Yamaha YZF-R6 - first thoughts

VISORDOWN'S Alan Dowds has spent the morning taking Yamaha's new YZF-R6 for a blast around Almeria circuit in Spain.

Here are his first thoughts:

'The new bike has engine mods to make it Euro4 compliant - different exhaust, catalyst, fuel injection settings. And the chassis has had a moderate upgrade too, with a new 43mm front fork, bigger brakes and lighter fuel tank and subframe.

'Round Almeria, the new bike does actually feel a little flat at first. The Euro4 regs mean there’s a good few bhp missing from the motor, and you need to work hard pulling up the hills round this circuit. The chassis makes up for some of this though - the new front end feels great on the brakes at the end of the back straight. The new quick-shifter works well too, although in stock form it’s only an up-shifter. You need a race kit ECU for an auto-blipper function though.

'And you’d expect to get most of the missing power back when you dump the stock pipe and go for an ECU flash or power commander. We’ll find out a bit more this afternoon though - Yamaha has brought some bikes with race kit pipes and ECUs, and I’ve got my name down for a spin on one next.'

The new R6 makes 118.4hp and costs £10,999. Read more about it here.

We'll bring you Al's full review soon.

In the meantime. here's his recent review of the new Blade: