Yamaha FZ-09 ENNGINE

Yamaha has penned an entirely new “crossplane” engine for the FZ-09, featuring 120-degree crank phasing, a modern, compact cylinder head, ride-by-wire fuel injection, and 65 lb.-ft. of torque. Let’s hope this is the first of many new triples

At the heart of the FZ-09 is an all-new, 847cc triple featuring, you guessed it, a crossplane crank. Actually, it’s just your usual 120-degree arrangement familiar to anyone who’s opened up a modern Triumph or fiddled with any of Kawasaki’s two-stroke triples. With a bore and stroke of 78mm and 59.1mm, respectively, the liquid-cooled mill is less oversquare than the R1 or current FZ1 powerplants. Comparing Yamaha’s new triple to the Triumph Speed Triple’s 1050cc engine shows just how long-stroke the Hinckley machine is, with a 1.11:1 bore/stroke ratio against the Yamaha’s 1.32:1. Triumph’s newer triples, in the Tiger 800 and Explorer/Trophy, both run 1.19:1 bore/stroke ratios. The only engines in the Triumph catalog with a more oversquare configuration are the Street Triple (1:42) and Daytona 675 (1:53:1). Redline is 11,000 rpm, which is conservative for a 59.1mm stroke. So, the new Yammie mill is right in the thick of things, design-wise.