I headed out with Gen Kanai and his cousin Ken yesterday to Oiso, for the Presto Test Ride of new Yamaha motorcycles:
Great weather once we got there (after a bit of rain very early in the morning) and plenty of brand spankin' new bikes on hand to try out.
My thoughts: Sportbikes like the YZF-R6 force you into such an extreme riding position that I couldn't see owning one for anything but racetrack use. I wouldn't want to commute or take long tours on one of them. The V-max was more comfortable, but lived up to its reputation of being reluctant to corner. And the relatively new MT-01 just seemed like a novelty, with clunky styling and an engine carefully tuned to make a body-shaking Harleyesque rumble. While I'd need some more time with those bikes to make a final judgement, testing them out just made me appreciate my good ol' Honda X-4.
Great weather once we got there (after a bit of rain very early in the morning) and plenty of brand spankin' new bikes on hand to try out.
My thoughts: Sportbikes like the YZF-R6 force you into such an extreme riding position that I couldn't see owning one for anything but racetrack use. I wouldn't want to commute or take long tours on one of them. The V-max was more comfortable, but lived up to its reputation of being reluctant to corner. And the relatively new MT-01 just seemed like a novelty, with clunky styling and an engine carefully tuned to make a body-shaking Harleyesque rumble. While I'd need some more time with those bikes to make a final judgement, testing them out just made me appreciate my good ol' Honda X-4.
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