Hey everyone, welcome to our first new bike launch of 2019 Yamaha R3. This is Yamaha’s new and improved, it’s not entirely brand new, it’s the new and improved Yamaha YZF R3 or Y Zed F, depending on where you live in the world, R3. 321 cc parallel-twin, it’s basically the same motor as it was before in fact it is the same motor as it was before, it’s also the same chassis. So that stuff hasn’t really been changed that stuff’s been around now since 2015 when the bike was originally released here in the U.S. What has changed though is the obvious stuff– the styling.
It looked a little strange but I mean I didn’t dislike the look of it but it certainly had its own look, that’s for sure. Now it’s much more kind of holistic design I think it’s a bit of more of a traditional sort of sports bike design. Even though the bodywork itself has changed fairly dramatically, the seat height is the same at inches so that will suit a huge array of riders.
You can be short or tall, whatever, and you’ll be quite comfortable with this thing. As far as mechanically goes, biggest difference (is) that front fork. That’s now an inverted fork it’s also 20 percent stiffer and spring rate compared to what it was in 2018 for example. 2015/2018, same bike. The rear is 11 percent stiffer as well now that makes an enormous difference particularly if you’re a little bit on the girthier side in the guts department like me.
It makes a much bigger difference to how the thing handles and how it rides over bumps. I find a lot of these bikes, which is fair enough, really, because I’m a little bit bigger than than I suppose the intended market for something like this, for the juniors, they’re a little bit too soft for me, but just that change alone made have made a big difference. (It’s) still too soft for me I probably put a cartridge kit and just beef everything up and just keep the chassis a little bit more taut because this is a sports bike, after all.
They’re designed to get out there and rip, and I mean, they teach you how to do it, too, so I would probably want things a little bit more stiffer but that’s just that’s just me. Aside from that we’ve also got a brand new dash as well. It has been kind of, I guess it’s linked to the R6 and the R1–it’s not as trick as those ones but it has the same shape before you had the kind of analogue taco and the digital readout next to it now it’s a little bit more changed, there’s now just one solid digital readout, and it reads quite well.
You get all the information that you had before, it’s fine, quite easy to adjust as well. It’s all good. This thing’s $4900, this is the one, in the US, at least, $4999 for this one, for the blue one and $5299 for the black one and the white one which come with ABS. Now those bikes do not come, the ABS one does not come in the blue, which is a bit of a bummer ‘cos you’re spending extra money, it’d be nice if you could have any color scheme that you want. However, look, the changes that they’ve made for this thing, they’re subtle changes, especially when you ride the bike you won’t notice anything with the engine.
That’s the same engine, it’s the same chassis as well, they haven’t touched the chassis, it’s still the same steel chassis. But, yeah, suspension performance is greatly improved for the 2019. It would be great if I could have tested this on the track. I had a good test on an R3 last year which was was great, but it would have been nice to compare it at the track but, that’s all good. They also have fairly wide range of accessories for this bike, too.
You know, much taller screen that’s called an endurance race screen which I had to go on earlier on today. Loved it. Much better and much easier to tuck into as well and you also get things like a Yoshimura pipe and things like that and a little bodywork accents and all that kind of stuff so you can really sort of customize this thing making your own little own little sports bike gem. This is one of the big moneymakers for Yamaha. This is actually Yama’s top selling motorcycle. Full-stop. Whether it’s dirt, road, whatever you want, this is the number one for Yamaha. In the U.S. at least.
Since 2015 they’ve sold nearly 20,000 of these things so I proves that they got the formula quite right. Now, before they announced this one, I assumed like a lot of people that they were going to come out, that Yamaha was going to bring out a 400 and call it the R4. Basically to go ahead to head the Kawasaki. They didn’t do that, they stuck with the R3 and I asked them why, and basically their their response was, ‘this is the perfect match of horsepower and ease-ability and handling’ and look, they’re probably right.
This is really, really well suited to new riders this bike, really comfortable, goes really well, the engine’s really good. It’s a great little bike. I mean, five grand for that thing– not bad value. So, you’ll certainly learn how to ride a sports bike on this thing, but Yamaha’s done a pretty good job with this one. Thanks for watching this video guys. Please give us a like and hit that subscribe button, and if you’ve got any comments questions or concerns leave them in the comment section below. It’s always me that replies to these comments whenever I’m doing videos for you guys so I’ll try and get whatever information that you want as soon as possible.
