I’ve been looking for a track bike for this season for a while, but just haven’t found anything yet that made me that excited. I’ve been pondering getting an R6, but the only inline four I’ve ever owned (2002 MV Agusta 750F4) didn’t do much for me so I got rid of it after only a month.

Well, at about 8pm Friday night I was cruising ebay and spotted a 2006 Yamaha R6 with 608 miles on the clock and some nice extras. All black of course. I emailed the seller to see what he wanted for it and he replied in just a few minuets with the correct answer so I gave him a call and said I’d take it. A few minuets later I transfered the money and packed my bags. I left my house at 9pm for the 7.5 hour drive to his home in Wisconsin (about 1.5 hours north of Milwaukee). I arrived there at 4:30am and took a nap in the trunk of my Jeep until 8am when I knocked on the door and loaded the bike.

Got the bike all loaded, bull shitted for a while with the seller (a really nice guy who owns a respectable motorcycle tuning shop that you all probably have heard of) and then headed back to my house. I arrived home around 5pm Saturday and logged about 980 miles in that time. Well worth the trip I’d say. What else would I have done anyway, slept?

Like I said earlier, the bike has 608 miles on it and is in absolutely perfect condition. When I got it home I cleaned the entire bike and inspected every inch and only found the tiniest little mark on the front wheel, nothing else! The bike came with a full Arrow titanium exhaust system, Scotts (Ohlins) steering damper, BMC air filter, PCIII with a mighty fine tune, and CRG levers. Good additions. I wouldn’t have done the levers, but everything else would have been on the list.

Today (Sunday) I left the house while it was 33˚ to log a few miles on the new bike, 223 miles to be exact. First impression is good, although it is going to take some getting used to to keep the RPM above 10K! Seating position isn’t bad, but like always not perfect. I’ll add some rear sets and that will take care of most of the issue. Something odd was the seat height! I am just over 6′ tall and this is the tallest bike I’ve been on. I could barely sit flat footed on the ground, usually there is a bend in my leg when sitting flat footed on a bike. I wasn’t impressed with the brakes at all, which was also an issue with my MV Agusta. Do you believe it has rubber lines? My plan of action is to replace the lines, then pads, then rotors, then calipers in that order until the problem is fixed. I think that the lines and pads will do it though. It has a Brembo master cylinder on it similar to the 999, but without the one piece reservoir. Other than those small issues, no complaints. It is a very tight and precise bike. I’ll learn a lot more when I get it to the track though.

Stay tuned for later updates. My first track day is April 15, 2007 at Talladega so expect some more thoughts then.

See more images from this photo set here.