Where it started
I’ve had a passion for motorcycles for as long as I can remember. Being on two wheels has always felt natural to me. Whether I was jumping around the dirt on a BMX bike, or venturing off onto the trails on my first mountain bike, I knew that I loved being on two wheels. It seems only natural that I progressed into riding motorcycles. Once I became of age I acquired enough money to purchase my first real motorcycle.
My first bike was a shiny red 2007 Yamaha FZ6. I knew the bike was pretty large for a beginner. However, I had experience on two wheels to progress with the powerband. I had more power than I knew what to do with and a very comfortable ergonomic riding position. I found myself loving the bike with the exception of one thing.
Being new to motorcycles I wasn’t aware of the weight transfer and how severe that is under acceleration and breaking conditions so in my first year or so of owning the FZ6 I definitely got myself into a handful of scary situations where I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep the bike up. I eventually learn to just deal with the uncomfortable break-diving phenomenon. I thought it was part of all motorcycles and something that everyone just needed to account for.
Where we are today
Fast forward to the present day. After riding on the FZ6 for a little over 8 years, and putting just under 100k miles on the bike,. One morning on the way to work a lady had unintentional blindness and turned left infront of me mangling my FZ6. Long story short insurance totaled the bike out even though it was still somewhat ridable. This leads me to actually upgrade to the big brother the Fz1. Knowing how much more power it made compared to my old bike, definitely intimidated me at first.
what I realized immediately once jumping on the FZ1 is that the modern-day upside-down suspension feels nothing like traditional forks. The amount of time between when you grab the brakes and the full force of the motorcycle is applied to the front tire is mitigated by the internal valving of upside-down forks. Essentially it stops the fork from compressing under smaller amounts of force like breaking but still allows for fast compression when hitting bumps and larger imperfections in the road.
So after riding the big brother bike I naturally wanted the same suspension performance in my FZ6. Looking around at the aftermarket scene, I decided it wouldn’t make sense. I would need to put a couple of thousand dollars of upgraded components into a bike that’s only worth $1000. This is really where the inception of Impulse and The Prime Series started. Created as a need to make a more stable FZ6 suspension platform.