Lonerider59
Wizard
I took a little spin yesterday just because we are having some of the best September weather I can remember since about 1981. I've just about covered all the back roads in my quadrant of northern Michigan so I'm revisitng many roads I've already traveled this summer. This means I know the roads a little better also. Because we are the land of 1000 lakes, we are short on long straight roads and long on the more serpentine style. I've had my FZ1 for about eight months now, put on a little iver 11,000 miles, and it now seems to be pretty well broken in and I'm comfortable with it's handling/weight/performance characteristics. When I read some of the early road tests of the FZ1 it sounded like a really fun bike to have, just for riding sake. I'm no longer a "knee-dragger" or 1/4 miler on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm what I define as a "rider". I get up in the morning thinking of riding, I go to bed thinking about riding and I eat, drink and sh--- riding. If I'm awake, it's not raining, and my honey hasn't already advised me what I'm doing on a given day, I'm riding. Yesterday I did everything from 40 MPH drifting through easy curves to 110 mph passing on logging roads to get around log trucks. Nothing too dangerous or extreme (in my own mind) but just some easy really fun riding to contemplate a gracious fall day. Every time I get the chance to go out by myself and the machine, I concentrate on just how great the bike truely is. It came to me yesterday that what has caused me to love the FZ1 above all the rest is balance. It has the best balance between weight/power/handling than any of my other bikes I have owned, even my 1984 900R GPZ. It's not the lightest, not the most powerful, and certainly not the fastest sport bike out there. But, when you look at the number of $1 bills it takes to own one, the power to weight ratio that alows you to have a real ball on one, and the versatility it has over a whole bunch of other rockets like the R1, it's the best balanced machine out there. Ya, its the balance which is worth a lot more than any other aspect of having a motorcycle. I might even take my video camera out today.
