Yesterday, my father-in-law went for a ride from Quincy to Arthur & Pat’s in Marshfield. (see route below, tracked on my Garmin 60CSx.)

It had been a while, since late last season, that we had gone on a ride together. He rides a Harley-Davidson Dyna Low Rider and likes to “meander”. We kept it slow and gentle. I was on my 2006 Yamaha FZ1 and kept it in 6th gear most of the time.

Which brings me to my first tangent. I drove my FZ1 in sixth gear on a ride where my average moving speed was 32 mph. I was able to comfortably drive at 25 mph in sixth gear. This brings me to my question. Why am I able to drive under 30 mph in sixth gear? I want sixth gear to be absolutely useless under 40 mph. If I had my druthers, I would change the sprockets on my FZ1 to make it more streetable, and then replace 6th gear with an 8th or 9th gear, a real overdrive. Gears 1 through 5 would be very useful and fun around town and also speeding around the twisties, and 6th gear would be an exaggerated overdrive for highway cruising.

Here are two videos recorded with a handlebar mounted Flip camera. Notice the different riding styles from video 1 to 2.


I don’t normally keep it in 1st gear through these turns but I was practicing my throttle roll on. The 2006 FZ1 has a very abrupt roll on which I am trying to ‘master’.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.