Yamaha's feisty little R6 has deservedly gained a cult status amongst its fans, as a rev-happy, sharp-edged alternative to Honda's more easy-going CBR600.
THE YZF-R6 was Yamaha's hard-edged answer to the dominance of Honda's CBR600.
It re-visited what Yamaha 600s had been doing best up until the launch of the Thundercat in 1996. The R6 was edgy, raw, uncompromising, revvy and fast, where the lap-Cat had been the sensible man's choice - big, comfy and more than capable of going two-up in comfort or heading Europe-side for a spot of touring.
Like the FZR600 a few years before it, the R6 became the racer on the road compared to the then more sensible offerings from Honda and Kawasaki.
While Honda chose to straddle the middle of the supersport road with just one model - the CBR600F - and Kawasaki was following suit with the then sane ZX-6R, Yamaha (and Suzuki, for that matter) went headfirst down the 'racey is right' route with their all-new sports 600.
But Yamaha out-did even Suzuki for the sporting feel of its new 600. Part of the R6's appeal is it's almost two-stroke willingness to rev, right up to that 15,500rpm redline. The first R6 came with a 'claimed' 120bhp (more like 105bhp at the rear wheel) and was also the first production bike to boast 200bhp per litre.
But these figures only tell half the story. What did make the bike the success it became was its single-minded attitude to sports biking and, from 1999, a close affinity to Yamaha's ground breaking R1, the bike that re-wrote the litre class rules. Little wonder that the R6 shared the R1's motto of 'no compromise.'
Today, early examples of the R6 still have the same attitude but, as we found with our two examples on the right, they can suffer all too easily from hard use, misuse and abuse - you can't make a hooligan tool without attracting hooligan riders. Read on and tread carefully.
Continue the Yamaha YZF-R6 Used Review
