Readers in blind R6 test

What better way to try out the new 2005 Yamaha R6 than come along and test it for MCN. Well that’s exactly what four of our readers did today.

With no radical redesign of the R6 for 2005 we wanted to know whether the long list of nips and tucks that Yamaha has included on next year’s machine really made a difference to you.

Peter Lawrence from Rickmansworth, Bob Stuckley from Herne Bay, Andy Croucher from Ramsgate and Holger Everding from Stafford all answered our call for R6 owners to come and help out.

We gathered at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire for ou blind test. All four riders rode the 2004 and 2005 R6 back to back with all the telltale signs of the 2005 bike disguised with gaffer tape and brown paper.

Each rider then took both disguised bikes out on a three-mile road route then did two laps of the track. All the riders claimed they definitely noticed a difference between the two.

Getting on and off the bikes was a bit of an operation as the riders had to have a helmet bag on their heads to stop them seeing the bikes before they got on.

Everding, who works as a circuit board designer, said it was really good to get involved: “I’ve just come back from a couple of days riding round Cartagena and I was starting to get a bit depressed being back in the cold. I logged on to motorcyclenews.com just to have a browse and noticed the story asking for volunteers. I had to give it a go. It certainly beats working for a living.”

You can read the full R6 blind test in the December 1 issue of MCN.