Rice Rockets

[the Ferret]

I never had a sport bike unless you consider a Yamaha FZ-1 a sport bike (or an RD350).Part of the reason is I don't think sport bikes were sport bikes until I was close to 40 years old and after 25 years of riding I had already started to mellow. I tend to think of sport bikes as road racer looking things. The FZ (gen 1 of which I had two, an 01 and 04) was more main stream, middle of the road inline 4 with 125 hp and six speed (vs the R-1 sport bike it was derived from). Made a really decent one up sport-tourer with either soft bags or small Givi bags. Would haul the mail above 8G all the way to 13G where I never rode it. 100% of my riding was below 6G where it made plenty of power for me. I quit being a hooligan on motorcycles long before they came out with bikes classified as hooligan bikes. I have ridden sport bikes.. they just don't suit me power wise (type of power) styling wise, or ergo wise.

[camoto_imp]

I lusted after the FZ1 for a few years in the early 2000's. The inline motor was the only thing that kept me away because I was transfixed on V-twin sports at the time.