2013 Yamaha FJR1300 Review
Greg Drevenstedt
May 6, 2013
Every bike in this comparison has roots that go back decades, from the BMW R100RT in the late ’70s, to the BMW K100RT, Kawasaki Concours ZG1000 and Yamaha FJ1100 in the ’80s, to the Triumph Trophy 1200 in the early ’90s. Engines, chassis, components, tires, technology and features have improved... Read more »
Rider Comparo: 2013 Honda CRF250L vs. 2013 Kawasaki KLX250S vs. 2013 Yamaha WR250R
Arden Kysely
January 31, 2013
The last time Rider corralled a herd of 250 dual-sports (April 2008), we chose the thriftiest models available in the face of rising gas prices. This time we went for best-in-class, grabbing Yamaha’s WR250R, Honda’s new CRF250L and Kawasaki’s KLX250S—the only return contender. The KLX received... Read more »
2012 Yamaha FJR1300—Road Test
Bill Stermer
December 5, 2012
Sometimes the less things change, the better they remain. Take Yamaha’s FJR1300, for example. The bike was introduced here for 2004, a sport-touring road burner with removable hard saddlebags, electrically adjustable windscreen and a 1,298cc 4-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine with 5-speed transmission... Read more »
Rider Test: 2013 Yamaha FJR1300
Mark Tuttle
November 27, 2012
When we broke the news that an updated Yamaha FJR1300 was on the way for 2013 in the December 2012 issue, the reader reaction was the usual mix of praise and grousing (mostly that the bike hasn’t been changed enough). What surprised us, though, is that almost everyone who wrote qualified their opinions... Read more »
Comparison: 2012 Triumph Tiger Explorer vs. 2012 Yamaha Super Ténéré
Greg Drevenstedt
September 5, 2012
The open-class adventure touring segment has grown from a class of one—the BMW R 1200 GS/Adventure—to a class of five in recent years, with the introduction of the Ducati Multistrada 1200, Moto Guzzi Stelvio, Yamaha Super Ténéré and Triumph Tiger Explorer. We compared the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure... Read more »
2012 Yamaha YZF-R1 – First Ride
Greg Drevenstedt
January 19, 2012
After debuting its crossplane crankshaft in 2009, Yamaha’s 2012 update of the YZF-R1 has focused on refinement, adding traction control, updating the look and celebrating the company’s Grand Prix racing heritage. Worldwide, 2,000 World GP 50th Anniversary Edition YZF-R1s, with anniversary... Read more »
Retrospective: Yamaha DT400 Enduro: 1975 – 1979
Clement Salvadori
February 18, 2010
Test riders loved this new big-bore 400cc enduro. Go just about anywhere, do just about anything and do it with zip! The DT1 250 had grown up, first to 360 size, and now 400, and had become an extremely seductive machine. Weighing less than 300 pounds, with equal amounts of horsepower and torque, the... Read more »
2008 Kawasaki Z1000, Triumph Speed Triple and Yamaha FZ1 Road Test Comparison
Greg Drevenstedt
November 5, 2008
In my past life I was a scientist-specifically, a demographer who studied trends in human mortality (depressing, I know). Although my number-crunching days are behind me, my research background still comes in handy. To put these bikes-Kawasaki Z1000, Triumph Speed Triple and Yamaha FZ1-on a level playing... Read more »
Retrospective: Yamaha RD350: 1973-1975
Clement Salvadori
August 25, 2008
(This Retrospective article was published in the August 2008 issue of Rider.) STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLEMENT SALVADORI Nicknames can be good, flattering, positive…or quite the opposite. In the case of Yamaha’s RD series, the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee moniker—say it slow—was greeted with less than enthusiasm... Read more »
Retrospective: Yamaha TDM 850: 1992-1993
Clement Salvadori
May 22, 2007
(This Retrospective article appeared in the May 2007 issue of Rider.) New Sports? What was a “New Sports” machine? In this case it seemed to be a “naked” bike partially clothed in a small fairing, which had a curious bicloptic headlight arrangement, the two bulbs side by side. Definitely unusual.... Read more »
