering large distances. Though the FJ with its large 18 liter fuel tank is more than capable of traversing several hundred miles a day in adequate comfort, it is much better optimized to explore the inner city or the back roads once you arrive at your destination.

THE FJ-09 EXPERIENCE?

My initial plan was to spend a good week getting to know the FJ-09. That week went by far too quickly. I really wanted more. Then, somehow, that wish got granted. In total I ended up being with the FJ-09 for a total of three weeks, and in that time I was really able to get a very good feel for what it would be like to live with one.

My conclusion?

Not only is the FJ-09 by far the best value-for-money of any motorcycle that I rode this summer, it is also one of the most all-round fun bikes I have yet had the pleasure to experience. The FJ-09 is everything I love about my F650GS but with significantly more power, sportier handling and very alluring character. Though it may not be as refined or as fast or as precise as the BMW S1000XR or the Ducati Multistrada, it is about half the price.

On the other hand the FJ-09 does actually stand out in a class of its own. And I am certain it will be a very successful new category for Yamaha if they can figure out how to market it.

SIMILAR BIKES:

• BMW S1000XR
• Ducati Multistrada
• Ducati Hyperstrada
• Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT

LIKES:

• Character - inline triple
• Flickable weight
• Versatility
• Power

DISLIKES

• Touring windscreen
• Horn switch placement
• Seat design

PRICE:

• $10,999 CAD in Canada
• $10,490 USD in USA