Yamaha FZ750

The Yamaha FZ750 is a sports motorcycle that Yamaha produced between 1985 and 1991. It is best known for its five valve cylinder head, with three inlet and two exhaust valves per cylinder, which became something of a Yamaha trademark, and it was the first bike of the Yamaha Genesis design concept, in which an advanced liquid cooled multi-valve engine and a perimeter type steel chassis are designed to work together. The all-aluminium, liquid cooled, transverse four cylinder engine has a forward-inclined block that lowers the centre of gravity and gives an almost 50/50 weight distribution, at the cost of a long wheelbase that hampered short circuit racing. Development began in 1977 with the brief that the race configured engine should match the power of the two-stroke TZ750; the bike was unveiled at the IFMA show in Germany in autumn 1984, and 1991 was the last year it was listed. Top speed was around 140 mph.