First big bike - is this a good deal ?

[JimShortz]

Just to add my two penneth worth... A friend of mine was eagerly awaiting the release of the R3, because he wanted to buy a 300 and new it would be a sharp looking bike. However... he recently rented one for a day and tested it along with two friends. They all found it to be twitchy in the corners and lacking in power compared to other 300cc bikes; hugely disapointed - it looks the part, but apparently doesn't deliver.
He went ahead and bought a CB300F and finds it better in pretty much all areas... although wished he had perhaps bought the CBR300 for the better wind protection (he is a hard and fast rider by the way).

[Rhys]

Good choice.... NEW bike. now you can start your own history..... I was in the same situation first of the year. I was waiting for the R-3..but then took a look at the CBR 300R...and make the choice right there.. cheaper, and I could have it now.

Paddocks is a good place up in BKK for your assessories.

Cheers Mate

On the pegs.

[JustAnotherFarang]

Just been on my first ride, 50 km through winding mountain roads and I must say, Wow, so impressively smooth, balanced and when climbing up the mountain roads, exhilarating with so much acceleration to spare. I never realised biking was this much fun until today.

Now I will plan to take a few days off work and go riding upto Chumphon. Happy happy, joy joy

JAF

[guzzi850m2]

Where are THE photos?? or we don't believe you

Edited July 28, 2015 by guzzi850m2

[JustAnotherFarang]

Where are THE photos?? or we don't believe you

I didnt take any photos as its just a stock bike and I was too busy twisting the throttle to stop, point and click some pictures. But in the next few days I will be taking it out for a longer ride and will stop occasionally for some snapshots of the beautiful south. What I can say is that it is fast, smooth and really great fun for what is a beginners bike.

On a side note, everything seems perfect but there is a strange slight burning smell coming from the exhaust. Hard to explain but it smells a little like chemicals. Is this normal on a day one bike ?

JAF

[macknife]

Just to add my two penneth worth... A friend of mine was eagerly awaiting the release of the R3, because he wanted to buy a 300 and new it would be a sharp looking bike. However... he recently rented one for a day and tested it along with two friends. They all found it to be twitchy in the corners and lacking in power compared to other 300cc bikes; hugely disapointed - it looks the part, but apparently doesn't deliver.

He went ahead and bought a CB300F and finds it better in pretty much all areas... although wished he had perhaps bought the CBR300 for the better wind protection (he is a hard and fast rider by the way).

I can't believe this. I too was eagerly awaiting to buy the R3. I'll admit I was a little disappointed with the fit and finish so I opted for a Ninja 300 instead which I don't regret. I have heard too that it isn't great when ridden hard in the corners but I can't believe a CB300F is better in all areas. I haven't ridden a R3 but i have ridden a CB300, it's a decent bike but has nothing on the Ninja. The R3 has 1-2hps on the Ninja and about 15hps on the Honda, I can't speak for the handling but there can be no way it is lacking in power compared to the CB300.

[macknife]

Where are THE photos?? or we don't believe you

I didnt take any photos as its just a stock bike and I was too busy twisting the throttle to stop, point and click some pictures. But in the next few days I will be taking it out for a longer ride and will stop occasionally for some snapshots of the beautiful south. What I can say is that it is fast, smooth and really great fun for what is a beginners bike.

On a side note, everything seems perfect but there is a strange slight burning smell coming from the exhaust. Hard to explain but it smells a little like chemicals. Is this normal on a day one bike ?

JAF

Don't worry it's the exhaust, the burning smell is normal on a new bike or new exhaust. It will soon go away.

[Can samui]

Dont worry JAF, you are just burning the bike in. Varnishes and oils will burn off all the hot bits.

[mark131v]

Just to add my two penneth worth... A friend of mine was eagerly awaiting the release of the R3, because he wanted to buy a 300 and new it would be a sharp looking bike. However... he recently rented one for a day and tested it along with two friends. They all found it to be twitchy in the corners and lacking in power compared to other 300cc bikes; hugely disapointed - it looks the part, but apparently doesn't deliver.

He went ahead and bought a CB300F and finds it better in pretty much all areas... although wished he had perhaps bought the CBR300 for the better wind protection (he is a hard and fast rider by the way).

Seems to be a bit of a Marmite bike, you love it or you hate it with no in-betweens....I love it! what's more I have owned one for 3000km and ride it most days and have zero regrets I just wish all the guys who slate it would check it themselves rather than listen to hearsay or a friend of a friend etc its easy enough to do and allows you to speak from a position of knowledge

I have been on a long fast run again today with my CB500 following the missus on the R3, I drive fast and fairly aggressively and I was working hard and enjoying myself and I can state quite categorically that the R3 is not down on power against the 500 so your mates CB300F must be something very special. I would go as far as to say I think the R3 is all over the CBR500 as well, it is certainly more fun to ride and just as quick

If you want to ride the R3 fast and aggressive it can catch you out on high speed down shifting and engine braking when you are new to the bike as there is no slipper clutch but you very soon get used to its character and personally I think the little squeaks from the tires on fast downshiffting is awesome and adds to the experience, it feels inherently safe to me so I do not understand other peoples experiences but it has never scared me yet or felt it was getting ready to let go

There are lots of independent reviews out now and the vast majority are saying what I am and that it is a nice fast basic little bike. If you are happy with a CB 300 then I am happy for you and I hope you have plenty miles of fun and safe riding but I know for an absolute fact I would get bored with the lack of ooompth on the 300 very fast as I get bored on the 500 sometimes as well

Honestly I have never been bored on the R3 and now I have fitted the R6 throttle body it is even better and feels like it belongs there, I think Yamaha may have purposely dumbed it down to fit into the beginner market and make it more forgiving...!!

