The 1997 Yamaha FZ400: A Masculine Sport Bike Aimed at What Comes After a Saturated Naked-Bike Market

You can feel the era's atmosphere of searching for the next move after the naked bike market got saturated, coming through in a classic-bike feature like this.

First time hearing of the FZ400 — if it's based on the FZR400's engine, the underlying performance was probably solid.

'Appealing to masculinity with a half fairing' — that was just one of the many directions the 400cc class explored back then.

A sport-touring philosophy based on overseas standards — I'd love to know from the sales figures whether it was actually accepted domestically.

'Aiming for what comes after a naked market that saturated at around 20,000 units' — that phrase really conveys the market analysis of the time.

Taking the FZR400's 35-degree forward lean and raising it to 25 degrees for the FZ400 — it's interesting how the difference in positioning philosophy shows up right in the numbers.