Ownership Verified: RdKetchup X-Plane triple (2016 Yamaha FJ-09)

RdKetchup

Snow Mexican Surender Monkey
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Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
5,376
Location
Montreal, Qc, Canada
Car(s)
FoRS, Japanese touring triple
RdKetchup triples the cylinders, the displacement, and the range of his steed.


3 years ago I bought a Supermotard
, a type of bike I knew had a very limited appeal.

My WR250X was a lot of fun, ultra maniable, always wanting to wheelie, but it was also completely out of it's element most of the time I used it.

So I decided to be a grown-up, and buy a sport-touring bike. When Yamaha came out with the Super Tenere a few years ago I was tempted, but it was quite expensive, and I didn't really need the offroad/adventure side of it.

Then, in 2013, they came out with a naked triple, the FZ-09, and once again I was tempted, but a naked bike is not the ideal tourer. In November 2014, they announced the FJ-09, a sport-tourer derivative of the FZ, and I knew that was probably going to be my next bike. One of my best friends bought one last year, and he loves it (except for the stock suspension that he thought was way too soft).


A few weeks ago I started thinking more and more about it, and finally this week I called a dealership, came to an agreement on buy-back price for my WR250X and on the price of the FJ, and tonight I took possession of it (I technically bought it without seing it :lol:).

What a difference this bike his from the WR. A lot heavier of course, but also ridiculously more powerful and confortable. While the risk of losing my licence for doing wheelies just went down, the risk of losing it for speeding just exploded!

0 km on the odometer :D
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Proof pic:
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Nice! I've always wanted to have a go on one since they came out. Seems like the perfect mix of city weapon and touring bike.
 
Keep us posted, I'm curious how you like it after you get some miles down.
 
I will (at least I will try to make that thread last longer than the 2 pages of my WR thread).
 
:thumbsup:

I would rather get the FZ-09 but this is also really good.
 
no idea where the bike you bought fits in the lineup and how it is compared to the competition etc, but congrats anyway! :p

but what is the X-plane you mention in the title?
the crank? but it's a 3cyl?
aren't all 3cyl X-plane? is there such a thing as a flat plane 3 cyl?
 
no idea where the bike you bought fits in the lineup and how it is compared to the competition etc, but congrats anyway! :p

but what is the X-plane you mention in the title?
the crank? but it's a 3cyl?
aren't all 3cyl X-plane? is there such a thing as a flat plane 3 cyl?

In Europe it's called the MT-09 Tracer.

As for the title, I was indeed referring to the crossplane crankshaft. The engine, like most triple use a 120? angle, but somehow Yamaha likes to mention the crossplane aspect a lot in the various publications, probably to create some lineage to the M1 and R1.
 
A little ride today to run errands, I'm in love with this bike.

At first I thought the North American exclusive electronic speed limiter (set at 180 kph/ 115 mph) was a bad thing, I'm starting to reconsider, for the sake of my licence.
 
Just went for a midnight run, nothing special, just 35 minutes riding around various metropolitan highways. Can't remember the last time I actually went out in the middle of the night just to ride for fun.

With TCS off and in the standard throttle map (A is more aggressive, B is smoother), I held it steady throttle at around 55km/h in first gear on a highway on-ramp, and whacked it open. It came up quite violently, so I shortshifted second gear and came back down at around 80km/h. I definitely need to experiment a lot more to learn the behavior of that bike with traction control off :D
 
:lol:
:thumbsup:
 
There might have been a video of that outing, but it could be unwise to put it on the intertubes :lol:
 
There might have been a video of that outing, but it could be unwise to put it on the intertubes :lol:

How is the statute of limitations in Canada? :p
 
Today I managed my first second gear wheelie using the throttle chop technique, and to my surprise it came up super smoothly. Unfortunately I was not able to repeat the experience. Practice is the key :)

Took the bike for a ride on some small country roads, it is still awesome. I was following a friend who bought a 2005 gsx-r 1000 earlier this summer, and I could keep up with him on full throttle acceleration when he was bellow is optimal power band. But once up in the revs, he would just leave me for dead.

It was fun however to see him stop for fuel, look at my gauge see I had "only" done 230km on that tank, and decide to skip the fill-up. The reserve light finally came up at 275km.

Did I mention I love this bike :D
 
Glad to see you're enjoying this. :D
 
With TCS off and in the standard throttle map (A is more aggressive, B is smoother), I held it steady throttle at around 55km/h in first gear on a highway on-ramp, and whacked it open. It came up quite violently, so I shortshifted second gear and came back down at around 80km/h. I definitely need to experiment a lot more to learn the behavior of that bike with traction control off :D

TC also prevents the bike from doing wheelies?
 
Yep unfortunately. And it's so aggressive that I will probably ride without most of the time.
 
7 days have past since the last time I rode it, had to go back to work tonight for a small task that I couldn't finish earlier today, so I took the FJ.

I am now at 450km, I did my second fill up, so I have my fuel statistics. 302km on one tank, for an average of 5.4l/100km. That is also the exact average fuel consumption reported on the dash, so at least that seems precise.
 
While riding around town, spotted a mural and thought it would be a nice place to take a picture of the bike, so here's a potato pic:

IMG_20160801_130207.jpg



And it reminded me of an official grafity spot near my old apartment, a place I wanted to use for pictures like this for a long time, but never did. So I took a small detour, and snapped another potato pic:

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