“Big, and beautiful, well to my eye at least. Classic retro styling decked out in Yamaha racing colours, makes the bike stand out as a 'bit of a looker'. Performance is more than enough and can frighten you if you are not concentrating on the road ahead. Traffic in front of you can fly up at you very quickly if you are riding in loony mode.
However, normally it is very well mannered and easy to control. Decent on the bends although it can bounce a bit on uneven surfaces despite the Ohlin shocks, which tend to look very pretty but not perform as well as you might expect.
Big solid in line four engine delivers power in smooth gulps and quite frankly it's more than enough for me and I've been riding for 35 years, so I know about performance. Very reliable, reasonable on tyres and not ridiculous to insure, but then I am an old geezer with a good history which helps!
Generally comfortable on long runs but being naked (the bike that is) it's a chore on motorways. I always go for A roads and the bike is a delight on the quicker good quality stretches. Lot's of fun and easy to live with, all the power any normal rider could ever ask for I'd recommend it any day.”
