ONE HIT WONDER
Yamaha’s stopgap 2005 YZF-R6 remains one of the best middleweight sportsbikes ever built.
Used BikeGuide
2005 YAMAHA YZF-R6
WORDS: JONURRY IMAGES: FB ARCHIVE
Short lived, yet brilliant…
In a world as cutthroat as the supersport class was in the early 2000s, it was all too easy to get overlooked. Which is exactly what happened to the 2005 Yamaha YZF-R6. This unique, extremely underrated model is the forgotten R6 as it fell into a no man’s land between an outdated and aging version, and the all-singing, all-dancing new generation. Well, forget it no more as when it comes to used R6s, this one is a bit of a peach.
Under the radar
Launched in 2005, this generation of R6 is easily identified by its fashion-pleasing radial brakes, however under its skin are some far more significant modifications. To go with the radial brakes, Yamaha armed this R6 with a new set of 41mm USD forks, then gave the chassis a bit of a tweak so that they could at long last give the R6 a ‘proper’ 120/70 profile front tyre rather than the odd 120/60 that had been forced upon the bike since its inception in 1999. Then, with the chassis sorted and the styling updated slightly (not that you would easily spot it), the engineers turned their attention to the motor.