Without sounding up my own arris, which i'm not. Don't even consider getting on an R6 if you haven't got at least 10,000 miles on a reasonably powered bike under your belt. This thing is VERY twitchy at slow to moderate speeds and will give you full lock left to right head shake over the slightest bumps under full accel. These are not what I would call bad points, just the nature of the beast but not the kind of things you want going on as a novice rider. Combine this with the 120HP and 357 lb weight and it all makes for a machine that doesn't take prisoners and will let you know about it if you screw up.

This is not the kind of bike you want to go for a 7 or 8 hour trek on a regular basis. Saying that I did do 9 hours to Daytona in the pouring rain but knew about it when I got off. I am 6'3" and it is a bit of a squeeze but I have done so many miles on it that I don't even notice it anymore.

The R6 comes with Dunslops as standard. 208's at the moment I think but I would recommend changing these to Pireli's ( Diablo's) at the first tyre change. The 208's are a really flat profile and make you have to work to get the bike round the corner without drifting wide. Remember to drop your forks the correct amount if you change to a higher profiled front. Its usually about 5 or 6mm if I rember correctly.

The first thing you will notice when you swing your leg over is that the instrument panel is simple but very informative with a digital speedo, analogue tacho and the choice of total mileage, 2 trips and a clock that can be set to 12 or 24hr time. All the switches are easily accessable and make for minimal movement or distraction when they are required. The mirrors are placed in such a postion as to give a good view of what or who is coming up behind you with the slightest of vibrations. Once you start down the road you will instantly notice that the bike is most definately biased to the front. This will become even more noticable after the first 20 minutes when your wrists will begin to ache with supporting your upper body.

After the first few seasons you will begin to relax. The wrist pain will be gone and you will start to wonder what life is like beyond 7,000RPM. As you start heading towards the rev limiter which is located a tad under 16,000RPM you will first encounter a slight flat spot around 8,000 followed by what seems an endless climb to the 16,000RPM mark. I'm telling you, the thing just keeps on going and going. Gear changes aren't the smoothest I have encountered, but I beleive this has changed form the 03 model onwards. It isn't bad but you can hit nuetral from 1st to 2nd if you don't change like you mean it. Saying that you have got to bare in mind that this is a pure race bike and is designed to have apower shifter and be riden like you want to blow the engine up.

The chasis is a special yamaha one piece flow cast patent and only has 2 welds on it. This is intended to give it more rigidity and at the same time cut an ounce or 2 from the weight

The suspension has the usual bells and whistles in the form of Pre-load, Compression damping and Rebound on both front and rear. I weight round the 220 lb mark (Sorry you can convert that to stone as I am slowly getting pissed with the aid of my new best friend the "Desk Fridge") so the stock 85 springs in the forks are a bit on the light side for me and I will be going to a 95 when the wife says I can.

Headlights are fantastic and produce more light where you need it than my mates minivan and they look rather sexy as well.

Service intervals are as follows

Oil 4000 miles
Filter 8000 miles
Chain 600 miles or after wash
Valves 26,600 miles


Recommendations

Change tyres to Pireli Diablo / Corsa's if heading to the track
Fit steering damper
Change front springs depending on your weight
Wear Pampers. Huggies leak


As an over view it isn't the most comfortable bike I have ridden (Last bike was a 1100XX) but it isn't designed to be and I I have adapted myself to it. You will be able to stick with all your mates regardless of what they are riding except those who are mates with Mr Rossi. MPG is around the 45 mark but I will check that to be sure. It is without doubt the best I bike I have ever had and I must be approaching the 30 bikes mark by now.

Interesting to see how the new fazer 6 shapes up being that it has the old r6 motor. Gearing and tuning prolly down a bit but should still be a tidy performer.

Yeh... I have sat on one but not ridden it yet. Compression ratio is down as is the stroke. Smaller carbs and different side cases but all in all its the same engine. Its a bit more upright than I like but it has had rave reviews and I am sure that it will be a big hit.

Hi Nick

Is your R6 latest incarnation with fuel injection? I'm curious as my 03 R6 handles very sweetly with no violent headshakes. It also turns very quickly on the 208's although at 3,500 miles from a rear I may consider a harder compound next time around

Ride Safe
Jak

My brother inlaw had one, rode it a few times but I couldnt get the hang of the
darn thing, I've only ever once had a bke under 800cc and that was a
Honda XLR500 on/off, after that it a 11's all the way but did ahve a suzy 850 shaft
for a year, then back to 11's ever since, Im of the concern of being able to open
the throttle and make a move, I dont like the fact that you have to rev heaven and
earth to get any where like I found on the R6, there again I might be wrong but the
in law like it so much he sold it cos he said he has his kids to look after so it must
be a stonker

Cheers

Jak

Mine is an 2001 but the head shake is down to the stearing geometry when the front end goes light during hard accel and it starts skipping of the bumps in the road and can give you a good old tank slapping. As for the tyres, I should have put 207's and not 208's as it used to come with 207's and they have a very low profile being a 60 section tyre. Read any report on the 04 R6 and you will see that it gets slated for having inferior tyres from the manufacturer. It will be interesting when I upgrade to the 05 next year . Its true, you have to change up and down the box a lot more due to the lower torque figures but the higher corner speeds will pay dividends especially if you keep the revs round the 10K mark coming out of a turn.

Nick

The new Fazer is not so nice as the old one, but some of the faults have been addressed in the new naked version. The faired version IMHO looks ugly, remeniscent of a very large trailee, and the unfaired version reminds me of the Bulldog and the instruments, you either love or hate. As can be guessed from it's heretage, the engine needs to be reved to get the perfomance that you'd expect from the old one, but it's not too bad. The biggest drawback is the brakes they are rubbish, gone are the beloved R1 type 4 pot callipers and are replaced by a single pot sliding caliper. The new ones I understand have now got twin pot callipers but they still don't stop half as well. Still a good all round bike but the advice has to be go for the older ones with the Thundercat engine, a far better bike. I test rode one of the new ones and the dealer recommended the old ones over the new.

i rode a 2001 R1 yesterday.

all i can say is

Try a few other bikes before worshipping the R1, I hear alot of guys like them but
a few dont really rate the R1 that good, the Honda and Kawa's seem to be
favoured but according tto the latest sales the R1 is in top position, I wonder why.
Kawasaki ZX10R is the bike, I prefer sports cruisers my self so cannot really
comment to a large degree.

cheers

i rode a 1998 ZX9R yesterday ... more comfortable but a bit heavy ....

i think the kawasaki would be better for motorways as the seating position is better and the windshield isnt so uselessly small ... but still ... i'd buy an R1 ... i still have to try a CBR and a GSXR ....

*edit* i bought an R1 yesterday evening and havent slept yet (riding it all night) ... i just read the review again and it says everything about the R1 ....

Boy did I chuckle when I read that bit.
So very true, top fun

Well i have an 03 R6 and i love it .... it goes like a good un when above 4ooo rpm and pulls all the way to the redline there is more horsepower to 1000 cc than a Ferrari in that little unit.... incredible what will they do next