Upgrade to Thundercat?

[Glenben92]

Right here's my dilemma...

I'm currently riding a GPZ500 and it's been absolutely excellent to me, i like the looks, i love the reliability and i fucking ADORE the fuel economy (80mpg being careful, just under 70 going mad). but I hate the fact that at anything but high revs, it feels and sounds like a tractor. It picks up very quickly at higher revs but there's sod all lower down (i'm sure 90% of you have owned one at some point so you'll appreciate the bike's attributes). I've been looking at other bikes and as long as I stay away from supersport insurance categories, I can afford to insure pretty much anything. I'm becoming increasingly tempted by an IL4 for sound/smoothness but I realise that my economy will take a good kicking for this. I'm particularly interested in a Thundercat, but I'm needing someone who's had something to do with them to gather the relevant info i need before i decide to up my running costs significantly.
I commute daily on my bike and need it to be rather reliable (I'm a stickler for preventative maintenance, however, which has kept me out of the shit so far) so i need to know what i can expect from a TC. My other main question would be what economy can I expect, considering I've seen many people quote absolute high's of 60mpg from a GPZ and as low as just under 50 at times, I don't particularly trust the quoted statistics. I've always seemed to get more MPG than expected from any bike, but how much of a hit will i be likely to take here?

Right I've went into Teflon-mode so I'll sum up, I need info regarding:
Running costs (basic maintenance sorta shit)
Fuel economy (in detail if possible)
Reliability

Cheers peeps, thanks for wasting 5 minutes on me
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57 Huoniao HN125-8 - , 97 Kawasaki GPZ500S -
99 Yamaha FZS 600 -
Mod 2 Passed - 01/10/2010

[J4mes]

I get about 160 miles to a tank before the light comes on, although I am a fairly new rider and don't use my gears as carefully as I could I expect. And as I'm new, the fun of wanging past traffic in 2nd hasn't worn off either, and I spend a lot of time doing it.

Haven't had any basic maintenance costs on mine yet, or reliability issues. Mines a 1997 with 19K on it. My fork seals are leaking a touch, and my cam chain tensioner is rattling too.

Its very comfortable (far more than the er-5, gs500 and cb500 I rode while I was learning) and obviously to me, it feels very very quick.

Hope that is of some use

[weasley]

I get mid- to low- fifties mpg, even when ridden 'progressively'. This usually means around 170 miles to a tank, but can get near 200 if taken easy.

I've had mine nearly 10 years and the only thing I have had to fix is a failed spark plug cap. It is very comfortable (1,500 miles in a long weekend no problem), pretty sprightly and unlike a lot of supersports 600s has a really useful mid-range, meaning you can ride it lazily or on full attack depending on your mood. It has more peak torque than every R6 model that has followed it, which makes roll-on performance pretty impressive.

The reason I've had mine so long is that whenever I think of changing it I ride it again and wonder why. It does all I need it to and costs pennies to run.

Other bikes are available (CBR600F, ZZR600, TT600) but I love my Cat.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

[Glenben92]

[TheDonUK]

Buy a G/J ZX6R, probably better parts availability, again probably faster than a cat, they can be had for 1500.

I seem to remember 140 till reserve and then another 20 miles. And thats riding like a twat...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Glenben92]

[Glenben92]

[TheDonUK]

I think ZZR's are Fugly, big fat back end.

On the winterization front, my ZX6 lived outside, sometimes with a cover, sometimes not, definately not hosed down between rides.

It took an old man on a roundabout to kill it...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Maruchino]

[TheDonUK]

Dont get a J then, get a G, the single headlight looks better than the foxeye style ones, and G's are always ridden by riding gods and J's by newbs
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[J4mes]

160 between fill ups ( putting in £21 or 15.5 litres of fuel) is about 47mpg

[Maruchino]

[weasley]

[herulach]

On the fazer (more or less same engine) I get between 53 (commuting 10+ miles of motorway filtering +10miles of clear motorway) Long runs are between 55 and 60 (depending if the boxes are on or not). Don't do a great deal of town riding but probably in the 50s. I'm by no means a hooligan, although I do tend to rev its tits off (I like the noise )
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YBR 125>FZS600

[totalllama82]

I really enjoyed my Thundercat although, It died with bigend failure (very uncommon thing to happen apparently).

The bike regularly returned 50-55mpg on my commute. There are plenty of parts for them on eBay and servicing bits are around standard price for any Sports Touring 600.

They have around 100bhp so aren't terribly slow off the mark either.

The biggest thing to look out for is 2nd gear failure on this bike. On your test run nail it in 2nd gear and if it jumps out into neutral then walk away.

Here is a handy resource for the bike. https://www.yzf600r.com/phpBB2/
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Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[Glenben92]

This 2nd gear failure is REALLY putting me off. The more I read about it, the more it seems like a major problem that's gonna seriously limit the bike's life span as far as serious, costly repairs are concerned.
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57 Huoniao HN125-8 - , 97 Kawasaki GPZ500S -
99 Yamaha FZS 600 -
Mod 2 Passed - 01/10/2010

[herulach]

[Glenben92]

[weasley]

[Glenben92]

[herulach]

[J4mes]

As above, I'd imagine that the R6 probably suffers with it much more than the Fazer and Tcat due to the kind of bikes, riders and riding style.

£1500-£2K will get you the pick of pretty much all of the bikes out there, so absolutely no reason to buy one with faults IMO.

[jjdugen]

Even if you are EXTREEMLY unlucky to get a gearbox fault, the YZF / Thundercat / Fazer engine block can be stripped in the frame and spare parts are very reasonable too. The main downside of this generation of Yamaha is down to build quality, just check the chassis over for rust / rusty fasteners etc.
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The CBR900RR has been sold. Aprilia Falco worms its way into my heart.
Try Soi 23 on Amazon for a good read.... Self promotion? Moi?

[Walloper]

I had a Thundercat for about two years after passing my test.
I think I got between 170 180 per tank.
Do you want to arrive in economy or in a bit of Style?
I replaced Brake pads, Sparking plugs and Tyres.

Only issue really is the front brake callipers can drag a little if you don't keep them clean. Wash off the bike regularly to get rid of road salt.

More than enough bike. They handle well and you'll not be too far off the mark following litre bikes (from around the same era) either.
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[totalllama82]