The "Ultimate Fun Tourer" as development project leader Hiroshi Komatsubara (see FJR development story in archive section) called the FJR 1300, has obviously hit the heart of many of you. Hiroshi is quite happy to see his development philosophy of creating "real sports riding fun" combined with serious touring features was highly appreciated by close to 80% of you rating interest very high.Your opinion proofed it: FJR strongest feature is the high engine performance of 145 HP. More than It's shaft drive, and low weight, are other strong points. This shows us that respondents liked FJR 1300 unique combination of sporty features and serious touring attributes.

Good looks is important. Hiroshi has given the stylists a hard time in combining looks and function, when he did wind tunnel testing in order to improve rider and passenger protection. Never the less they obviously managed to give FJR a good look, which a majority of you who responded, recognised as a strong feature.

Positioning is unique
We were quite curious to see what your positioning would be. What would you classify the alternatives or strongest competitor? Obviously Honda's Pan European ST 1100 and also BMW Boxer Tourer R 1100 RT were in our mind too. A much sportier machine however scored third place: Ducati ST2/ST4 seems to be the rival on the sporty side. Also Aprilia Futura next to BMW K 1200 RS were named quite often too. Sven Ermstrang, product planner at Yamaha Europe is relieved: " We hoped that riders would see FJR as a model combing the comfort of a conventional Grand Tourer with the performance and handling of a Sporttourer. Looking at the results of the questionnaire, we can conclude, that people understood our positioning and concept really spot on. Great to see this result!"

Our product planning manager from Yamaha Motor Europe adds: "In spite of the good acceptance of the bike, some deficits are also highlighted. About one third of respondents complained about ABS not being standard for this type of machine. In particular riders from Germany expressed their high priority for this feature. On the other hand respondents from Latin countries are mostly concerned about price and sportiveness. In this respect it is difficult to determine the best balance between sophisticated features and cost. However we have to acknowledge these facts and come up with solutions for the next model improvements."

About you
Most of you, who answered our questionnaire are quite experienced motorcyclists. More than half of you have more then 2-5 bikes (see static) and over 40% have more than 20 years of riding experience.

New generation tourer
Bob Trigg, who was involved as a product planner back in 1984 in the development of FJ1100 / FJ1200 (archive: history of FJ) may be pleased with the results of the questionnaire, since many owners of this legendary Sportstourer wrote to us. David from Devon in the UK expressed what many other FJ owners said too: "I have about 200.000 kilometres on the clock of my FJ now. Finally FJR 1300 is as replacement worth while and I hope it will be as reliable and pleasing as my FJ was."

The FJR 1300 is liked for it's unique combination of performance and comfort and marks the start for a new generation of touring machines, which expands the borderline of today's conventional grand-touring category.