yamaha thunderace opinions.

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the bike looks to have a manageable seat height. 31.3inches according to mcn. and ive seen Richard Hammond riding one on youtube, so i reckon i could too
apparently hes an inch shorter than me

what are peoples opinion of this machine?

its just become another potential on my ever expanding list.

oddly the thundercat seems to have a taller seat.

[Nobby the Bastard]

I'm 5'4 (and a half) and I had no trouble with an fzr1000 which the Thunderace replaced.
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[xX-Alex-Xx]

I have two friends who've owned them previously. Both regret ever getting rid of them.
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DILLIGAF

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[Nobby the Bastard]

[droog]

I had one.

Great bike - very fast, loads of power and comfortable enough to make a decent sports tourer, Yamaha blue spot brakes up front, handles very well and is a lot lighter and nimbler than it looks. Robust construction and ultra - reliable. Possibly one of the best value (alongside the ZX9R) used old school litre sports bikes on the market in my opinion.

There is one issue I should mention - which is the relatively high oil consumption* - (due to production related problems with the cylinder bores and oil getting past the rings) - I would usually have to top up the oil once every 400 miles - usually about 150ml to get it back to the upper level mark on the sight glass and to ensure it never got near the lower level mark. If I was going to do any distance I would take a small quart bottle of oil with me and check the levels when filling up at petrol stations etc - but the bike was very cheap to buy and so good in every other area that I was happy to overlook this one flaw - to me it was not really a big deal - you just had to keep an eye on the oil level.

*Although the oil consumption issue is common - not everyone experiences it - some owners didn't report any problems with oil consumption.

Also the exup valve will seize if it's not lubed up with high temp grease periodically - if the valve is seized the fault is displayed by the rev counter needle which rises to 7k rpm and bounces back to zero again.

[Nobby the Bastard]

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[weasley]

The Thundercat and Thunderace both stayed in production alongside their “replacements” (R6 and R1) and were sort of re-classified as sports-tourers, handing the supersport/superbike batons to the new bikes. Both ‘Thunder’ bikes suffered in the shadow of equivalent Hondas (CBR600 and FireBlade) but both were also effectively facelifts of the previous FZR models.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

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[chickenstrip]

[droog]

[chickenstrip]

Ah, the FZS1000 never got to the point when I'd have to carry some oil with me, not even on very long tours in hot weather with a bit of caning here and there.
I never noticed a problem when I had my FZR1000 EXUP (same engine as the 'Ace isn't it?), but then I never had that long enough (from new) to really judge. Certainly never occurred to me to carry oil with that, even on long trips (longest I did was from northern Germany to Le Mans and back one weekend, plenty of caning). Maybe by the end of ownership it was running on just a thin layer of remaining lube and an empty sump, and I wrote it off before it could lunch itself
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