Intro
Among my bike ventures I was lucky enough to be the owner of a first generation r6. This bike was born in the power crazed 90s and as such featured a 599cc carbureted inline four, pumping out an astonishing 120 break horsepower. To put this in perspective the largest capacity superbikes of that era produced around 130-150 horsepower. This bike is the successor of the somewhat underrated yamaha YZF 600r Tundercat. And oh boy, Yamaha did step up their game with this bike. The handling is sharp, the bike is relatively light and the styling still looks great even after 20 years. My bike had 75,000 miles (120700.8Km) on it and still looked and ran like there is no tomorrow.
Reliability
In the previous paragraph I mentioned my bike had more than 120,000km on it, that’s already a proof of reliability right there. Indeed in the 1 year of me owning the bike, I only really had 2 issues with it. First was the regulator/ rectifier. The day I bought the bike it died on me while riding home and it didn’t want to start again. First I thought it was the battery, so I took it out, charged overnight, put it back and then I was good for 2 days, before it pulled the same thing on me again. There I realized that this is not the battery, but something with the charging system. A quick forum dive yielded me the information that the culprit is most likely the rectifier. Ordered on ebay, shipped in a week, 5 minutes job of change and the bike was running perfectly.
The second problem I had was the temperature sensor of the coolant went bust, therefore the radiator fan wouldn’t switch on. As you can imagine, easy fix. On the matter of heat I must point out that these bikes sometimes do run quite hot. The fan is only expected to turn on at around the 112 - 114 mark. So during Summer expect your crotch to be toasted, especially if you are in slow moving traffic.
I’ve been using my R6 as a daily and it never gave me any other problems, no matter in Winter or Summer, rain, sun or wind. And here I must mention that the bike was sitting outside everyday and she still didn’t show any extra rust or anything.
General Comfort
The word comfort is a complete sarcasm when it comes to this bike. The handlebars are very low, the footpegs are high, you’re very much hunched over the bike all the time. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, as at the end of the day, this is a focused sportbike not a user friendly naked. It was built to destroy lap times and your back at the same time. Expecting a sports bike to be comfortable is like expecting a Ferrari to do the Paris-Dakar rally. But if you want to go fast, be sure it will, whether you are prepared or not (power wheelies are no problem).
How is it to ride?
Short version: brilliant! This bike will go into any turn and will dare you to go faster. This is not something safe to hold onto your license with, you barely look at the throttle and you are way over the speed limit. It just can NOT go slow. A lot of the times when I went out riding I felt like I’m gonna die with this bike, but I loved it. It is DEFINITELY not a good bike to start on. As for riding it locally, I would sum it up as “survival”. The suspension - albeit fully adjustable - is very firm, so these nice, smooth, Maltese roads will reverberate every little bump and pothole through your spine. Obviously, it can also be hard on your wrists, unless you hold yourself with your knees on the tank, as you are supposed to.
The engine, the usual Japanese sports bike way comes alive above 6000-7000rpm and really kicks you in the arse around 9 - 10K. Being a 90s r6, she had 0 traction control or any sort of rider aid. For some it’s a minus, but personally I like it. Less things to go wrong and this bike definitely shows you the faults of your riding technique, while a modern sportbike will compensate and make you overconfident. The weight as i mentioned is relatively low, steering very responsive and generally speaking even filtering is an easy thing to do.
What to look out for?
As you can see from my example, the regulator/rectifier, although some reported stator issues, also a common occurrence the second gear dropping out to neutral under hard acceleration. If you test ride the bike go into second, rev it up to about 4000, then hit the throttle and if you have this problem, your second will drop out at around 6000. This was remedied in the later versions. And as usual look out for cam chain noise.
As this bike quickly proved itself as a track weapon, be careful if the bike you are looking at has very low mileage and the body work is in pristine condition, as there is a high chance, you are dealing with a track bike, that has its original fairing refitted for the sale. But as you can see from my example, even if it is really high mileage it will still set the road on fire and will serve you well.
P.S. Out of all the bikes I’ve had, this is the one which I regret selling.
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