For the Yamaha Haters

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Yamaha Will Buy Back '06 R6s From Owners Who are Foolish Enough To Want To Give Them Up
by dean adams
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Ah, okay, we admit that we, too, were romanced by the information that Yamaha's 2006 R6 featured a redline of 17,500 rpm. That's a damn impressive number.

Now the word comes down that mistakes were made somewhere in the process of computing the actual redline of the R6. The redline isn't 17.5k, it's actually closer to a bit over 16,000 rpm.

I have no idea how this happened, but if you're of the opinion that modern sport bikes inch closer every year to soul-less Lucas Arts-like vehicles—engineered on a computer, built by robots to exact specifications so that it appears that no human hand touched them before they were uncrated at the dealership, well, hey, here's pretty substantial proof that a fallible human had his hand in the creation of this bike. Somebody screwed up.

The sound that R6 made on the banking was unlike any bike's howl I've heard in fifteen years of going to Daytona. At speed the Yamaha R6 FX bike sounded unholy, like the opening scream on Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.
It stopped you in your tracks, made your head whip around like it was mounted on a turret.

As of late last week, Yamaha has offered to buy back any 2006 R6 from owners who feel wronged by not having a bike with a redline of 17,500 rpm and simply cannot live with the shame of owning one that redlines at only 16,000 rpm. They'll also reimburse said owners for tax, license and other fees.

Now, we're not saying 2006 R6 owners don't have justification to be mildly upset, Yamaha said the bike redlines at 17.5k and if it doesn't, that the actual redline is a few ticks over 16k, then some adjustments need to be made. Dealers are angry too, and they'll need to have their feathers unruffled (yet, as British broadcaster and commentator Chris Carter has said so eloquently, on so many occasions, the two things you're never gonna see in this world are unicorns prancing in the street, and happy motorcycle dealership owners. Nuff said.)

But, we get the impression some owners (and, ahem, non-owners) feel that the next logical step is to gather torches and pick-axes, meet in the street and march en masse down to Dr. Frankenstein's castle and kill the monster.

Uh, before you do that, those enthusiasts capable of independent thought might want to consider that the R6 is unquestionably the star 600 of the new year—redline issues or not.

Honestly we here at Soup were skeptical of the 17.5k redline all along, or at least we were after we heard DiSalvo's R6 on the banking at Daytona last December during the Dunlop test. Because it didn't sound like the R6 was red-lining at 17,500 rpm—it sounded like it was red-lining at 280,000,000,000 rpm. And I only stopped at that number because I grew tired of pushing the zero key on my keyboard. The sound that R6 made on the banking was unlike any bike's howl I've heard in fifteen years of going to Daytona. At speed the Yamaha R6 FX bike sounded unholy, like the opening scream on Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. It stopped you in your tracks, made your head whip around like it was mounted on a turret. It sounded "too real" like my kids said after they watched 1999's The Mummy.

Another bit of info that seemingly disgruntled 2006 R6 owners may want to consider before they roll the bike back to the dealership is that last week at the Fontana test, DiSalvo's FX-spec R6 wasn't "almost as fast a Superbike" or "a few ticks slower on the stop watch than the Superbikes" as FX bikes have been for years; it was, in fact, faster than several factory Superbikes. A 600. Faster than Superbikes. Pretty landmark motorcycle in stock or modified form, I'd say.

You go boy, you give that bike back to Yamaha.

Source: SuperbikePlanet