Yamaha R6 (was: I'm in love...)

The new top of the line…best of the best…600cc sports bike. The 2006 yamaha R6.

Check out what it sounds like with a new never seen before (for the road) 17.5k rpm redline.
yamaha-motor.it/products/inf … ilmato.jsp <—need to wait a bit

And if you are still curious there’s some more info here: yamaha-motor.com/sport/produ … tures.aspx

I’m going to save up a larger initial purchase amount this time so the monthly payments will be more manageable. I tried to go without a bike and just save my money…can’t do it. I went for a long scooter ride on Sunday…and what used to be enjoyable…isn’t. Due to the fact that I’ve experienced the thrill which is 0-60 mph faster than almost any production car on earth.

Really nice bike. I need to keep an eye on this one for future references.

No place to put the groceries.

And whats up with that rear fender so high in the air.
Doesn’t look very comfy with that big tank where my belly would be.
And no backrest for the passenger.
And where’s the cup-holders?
I dunno know…not really a cruiser. No place for an overnight bag.

Good Luck Mordeth…hope you get it… :sunglasses:

I don’t like the stablizers. Do they do them in pink?

The R6 is beautiful. I like the R1, some of the GSXR, the 900RR, and one of the Ducatis, but the R6 has always been my favorite. I go on craigslist sometimes to see what’s for sale, and to see what aftermarket mods they’ve made.

is it legal to ride those bikes in Taiwan? I never got a str8 answer from anyone.

[quote=“Jack Burton”]The R6 is beautiful. I like the R1, some of the GSXR, the 900RR, and one of the Ducatis, but the R6 has always been my favorite. I go on craigslist sometimes to see what’s for sale, and to see what aftermarket mods they’ve made.

is it legal to ride those bikes in Taiwan? I never got a str8 answer from anyone.[/quote]

Yes, it’s legal. Has been for about 3 years now. Insurance is a bit high, but not higher than in Canada. The sale cost of the bike is usually double what you’d pay in the West…but a lot of people’s income is double here too…so it’s all about how think about it.

And Murphy’s Law dictates (with my luck at any rate) that the higher the purchase price, the higher the chance of crashing and utterly writing off the bike the day after you buy it… Which is why I’ll never take the chance of buying a big bike here in Taiwan… I can wait until I go back to SA…

Doesn’t stop me from drooling though :lovestruck:

Awesome looking bike… but with a 17.5k redline, how rideable is it on the road? Must be a blast on a track though.

[quote=“trapjaw”]

Awesome looking bike… but with a 17.5k redline, how rideable is it on the road? Must be a blast on a track though.[/quote]

I hear what you’re saying…and I’ve heard it before from some experienced riders that post on here coughplasmacough… But that’s what the clutch is for. Someone else was saying that you never get the RPMs high enough on a sports bike to use the power… but I can red line the RPMs at 10km/hr…it’s called feathering the clutch. You bring the RPMs up as high as you want and you disnengage the clutch as slow or as fast as you want to have immediate access to the horses. Just be careful you don’t flip the bike :wink: .

yeah sure… 160kg dry weight, blah… 115 real world bhp @ the rear wheel, pffft… front and rear duel speed compression adjustment, ho-hum… “fly by wire”, no cable throttle system, … okay the fly by wire is cool, but what if your phone rings while you’re riding? :astonished: (and more to the point who the hell is going to service an all electronic throttle system when there are no Yamaha dealers with diagnostic machinery anywhere in Taiwan)… trick nitride coated lighweight titanium valve stems, humph… 17.5billion rpm redline, yawn…

oh sure, very nice but does it have…

the first (alarmingly skin-tone coloured) air bag system ever attached to a production motorcycle?.. :laughing:

although I’ve got to say if you’re going to buy a GoldWing why not just buy a Smart car and cut the roof off, it’d be cheaper and easier to park…

Is that a photoshop or do you really have to ride around with a giant pink bottom stuffed into your dashboard? Someone should write to Honda – it should be covered with faux hairs to attain the true biker chic.

The first indepth review of the bike. motorcycle-usa.com/Article_P … cleID=2662

@ Mordeth
Well, then good luck with your new dream - but would like to see you after a 700 km/day ride through the mountains. No, nothing for me - but I will help you off the bike in the evening. :smiley:

@ sandman
No, that’s not photoshopped. Honda really offers the option “airbag” for the Goldwing. :astonished:

[quote=“hm”]@ Mordeth
Well, then good luck with your new dream - but would like to see you after a 700 km/day ride through the mountains. No, nothing for me - but I will help you off the bike in the evening. :smiley:
[/quote]

Honestly friend, I’ve ridden cruisers and I’ve ridden sportsbikes. In my opinion sportsbikes are more comfortable.
On bikes with high handlebars your weight is all on your butt…which gets sore after awhile (mine sometimes falls asleep :astonished: ).
On sportsbikes with lower shorter handlebars you support some of the weight with your arms and chest. Which not only keeps your butt comfy, it also helps keep your upper body toned :sunglasses: .

I’ve ridden sports bikes for 12 hours straight rested for 8 hours and then ridden another 12. And yeah I’m pretty tired after the ride…but no more so than if I ride a go-kart for 40 minutes.

The first time I rode a sports bike in Taiwan…I was in agony. I was honestly considering putting the bike on the back of a truck to get home. The pain was all in my wrists. They were too weak to support my upper body weight for more than a couple of hours. It was hell. BUT, if you ride regularly you develop the muscles needed and you don’t get any pain or discomfort.
Unlike on a cruiser…where you can’t develop any muscles to help your ass handle the full weight of your upper body.

So…I really can’t relate to these sportsbikes are uncomfortable comments I rode a cruiser for years…and I’ve ridden sportsbikes for years…I choose sportsbikes for comfort.

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

And if this was 5 years ago you could be saying all of the above about a CBR. An unheard of 15,500 rpm redline, track focused bike…etc…etc. But my old CBR had close to 20,000km on it without a hiccup. And I loved riding on these roads on it.

Will someone please explain this apparent predicament? Cruisers are getting bigger, while sports bikes are getting (physically) smaller. I had the pleasure of riding a Gixer thou K5 for 5,000 km in Europe earlier this year and for the limited amount of time reluctantly spent on the motorways, I was crouched like a monkey, literally. A 1,000 cc bike that’s the same weight and size as 600s of recent years. To keep under the screen, I had my elbows on my knees and my back and shoulders hunched like Quasimodo. But the fact that it tore to 100mph in first gear in a handful of seconds (making 3-6 gear simply overdrive selections) was enough to forgive it. Did someone say a 17.5k redline on a 600cc? That might be even more fun.

Still, my old, pedestrian :wink: 1999 Blade is like an armchair by comparison, but you’d be amazed at how many people have offered to buy it simply for the comfort/speed ratio.

Have you checked out the FZ6? much less aggressive stance, more “everyday”, still uses the R6 powerplant, and I like the partly naked look.

My neighbor has one. I’m really undecided as of right now. I really want a sportsbike…but there are a lot of worries and hassels and expenses that go along with owning one. And vids like this one: forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 45&start=0 Aren’t doing much to deter me.

But I think I’m going to a reliable naked Honda…that way I can ride it for years and other than changing the oil…I won’t need to do much to it.

Moredeth finally sees the light.

bobepine

Found this video of the R6 in action. You can hear it pretty well, also.

dailymotion.com/tag/test/video/29374

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