R6 back to standard bars
January 8th, 2012
Woke up yesterday morning and decided to replace the high bars with the standard setup. No real reason other than having a change for the hell of it. The conversion back to standard took around 4 hours to complete stopping for lunch in between… Reckon the hardest part was re-routing the throttle cables back to their correct route out of the frame. It’s not a bad job but as the frame is so tight around the engine it means pulling the tank and air filter housing to remove the cables and routing them correctly. Without the correct routing the turn is too tight for the standard bars thus making the throttle not return to closed when letting go of the bars.
Having ridden the 6 with the high bars for a year I can tell you now that its like adding 20 bhp to the engine because you’re inevitable lower with the standard setup so there is less wind drag on the bike so it goes and then goes some more… Need to learn to behave again. Also need to build up my arms and core strength again because after a quick 20 mile blast last night I was knackerred. This morning though another 30 miles and I was back on form again. The R6 is such a planted bike even on the crappy winter roads of Cambridgeshire.
The bikes running nice and smooth after the winter service I’ve been giving it over the Xmas break. Tomorrow a standard exhaust can is arriving by courier courtesy of eBay. I’m going through a return to standard thing at the moment. I like the look and sound of the blue flame can thats currently fitted but for £85 ive managed to pick up an original Yamaha can still in its wrapping from the factory. For that money i reckon it was a steal because they are over £1000 new from Yamaha.
Ride safe out there readers. The UK is still in winter so the roads are still crappy and covered in winter salt…
