The Yamaha YZF-R3 is perfect for those proud owners of virgin motorbike licences. But a bike like this is not limited to simply offering you your first motorcycle experience. It’s such a complete little package that it would be a worthy steed for just about anyone.
It is not only deceptively comfortable; its mature styling makes it seem far bigger than a ‘beginner’s bike’. The slanted eyes look as sharp as the R6’s headlights and the rear end is high and minimalistic. The underslung exhaust is similar to the R1’s pipe and the fresh white and blue colour scheme is instantly recognisable.
This baby Yamaha is a practical bike too, with a gear indicator and adjustable shift light alongside the standard and expected information that is displayed on the attractive dashboard.
The Yamaha R3 is targeting the young. It looks cool, it’s sporty and you can put an iPhone under the saddle. What’s not to like?
Its parallel twin engine is completely new and it is altogether bigger than both the Honda CBR300R and the Ninja 300 by 35cc and 25cc respectively. It is also more powerful (by 11bhp and 3bhp) and in terms of weight, it is also lighter and lower than either Japanese rival. Only the even sportier, taller KTM RC390 has more punch (2bhp) and weighs less.
The Yamaha YZF-R3 has all the right ingredients to be a top seller. Wind protection is effective and impressive, and so is the bike’s straight line stability. Once the road starts to twist, it has enough grunt to pull out of corners or sneak in an overtake. It’s really good fun, but not because the acceleration is mind-bending. It’s not. It’s just refreshing to whack the throttle back to the stop without fear of launching yourself into space. And the handling is so light, it feels like a BMX with an engine; super-light and precise.
The bike’s brakes could be stronger. It shouldn’t be too difficult to enhance the stopping power with help from some after-market accessories, but they do the job for road riding just fine, and the ABS is not that intrusive.
Like the anchors, the suspension is also on the soft side, but Yamaha has found a good compromise in the standard settings. Although the R3 accelerates with more gusto than you might expect, it performs best when you hang on to the higher revs and roll through corners instead of jumping on and off the brakes, which makes the bike pitch slightly. And if you’re a lazy rider, you’ll get away with leaving it in top gear for 30mph.
It may be an ‘everyday super-sportsbike’ according to the bumph, but it would be a crying shame not to let it loose on a track now and then. The standard Michelin Pilot Street road tyres will be just fine for the majority of R3 owners, although faster riders might want to swap the rubber for something stickier, as once you’ve removed the hero blobs, these tyres are clearly a limiting factor. And that should tell you just how sorted the R3 is.
At a glance
Engine
321cc parallel twin producing 42bhp @ 10,750rpm and 22lb/ft @ 9,000rpm
Transmission
Six-speed sequential manual, chain drive
Kerb weight
169kg
Seat height
780mm