it’s not just where your body weight is, it’s the position your body is in… to get on a sportsbike unless you’re a 5 foot nothing race monkey like Marco Melandri you’ve got to fold yourself up like a pretzel to get into the race crouch to fit on the bike… knees doubled back to get on the high pegs, back arched over, neck bent up, etc etc… It’s not even an option for me I’m just too damn tall, but even average riders are susceptible to medical maladies like deep vein thrombosis from being scrunched up into a racer’s crouch all the time… But like Mordeth says, it really is a matter of personal preference, to each his/her own… no right or wrong really… if you like it, so be it…
to get back on topic I’ll admit that R6 is a very sexy looking machine especially in the all black and the vintage Yamaha yellow… to me though 3 things about that “indepth” review (not very indepth though is it, just a single track day ride report) raise alarm bells…
Firstly , well we’ve already gone into this in depth in other threads, but with all that electronic throttle and ECU control and the fact that it’s a 600cc engine that revs to 17,500 in a ludicrously high state of tune means service intervals are likely to be about every 5000km at best… not optional something’s broken, repairs,… but necessary maintenance upkeep servicing… and as we know there’s nobody in Taiwan who can do that since even a top class big bike mechanic ( if there is such a thing here) won’t have the diagnostic computers to calibrate that ECU and throttle system and all the zillion sensors the article explains it all works off…
secondly both the rider and Yamaha keep going on about how impractical it is for every day, real world riding, but follow up with “but that’s okay because it’s a bike made for the track”, “it’s only in it’s element on the race track” it’s “race focused” etc. I’m paraphrasing but this is the jist of what they’re saying… doesn’t sound too great for the bumpy, uneven, manhole ridden, idiot infested roads of Taiwan, 2 lane or otherwise…
lastly they make no bones about it being the most expensive 600 ever made by any manufacturer and if you take it’s US MSRP price and apply the general rule of thumb for what bikes sell for in Taiwan compared to US prices (take the US MSRP and multiply by around 55) it’s going to be well over NT$500,000 for a 600!.. ouch…
all in all a great looking bike, with what sounds like bind bending performance and ability, that is just totally unfeasible to own and ride in Taiwan… which kind of sucks… :s