Yamaha FZ-07 Race Bike | Little Dark Horse

As we turn the corner and walk into Andy Palmer’s dimly lit, Anaheim, California-based AP MotoArts shop, we finally lay eyes on it. For the better part of a year now, we’ve watched this bike come together via social media posts, part by hand-crafted part, piece by custom-fabricated piece. And now here it is, finished, sitting atop a work bench and beneath a trio of fluorescent lights that shine almost bright enough for us to differentiate the blemishes left behind by the blood, sweat, and tears that went into turning one of Yamaha’s entry-level street bikes into a full-fledged racebike.

Walking up closer to the bike reveals that it is, at its core, still very much an FZ-07, the same 689cc parallel-twin naked bike that Yamaha planned on selling (and has sold, quite successfully we might add) to newer riders with a penchant for something lightweight, fun, and affordable. But not to racers. Definitely not to racers. Our bet, in fact, is that the Yamaha engineers responsible for the FZ-07 never imagined one would get dressed in full fairings, a race number, and shagged racing slicks. Of course we also bet that if they were standing next to us right now under these same fluorescent lights, they'd be considering going into production with a similar-looking variant of Yamaha's already popular streetbike.

Perhaps the best part about it is that they don't technically have to, with Palmer already taking what he's learned from building some of the first-ever FZ-07 racebikes, like this one here, and creating a kit that will enable any trackday enthusiast or club racer to build an FZ-07 "R" of their own. What does the kit include, and how did Palmer get to this point? Funny enough, he almost didn't.

"All of this actually started back in 2014," Palmer begins. "Back then, TrackDaz cofounder Dustin Coyner, who has a good working relationship with Yamaha, came to me and said, ‘Okay, Yamaha has got this new bike, the FZ-07, and they are willing to throw a little parts budget at me, and they want to see if we can make it into a trackbike.’ The first thing I said was, ‘There’s no f—king way’ [laughs]. He didn't actually have one yet, but I went to a Yamaha dealer and looked at it. It didn't have a fairing stay, the subframe was welded on to the frame, there was no swingarm angle. Just a lot of the things that make a racebike a racebike weren't there, so my initial thought was that there was no way we could make a legitimate trackbike out of it.”

The project should have started and ended there, but then something happened. "Well, basically the reviews started coming out and everyone is saying, ‘Wow, this motor is great, the bike wheelies, all of these things,’" Palmer remembers. "And that got me kind of excited, so I went ahead and stripped one down and started measuring the geometry. I just stared at the bike for weeks and thought, well, you know with some swingarm angle maybe that corrects the rake. Then I thought, okay, how would I get a fairing stay on this thing? And so that's when we started fabricating. We started clamping things on the bike and even made a prototype link for the shock. We hadn't tested the bike yet. We were just putting things together and seeing if it would all work."

Palmer admits he didn't tackle the project alone and credits the guys who helped him out with the development of various components for the success of the first FZ-07Rs. "All of the people involved in the project—like Thomas Mackie at Mackie Welding, Mike at Catalyst Racing Composites, Chad at MC Pro Design—they know what a racebike should look like and work like,” he says. “They understand aerodynamics, weight, and all of that, so things like the fairing stay and fairing mounting brackets are no bigger than they need to be, and the bodywork is really aerodynamic and lightweight as well.”

Speaking of bodywork, it could be the most interesting part of the FZ-07R, as it was quite literally shaped around a windscreen and request. "Basically we had a windscreen from a 2015 Yamaha R1, which wasn't even out yet at the time, and Yamaha said they wanted it to look like one of its new bikes, so that's what we started out with,” Palmer says. “The nose is roughly like the Yamaha M1 nose with some other styling cues, and the tank is molded after the tank cover for a 2009 R1. There's kind of a lot going on there, but you know as soon as we finished it, we stood back and were like, ‘Yeah, that looks like a racebike.’”

