Yamaha YZF-R3 Long Term Report: May 2016

After living with the R3 for a little over 4 months now, is it still fun? Oh yeah! It’s got the looks and the performance – and to top it off it’s also very comfortable. Over the past 4 months, I’ve ridden the bike mainly in the city – and, on just a few occasions, on the highway. But, frankly, it doesn’t really matter where I’m riding the R3, because it’s always a joy to sit on it and rev the engine.

The only thing left to find out is if it can be a good touring motorcycle. The fact that it doesn’t vibrate at all – even at high speeds – means that it should be just fine. It makes the everyday commute enjoyable. The clutch can be a bit heavy if the traffic is bad, and your forearm can begin to hurt. And now that the weather is getting hotter, the engine heat has started to bother me when at a standstill. But these are minor problems that you forget about as you begin to ride again.

If there’s one thing that I’m not happy about though, it’s the tyres. They just don’t match the overall performance of the bike. Braking suddenly can cause the tail to swing out. And grip becomes even worse when the roads are wet – so you really need to ride with caution. If I owned an R3, I would replace the tyres immediately.

But, I love everything else about the R3. For a sports bike, it’s just so easy to ride that almost anyone will be confident and comfortable on it. Its refinement levels and quality are the best in the segment. The more I ride the bike, the more I start to think that its high price tag is completely justifiable.