2012 Yamaha Fz1 on 2040-motos

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Moto blog

Yamaha Recaps Josh Hayes’ 2011 AMA Superbike Championship [Video]

Yamaha released a video looking back at Josh Hayes’ 2011 AMA Superbike season culminating with his second consecutive championship. The video takes a round-by-round look back at the season as Hayes and his Yamaha R1 duked it out with essentially a phalanx of Suzuki GSX-R1000 riders led by seven-race winner Blake Young. Highlights include the hard-fought duel between Hayes and Young at Mid-Ohio, Hayes and Tommy Hayden swapping the lead on the final lap at Laguna Seca and the title-clinching finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Filling a void with an RD350LC

Last winter I managed to fill a void in my life when I stumbled on a very reasonably priced Yamaha RD350LC.  It was a tad scruffy, had the wrong exhausts but most importantly it was blue and white with all numbers matching.  I had the usual euphoria when the deal was done but I underestimated how much pleasure this particular purchase would continue to deliver another eight months down the line. The difference with this old bike is, instead of just taking it for the occasional ride I was talked into doing a full nut and bolt restoration.  Having never taking a bike apart completely before, initially it was quite daunting but I soon found the RD is easy to work on so it turned into a truly satisfying experience.  I’ve had some help from LC enthusiasts with the rebuild, however, the stripping, sourcing and organising was a total labour of love.  And call me sad but it has made me bond with this bike like no other which only adds to the feel good factor.  The bike cost £1800 and I’ve spent around £1000 but I reckon my mint Elsie is now worth a fair bit more.   I fancy rejuvenating a Fizzy  next time but there’s lots of other cheap 70’s and 80’s winter projects  out there so why not have a go yourself?

Teaser: 2012 Japanese Literbike Shootout – Video

The last time we assembled the superbike offerings from the Big Four Japanese manufacturers to determine the alpha male model was 2009. The CBR won that confrontation, but a lot’s changed since then. For 2012 Honda revamped the CBR1000RR, Yamaha added traction control to the R1, the GSX-R1000 lost a muffler and last year Kawasaki introduced an all-new ZX-10R.