Of course looking like a racebike and working like a racebike are two totally different things, and up until this point Palmer hadn't really had the chance to test the bike. "I had already written the check for a lot of the stuff at this point, but in the end it could have gone either way, and I didn't know because I hadn't ridden the final product. It was a gamble, but I was all in," he remembers, half thinking about the dent in his bank account, we're sure. "Finally we got it to the track though, and when I rode out of hot pit, I gave the bike some gas and it did a wheelie, and right in that moment I was like, ‘Oh, my god, I'm going to be okay.' I was very emotional and so freakin' relieved. You sit on the bike and you feel like you're on a proper racebike, and it behaves itself. I did two laps and came in, I just couldn't wait to let anyone else ride the bike, and every single person that rode the bike that day was like, ‘Holy cow, I've got to get one of those.’"

In current tune, with re-flashed ECU and exhaust, the FZ-07R makes around 79 hp and 51 foot-pounds of torque and weighs just over 330 pounds. "And I think that contributes to some of the handling as well," Palmer says. "It's like a 10-speed with a big motor!"

Excited by the bike's newfound spirit, Andy headed home and made a call. "Yeah, so that day, once I knew everything was perfect, I called my friend Sam back East, and he was willing to do the first press release on the bike for me,” he remembers. “He did the press release, and when that thing hit it was like wildfire through the lightweight twins community. I ended up getting a call from a guy in the Northeast who wanted one. He called me and sight unseen asked me to build him one. He just said, ‘Go get me one, go build it, put these parts on it, and ship it to me when it's done.' And so I did it. I read his rule book, I wired it, I put his number on it, and I delivered it to him. Then he raced it at his last CRA event that weekend. The best part is that the next day his buddy went down to the dealer and bought an FZ-07 then called me and said, ‘I want a kit for it too.'"

That series of events led to Palmer having to rethink how he approaches the project and the distribution of kits to customers. Essentially, there are two options: You can either call him, tell him exactly what parts you want on your FZ-07R, and have him build it, or you can go full do-it-yourself by ordering a kit and building a bike in the comfort of your own garage. The biggest difference is Palmer's attention to detail and better understanding of the ins and outs of the bike.

"Right now, for $1,888, I can sell you everything we've developed for the FZ-07, which includes bodywork [with necessary mounts], dog-bone link for the shock, relocation brackets for the ECU, regulator rectifier, gauges, fairing stay, rearset brackets, and re-flashed ECU with quickshifter," Palmer says. "After that, you can go in and add other components like an exhaust, updated suspension, or crash protection kit."

For anywhere between $13,000 and $15,000, depending on what components you want, Palmer will pick a bike up for you, build it, and ship it to you. For $13,500, as an example, you'd get a Yamaha R6 front end (mounted easily to the FZ-07 using R6 triple clamps and a $40 bearing that Palmer also sells), JRI rear shock, Woodcraft rearsets, an exhaust, and single-color paint job with number plate as well as some accent stickers. "That price includes a bike, plus around $300 worth of the other little things like a windscreen, brake guard, stainless-steel brake lines, seat pad, brake reservoir brackets, a key switch—all the little things that it takes to really turn a bike into a racebike," Palmer says. Those looking to take the build a step further can upgrade to a slipper clutch (an $850 option), plus cartridges for the R6 fork and race graphics for the bodywork, which brings the build cost closer to $15,000.

"Right now, the guys buying the bikes are the ones with a little bit more resources because the initial buy isn't as painful as it is for the younger guy,” he says. “Or it's the 45-or-something-year-old guy like myself who really doesn't want to break any more bones and just wants to go have fun," Palmer admits, in reference to the price point, almost pretending as if we don't already know: Motorcycle racing is expensive.

Expensive but fun, so long as you've got the right bike beneath you. And as the FZ-07R continues to be fine-tuned, and race grids grow, it could very well be that bike.

Contact Info: AP MotoArts Websites: apmotoarts.com, fz07r.com Phone: (714) 258-7501