| 1982–83 Yamaha XZ550 Vision |
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| Performance |    |
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| The Vision was a strong and innovative V-twin that could keep up with the midsize fours of its day, but it was dogged by horrible carburetion issues, despite a series of recalls and fixes. |
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| Handling | |
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| The frame is acceptably stiff and shaft effect is fairly well controlled, but the strange trailing-axle forks are deficient in rigidity, geometry and suspension action. |
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| Looks | |
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| By itself, a bare Vision engine is surprisingly attractive; that's the only reason this bike does not get a big fat zero. The horrid bodywork and chassis parts they chose to wrap around it is a truly clumsy collection of odd angles, none of which contribute to an illusion of forward motion. The bizarre, downward-pointing triangle on the side of the tank, which seems to be bending the curving lower edge under tension, is the most obvious and objectionable styling cue, but the diamond-shaped sidecover, the awkward, swastika-looking wheels, the I-beam handlebars and club-footed forks all add to the ugliness. The whole bike is covered with seemingly random, oddly misaligned edges, like a badly folded piece of origami. (The fairing added in '83 was not bad in and of itself, but the basic package was beyond help.) |
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| Reliability | |
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| The internal engine parts are robust and well designed. But the carb needs constant fiddling to run even semi-correctly, and the poorly designed charging system is prone to repeated, catastrophic failures. Most of the chassis parts are cheaply made and break or corrode easily. |
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| Practicality | |
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| Nice seat, comfortable ergonomics, fairly narrow and compact: this should have been a great around-town bike and short-haul sport tourer. |
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| Desirability | |
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| It gets a couple of points only because I dream of someday ripping the engine of one and building a hardtail bobber around it in an effort to redeem its ruined potential. |
February 18th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
You hate it and still give it two wheels? Pretty high praise.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
MrHowser,
The overall score is calculated automatically by EasyReview, the plug-in I use to create these posts. It’s based on the individual category scores, and seeing the overall outcome has been enlightening to me at times. I’ve had bikes score a lot more or less than I thought I’d score them. I think, “wow, can that be right?”, then look back over the different categories. I realize that I’m happy with how I’ve scored them, and yes, that result is as it should be. I don’t know if anybody else gets anything out of this, but writing these posts has been eye-opening for me.
And I’m not sure two wheels is “high praise,” but it does prove that my dislike for a bike doesn’t mean it’s totally worthless.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
I enjoy reading the reviews – very quick and to the point, without any marketing hoopla or fanboyism. I do get a little sad when I think “wow, I’ve never seen/heard of that bike,” and then see the not-sold-in-the-US note. I have a weak spot for the UJM and its modern interpretations, even though the originals predate me by about 15 years.