#YamahaFZ-07

A weird thing happened to me during the U.S. launch of Yamaha’s latest motorcycle, the FZ-07. As we were rolling through the backroads of Bainbridge Island, just off the coast of Seattle, it hit me. “I think I like this bike more than the FZ-09.” Before the ride, I was expecting a middleweight sporty bike, with performance comparable to the Suzuki SFV650 or Kawasaki Ninja 650. I figured, after riding the FZ-09 and loving its fun-per-dollar quotient, there was no way the 09’s little brother, with one less cylinder and less displacement, could be nearly as fun.

The west coast of Canada probably offers the country’s best motorcycling. The scenery is magnificent, with cascading mountains along the coastline of British Columbia plunging sharply to meet the Pacific, all the way from Alaska to Washington State.