[JustAnotherFarang]

Another 140km trip today and I have to say that the the more I ride this bike, the better it feels. At first I was a little timid into corners and around bends but the faster I go, the safer it feels and of course, its more fun too. Here are the photos of my trip to the beach near Ranong.

JAF

[Can samui]

Nice! Glad you are enjoying your ride.

Stay safe.

[recom273]

I have to buy what I need online as I live down south. I checked out Lazada and bought a few things like knee protectors, body armour, gloves and bike cover. The other bits like tail tidy, rear mud guard and slider bars will be from one of the shops shown above. I will also buy the R3 helmet from Yamaha but cannot find the designs online to see which one I would like

JAF

Things are getting better in the south, I don't know if you get to Hat Yai, but there are a few places worth looking.

Check in with 320sp on Facebook / Line - you can always send them pics of things you see around, quite helpful.

[Happy Grumpy]

Great stuff, love to see a happy biker loving his new bike.

[JustAnotherFarang]

So what petrol should I be putting into my bike. I have been asking for 95 but I am not sure if thats a better fuel than 91. Did not see much of a price difference and want to put the best fuel in my bike.

JAF

[mark131v]

So what petrol should I be putting into my bike. I have been asking for 95 but I am not sure if thats a better fuel than 91. Did not see much of a price difference and want to put the best fuel in my bike.

JAF

I use 95 but have used 91 before and I cant recall any differences really, I do tend to stick with the higher octane stuff if it is available and the shop did say to use 95

[Shurup]

Look at what the owners manual says and go with it. If it's not a high performance (high CR), engine, then there's no benefits using 95 over the 91. 95 isn't cleaner, it won't give you more power, it isn't better etc... it's just a higher octane number which isn't required to be used in your bike. The only time where you mught see benefits in using 95 is when the engine knock occurs and the ecu retards the timing (therefore reducing power output) to prevent the engine damage.

Now if you compare the benzene (which is only available now in 95) with gasohol, the benzene is clearly the better fuel.

[dezy1801]

So what petrol should I be putting into my bike. I have been asking for 95 but I am not sure if thats a better fuel than 91. Did not see much of a price difference and want to put the best fuel in my bike.

JAF

I use 95 Shell V-Power when I can and if I cant get Shell then I use PTT 95, I have always used this on my bikes here in Thailand 2008 R6, 2012 R1.

[TheRoadWarrior]

The only time where you mught see benefits in using 95 is when the engine knock occurs and the ecu retards the timing (therefore reducing power output) to prevent the engine damage.

putting in higher octane kind of acts like a safety net.... in case you end up getting some watered down bad quality gas.... having higher octane left in the tank will help dilute the bad gas..... if youre running minimum octane already, putting in some bad gas will bring the average tank level down even further and you could suffer some issues.

the cost difference between 91 and 95 on a motorcycle fill up is incredibly negligible.... dont see any reason why you wouldnt put in higher octane when you have the choice.... unless youre really on a tight budget and need to pinch pennies (which i can understand)

[speedtripler]

Benzine is a much superior product, I used to run it exclusively on my older bikes and never needed to use the kick-start

Gasohol seems less flammable ime

[Shurup]

The only time where you mught see benefits in using 95 is when the engine knock occurs and the ecu retards the timing (therefore reducing power output) to prevent the engine damage.

putting in higher octane kind of acts like a safety net.... in case you end up getting some watered down bad quality gas.... having higher octane left in the tank will help dilute the bad gas..... if youre running minimum octane already, putting in some bad gas will bring the average tank level down even further and you could suffer some issues.

the cost difference between 91 and 95 on a motorcycle fill up is incredibly negligible.... dont see any reason why you wouldnt put in higher octane when you have the choice.... unless youre really on a tight budget and need to pinch pennies (which i can understand)

I see the logic in your thinking and I agree, but during years that I have been riding/driving here, I have only only once had issues with my older bike stalling and hot start problems due to the bad fuel. I always fill up at PTT and that only time I had problem was the Shell fuel. Also I quite often had problems with Shell fuel in Canada so I don't use them anymore.

My 2 newer bikes I always used the minimum required fuel for these bikes, one is 91 and another one is 95, no issues at all with over 20k km combined from both bikes.

Edit to add.

Also let's not forget about the CR vs fuel Octane rating. Regular fuel can be used with over 12:1 CR with retarded timing, OP's bike is only 11.2:1 and many other engines are way less than that so there really no benefits in using a high octane fuel other than questionable safety factor in case of a bad fill. Most if not all modern vehicles will retard the timing when knock is detected to prevent the engine damage.

My opinion which is based on scientific research and experience with variety of engines is that there's no need to use anything other than recommended by the manufacturer, but of course if it makes someone feel better they can fill their tank with gold for all I care.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Shurup