Popped into Mt Eden at lunch for a wee browse at a 2003 Yamaha R6. Ummm I thought, looks quite sexy but it had been dropped on the right side. “Fell over on the drive way” says Chris, sure didn’t look much more than that, a few scratches on the fairing edges, mirror and bar end. A closer look showed the rev needle sitting at the bottom of the dial window, ”some twat banging on the rev window” says Mike.
Chris starts her up in the show room - brilliant - can’t see some of the other shops doing that. A quick flick of the throttle and hmmm very quiet, stock exhaust, certainly not a Kawasaki roar!
After a few minutes looking her over Chris thrusts the keys in my hands, “take her out and see what you think”. How could I refuse.
Get her out and hop on to familiarise myself with the necessary bits and pieces, put her in first and died! “What the fook!”. On my Kawa the side stand switch kills the bike if you try and move off, not this babySide stand up, helmet on to hide the embarrassment and off we go.
First corner and “sheeet”, what is the front doing? This thing turned in quicker than I expected and a hell of a lot quicker than a Maori child killer! Face goes even more red.“Take it steady’ me thinks, as the rear end comes up about a foot of the ground at the first set of lights - brakes work then!
Decide to head for the motorway and avoid town riding for a few minutes, get into the middle lane drop down a gear from the ‘clumsy’ gearbox and twist the right un - ‘wahay’, the speedo numbers change quicker than my face colour and I’m breaking the law in nano seconds. Come off at Te atatu and negotiate a mini roundabout, yep the front turns in very quick.
Pull over at the Peninsula and have a check over her. Flip the back seat off to reveal fook all, no tool kit and just enough room for a pack of fags and a packet of gum!
Can’t get the right mirror to position itself, the left was fine but maybe the right one was damaged further when it was dropped. Turn around and head back. I start to feel more comfortable and it’s certainly not as extreme a riding position as the latest 600’s even for me a 6 foot plus - can’t see the cockpit though as it’s obscured by the screen.
Take the Newton Rd exit and turn right, come to a stand still behind traffic and she dies!”What the fook now!” Pull over and try to start her. Nothing. So here I am on the friggin bridge, cars behind me and the R6 is playing silly buggers. Stop, deep breath and look at everything. Hmm everything seems fine, even the side stand is up, but wait...that’s not right. The bloody kill switch was down, how I don’t know, but at this stage I was beginning to wonder if someone was trying to tell me something!
Start her up, no one behind and fooking scream up the hill. Park at Mt Eden, hand keys over to Chris, say it’s ‘nice’ and scurry off!
So get back on my ZX6R and even though I had only ‘ridden’ the R6 for half an hour, she feels like a tug boat in comparison and where’s the friggin brakes gone? Get onto motorway and sure she’s not as powerful as the R6 but she sounds fookin superb with the intake roar, all the switches are at hand and I can see all the dials - nothing like ridin a good old bike!!
So, embarrassing situations aside, I quite liked the R6. She was very smooth, bloody quick and quite comfy. OK she isn’t the best example out there but Mt Eden have reduced her to a couple of dollars over $11k including WOF, Rego and a service, which makes it tempting. And she’s light year away from my 97 ZXR, so christ knows what the latest 600’s are like!
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Originally Posted by NZ-ZX
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