1999 Yamaha R6

Radical…racy…gorgeous. All are great adjectives for one of the finest 600cc sportsbikes ever produced. The Yamaha R6 still is incredible even though the competition has finally caught up.

Relatively unchanged for the past four years the little Yamaha Supersport machine still manages to impress me, and is not for the faint-hearted. Power, like a two-stroke, feels quite peaky—nothing, nothing, and then EVERYTHING in the lower two gears! That can be fun, but it’s an acquired taste.

One thing with the R6 that you’ll never have absolute confidence in is the front-end. It’s very light, and without weight up front, the bike will become flighty and fidgety, and is prone to tank-slapping out of turns.

This was rectified with the addition of the very trick Scotts steering damper. Just turn the dial to what ever suits your style—for trackdays, mine is set to full-strength. One word can sum up the R6’s handling—extreme agility. Okay, that’s two but you get my point.

The stock silencer is heavy, ugly and too quite.

So, I decided to fit the excellently built Micron polished high-mount end-can. No jetting is required and it sounds incredible. I figured with the addition of the bigger exhaust, I’d add a better air filter to even the air-flow and added a K&N air filter. Big mistake—lost power! So on went the original Yamaha air filter minus the little hairs that sit atop it for no apparent reason.

The original-equipped Dunlop D207s are excellent tires, but I wanted something more. I originally purchased the Pirelli Supercorsas for the sole reason that they were the cheapest option at the time.

After commuting home one evening, it poured and I found that the Pirellis handled quite good even in the wet—I had much more confidence than on the Dunlops. Steering was also sharpened up a bit.

Acceleration is good on stock gearing, but I wanted to spice things up a bit so I installed a 520 EK chain/Vortex sprockets conversion—lighter than the 532 chain sprocket set, though far from as strong.

The OEM footrests grounded down easily enough, but that isn’t the main reason I purchased a set of Vortex rear sets—they look good! Every two thousand miles I changed the oil and filter. A little pedantic but the bike was on its side more often than not, so it needed it regardless! My last get-off resulted in a totalled R6 and a severely broken leg. Ride safe and ride always…