February 9, 2008

Moving On Up

…. continued from Memories of a Motorcycle License Test

After a season of experiences on the RZ350 it was relegated to my wife to ride and I went out and acquired a brand new 2001 Yamaha YZFR6.

You wouldn’t believe the looks and thumbs up I had from people reading the crate while driving down the 401 highway from our units warehouse to Ab’s Motorcycle Shop one of our original Ontario Yamaha dealers (now retired) for the pre-delivery inspection.
Once the bike was ready, I cautiously drove out of the parking lot (praying I wouldn’t look stupid crashing it in the first 50 feet merging onto the road…come on I’ve heard the stories too).Wow, what an eye opening experience. This bike was nothing like my RZ350. Besides the power the most notable difference was engine braking, the R6 had a lot where my little RZ had very little. It was quite evident in the first stop light I had to stop at when I was still 50-80 feet short of my mark. A little red in the face with embarrassment I clutched the bike forward to the proper position, thank you for full faced helmets.

Another main difference that I noticed right way was the lack of a front nose section of the bike. Don’t get me wrong it’s there! Just probably a ¼ off what the RZ350 had so it felt like it was missing or I was sitting too far forward on this bike.

And don’t forget push button start! No more kick starting the engine to get it started what a nice relaxing change.

Finally, the brakes where 10x better than what I was used too. It’s amazing what 12 years of development can really do to those binders. Which really came into use that following July……..but that’s for another post.

Bryan Fil

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One Response to “Moving On Up”

1. frank mckeever says:
   

   hey, i live in U.S. but i own a 85 canadian rz 350 rn i am trying to hunt down a good source for canadian parts that will ship to me any help would be appreciated, thanks.

   Hello Frank, Thanks for the reply, Unfortunately, We haven’t sold this model here in almost 20 years now. A recent search on some of the original parts have come up discontinued. This is based on movement and availability from Japan. Some of the internal parts are often used on other models like the Banshee ATV to name one. Run some of the part numbers by you local dealer in the US and you may be surprised with what you can still get. Things like bodywork are model specific are now a thing of memory. But some of the common internals can still be available new. You can try some of the recyclers to find some good used parts. I recall seeing some side panels years ago at Zdeno Cycle Salvage. You can even try using http://www.Canada411.ca and run motorcycle salvage searches in different provinces to get phone numbers to see if anybody has anything that you maybe interested in. Also, by checking our main corporate website using the dealer locator you may find a couple of our dealers still holding onto a few pieces ?? And finally, running a quick google search got me a couple of interesting links: http://www.yamaha-rd.com (they have a discussion forum with classifieds and tech tips,etc.) or http://www.Spec2.com (performance upgrades). I hope this information can help you in your quest. They were a fun little bike !!!!!!

   Bryan Fil

   March 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

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