First Impression of a New Ride

Jim and I made the mistake of going to the local Yamaha dealer's open house a couple of weekends ago. Desert Valley Powersports - Prosser, Wa - GREAT PLACE. As soon as we walked in the door there was a yellow R6 right in the way. It was like a magnet. Like that Radio Shack commercial where the woman and her husband are walking down the hallway of a mall and she's talking away but he's been sucked into the Radio Shack store - I was drawn to that pretty yellow bike. I sat on it - way to tall. We looked at it and tried to figure out where luggage would even fit. I told myself I was perfectly happy with my old (2005) R6. I didn't need a new bike. I wasn't even looking for a bike. My old bike had 37,000 very happy, very satisfied miles on it. Never had a bit of a problem with it. Still looks brand new.

After dragging me away from the bike we made our way to the parts counter and while Jim was waiting for the parts guy to look something up for him he made the mistake of "suggesting" I go ask the dealership owner how much he'd sell that pretty yellow bike for, using my bike as a trade in. Before the words even finished leaving Jim's mouth, I was gone! I think I may have even ran someone over trying to get over there. (Not really, but it sounds good!)

I took my brand spanking new, bright yellow R6 out for a short 150 mile ride today. I've been back almost two hours and am still grinning! What a blast.

It's way tall for me. I had to find the tallest pair of boots I have and wear those instead of my regular riding boots, and still could only get one foot down. However, once I got used to it, the bike is so light it's not really that bad. I started practicing only putting one foot down last year anyway, so that helped a lot. On my previous bike we cut the seat down so I fit better. This bike's bodywork is wider so we won't be able to do that. I ordered some lowering links that should be here any day. We're going to take more time setting up the bike than we have in the past when we've lowered bikes. May also play with the suspension first too, to see if that helps.

It's a little wider than my previous bike and leaned over a bit more. At first I thought "oh oh" but once I got used to it decided I like it better. On my other bike my right wrist almost always went numb shortly after taking off. On this one it didn't do that. Must have been a strange angle on the other bike.

On this bike I feel like I'm taller (up in the air more) when I'm on the bike. We used to have a Bandit and when I rode it, it felt like I was way up in the air. This one feels like that too. I don't think it's that much taller than my previous R6. Not sure what causes that feeling.

It sounds so cool! Not sure if it's the short pipe on it or what, but I can hear the bike's engine more than the last few bikes I've had....and it sounds good!

The only complaint I have is the seat - harder than a rock! Doesn't Yamaha know there's softer foam out there?

Did I mention that it's pretty and yellow? And takes off from stop signs really, really fast?