Honestly, I'd keep your bike. It's fast becoming a shitty time of season to buy a bike (though good time to sell)... If you can do it, the best thing to do would be to wait until the end of the season, buy the bike you want, then sell yours at the beginning of the next season. Just my $0.02.

Sounds like a good game plan.

That's bout 4 weekends for me.
8 morning rides.

I miss those days...

Any of them are going to be much more uncomfortable than your current setup for the street, with the current R6 and Zx-6r being very torturous on the wrists and back. I know a bit about the Yamahas as I have rode all of these generations.

01/02 R6 - I owned this bike. Great engine for the timeperiod. Seating position was better than current SS bikes. Carbed. Brakes were only meh...

03/04 R6 - My buddy Brett owns an 04. Better step foreward. Fuel injected. A little bit more focused seating. Much better brakes.

05 R6 - My best friend Matt owned an 05. Bigger throttle bodies, inverted forks, and 70 size front. Stiffer feel into corners.

06+ - Track bike with lights. Not worth buying for the street. :wink:


My advice would be keep the YZF600R for the season and get some good miles under you. Of the three brands you mentioned, I would say the 2005 R6 is the best Yamaha option. The 05/06 Zx-6R 636 is the best Kawasaki option. And as Derf said, the CBR F4i is probably the best street option for Honda. 01/03 had the split seat, and 04/06 had the banana seat.

when u say track bike with lights, can u elaborate on that?

The low end and midrange is almost non-exisant. Yamaha even addressed the issue in 08/09 for more midrange. You have to rev the piss out of it to get power. All the power is up top, but when you get to it... look out. It has a much lower center of gravity and the rake/trail was messed with to create a faster transitioning bike. I thought it was twitchy, but I have an old heavy bike now, so. The seating is much more racey. If you havent yet, go sit on one at a dealer and see if you can stand it for more than a half hour. I would not want to do anything more than canyon runs on it. It would be one of my last choices to commute due to the lack of useable power and seating position.

Gen 2 or 2.5 is a much better choice if going with a Yammie. :dthumb:

You need to get out more. That's one weekend for me. :D

It's a very aggressive stance bike. You are positioned not for comfort, but for speed. These bikes are designed to be run in the 10k+ rpm range. That is where they make their power, that is where the bike is happy.

The 3-7k that you see in traffic, the bike will run slow and feel slow. It won't be happy. You will then want to sell the bike and get a 1000 bike, because you will think the bike is wimpy when in reality, you aren't riding the bike correctly.

I complain about having to cross a bridge.
You don't even complain about having to cross an ocean.