Now for a U turn. Instead of a desirable bike, this one is a complete turd. Adventure Rider called it “the forgotten” Yamaha.
Maybe because it was easy to forget? I found the only redeeming quality of the Seca II was that it had 2 wheels. That’s it in a nutshell.
It didn’t look particularly good. It didn’t handle particularly well, in fact I found it dangerous. It certainly didn’t stop particularly well either.
Add to all that is the fact it wasn’t a light weight motorcycle that made light weight power and you can see where this is going.
I was asked to take test ride on one by the owner because he thought there was something wrong with it. So I did, reported back to him that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the bike.
It was just a turd and there was no other way to put it. 1st corner I got to, I drug the left foot peg at not much more than walking pace. The next 90 degree turn from a stop sign, same thing on the other side.
Rolling on the throttle produced some approximation of acceleration but certainly not what one would term immediate, nor urgent. More like a cruiser then.
Those limitations in mind, I took it down a relatively curvy road. As I hustled it through the corners, with its clearance limitations and soft throttle in mind it felt odd, like it was out of its element.
Didn’t seem to matter how sharp or open the curve was, it didn’t like being tossed on its side at speed. I turned around at the half way point and headed back.
I decided a different approach might be better for the return so I backed it down another few notches and tried to lazily roll through the corners using little throttle or brake.
Better behaved but still not even in the same ball park as the similar in appearance Bandit 600. At the long straight leading into the curvy bit, I rolled the throttle to its stop to see if it would do anything.
It pulled lazily along, topping out around 80 mph before I had to try and haul it to a stop for the stop sign. I squeezed the front lever back to the bar and jumped on the foot brake a split second after.
Down shifting like mad, I finally managed to get the thing slowed for the stop. Initial bite from the front brake was practically non-existent. The front end barely began to dive when I jumped on the rear brake hard.
It took a bit, maybe 75-80 ft before some semblance of braking occurred. Downshifts mandatory. I got it stopped but not without a bit of anxiety. Took a left at the stop and promptly drug the peg again.
The owner was pretty upset when I told him it was a turd. More a cruiser than functional sport bike. He was mystified when I told him it was mechanically sound.
He asked me what he should do…I told him to sell it and buy a real sport bike if that’s what he was after. I added he could throw a bunch of money at it, and put FZR or R6 forks and brakes on it to start with.
Then re-jet the carbs and replace the foot pegs for better clearance. Something had to be done to raise the ride height also, to get rid of the lazy steering.
At that point his neighbor interjected “ Why do all that, just get an FZR or R6?” Conversation ended at that point. He wasn’t happy with either of us, nor our mutual friend who’d set the whole thing up.
A few months later I see him on the road as I’m riding home from work. We stopped next to
each other at a traffic light. Apparently he’d gotten a better brake caliper for it and it stopped better. A few days later I see him again.
This time he’s joining traffic from the road to his work, while I’m already in traffic. As he pulls up to the intersection he hits the brakes, tucks the front and drops the bike.
I was already in the intersection when it happened (2 lanes each direction) and watched in what seemed slow motion as he hit the deck. He jumped up and was picking up the bike when I pulled off to turn around.
He was gone by the time I made it back there. Go home traffic is a pain here so it took me a bit to get back out into traffic again. Never saw him again, and the bike was up for sale outside his place a few days later.