Advantages: superb handling. decent riding position.
Disadvantages: corrosion

...bought a fazer 600 as a first bike almost five year ago. Have since ridden almost 40,000 miles in all weathers inc. a trip to the Isle of Man TT races in 2003. This machine is an ideal first bike, excellent in cornering, good brakes and can be forgiving when slight mistakes are made. it's handling makes it superb on all roads including filtering through heavy traffic in town. it is also quite comfortable cruising along the motorway, with a good riding position and a good view from the mirrors. As with any bike it needs regular servicing the main points being the chain and brakes, which if not looked after will wear quite quickly. yamahas are prone to corrosion and after five years of punishment I have had to replace the down pipes of the exhaust and the front brake calipers. Therefore I recommend regular cleaning and polishing... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, reliable, easy handling
Disadvantages: Weaker lights than later Foxeye version. Design flaw with sprocket nut.

...with the final drive, the thread for the front sprocket nut is too fine and strips occasionally, this allows the sprocket to move about on the splined shaft enough to cause damage to the chain if you don't notice the problem immediately. I've taken to welding the nut on, but Yamaha have acknowledged the problem and will replace the shaft free of charge if the thread is badly damaged. The nut has also been redesigned so has a greater threaded portion... make sure you get the new deeper type come sprocket replacement time, the Yamaha part number is 90891-10124. The only other design flaw is the headlight which is very feeble. Early models of the FZS600 (1997 to 2001) use the left beam only for dip: there is a popular modification to get the dipped filament on the right hand headlight to operate as well. I took the difficult route: examined the service... Read review

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Advantages: Performance, Cost
Disadvantages: Quality of finish disappointing, Falling Off

...bikes need TLC much more so than cars, Yamaha's are not renowned for the quality of the finish and the Fazer is no exception, infrequent cleaning especially in winter will result in a very shabby bike in no time. The forks, exhaust down-pipes and engine especially benefit from special attention. The paint finish is not bad, but will scratch quite easily if you are not careful with keys, luggage or zips on clothing. As a first big bike its a winner, I am looking to change it for something else now, not because I don't like it, but just feel the need to try something new, maybe an Aprilla Falco or even a BMW 1150GS!... Read review

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Advantages: Great
Disadvantages: Seat only good for an hours riding.

...All the reviews stated this bike is ideal for just about any type of riding, touring, commuting, fun days out and B road blasting. I bought mine in the Spring of 2004 and have used it for all of these types of riding and have to say it almost, not quite, but almost lives up to the hype. My bike a shiny blue one, R1 Blue I'm told, after scratching it once I found its listed as Deep Purlish Blue Metallic on the Yamaha paint supply lists, how's that for a colour? Still it looks great and is mainly blue but has a nice purple tinge when caught in the right light nice! Mine is a 2003 model with the Fox eye headlights and other improvements over the older model shown in the picture above. The ride is good with adjustable suspension front and rear, I keep the front wound round to the firmer end of the dials and the rear somewhere towards... Read review

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Advantages: Look ok, not to expensive, good feel and turning.
Disadvantages: Might not be great for really fast riders.

...First off I know how much stick Michelin have had over their performance the MotoGP! I am glad to report that I have not had such poor results from my Michelin Pilot Road tyres fitted to my trusty Yamaha FZS600 Fazer. I had these rubber boots fitted in replacement for the recommended Bridgestones that the bike was fitted with from new. I didn't really like the feel of the earlier tyres with the turn in quite sharp and at lean I didn't feel quite at ease on them. So I asked around and was told that the Michelin's should suit the way I ride with a nice gently turn into the corners and good even grip across the profile no matter what sort of angle. I have to say I haven't been dissapointed with them so far. So far I have covered about 2,000 miles on a set of these rubbers and they show only the slightest signs of wear on the rear as I... Read review

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Advantages: Design, fit, finish & sound excellent!
Disadvantages: New lugs take a little getting used to.

...I bought my new Yamaha kit from Roli Garcia in Laredo, Texas. He's been my drum dealer now for about 6 years and offers great service before, during and after the sale. I first highly recommend you check him out, no matter what part of the country you are in. He's on ebay as "drumroom". Now on to the drums....NOUVEAU My first choice through Roli was a DW Collectors series kit in a wrap finish. He told me when I went to plunk down the deposit that he was now a Yamaha dealer and that they had some great kits in stock. I told him I would go check out the newest Yamaha kit I could find at my local drum shop and do some comparisons -vs- the Collector Series from DW. Price wise there is no real comparison with the Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Nouveau kit in the same sizes coming in at about 30% less retail than the DW's. Yamaha definitely... Read review

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Advantages: it looks nice
Disadvantages: its junk basically. Very fussy with regard CDRs

...Yamaha was recommended to me as the best brand in CDwriters. So I ended up buying a 4260. This is a six speed read, four speed write and two speed rewrite drive. Pleasently styled. It was simple enough to configure but sadly the drive was not solid in operation. There seemed to be numerous problems at first configuring software for the drive. Even when it was successful it wasn't as the CDs it made weren't exactly good readers on other CDROM drives. I could witter on for ages saying all the hassle I had with the drive but I won't suffice to say I was very disappointed in this product and wouldn't touch a Yamaha CDwriter again unless it was dirt cheap. Even though I'd only had the drive a little over a year I decided to replace it with a HP model. This drive was everything the Yamaha wasn't, hassle free, stable and made excellent CDs. I... Read review

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Advantages: Numerous movie settings,
Disadvantages: Flimsey rear speaker connections

...After doing a significant bit of research, I recently purchased a Yamaha RX-V596RDS home cinema receiver. The reason i chose Yamaha was that i had been told on numerous occasions how excellent these home cinema products were at recreating the cinema experience. I wasn't let down. Films such as Lost In Space and Blade sound amazing. With Pro logic, Dolby Digital and DTS decoding and the latest in movie sound settings, as well as RDS, this piece of kit has everything. All you need to do is sit back and enjoy.... Read review

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Advantages: Versatile, friendly but not boring
Disadvantages: Suspension!

...... Read review

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Advantages: Cheaper than competitors, cheaper repairs e.t.c
Disadvantages: Not as up to date as Roland V Drums.

...I'm an owner of the now discontinued DTX V2. An old version of Yamaha's electronic drum series. I've been playing drums for about 3 years now. And I am soon to be taking my grade 4 examination. I think it speaks quite highly for the Yamaha DTX range that a discontinued second hand product I bought for £250 off ebay is quite simply, a great model for alot of user groups. Yamaha DTX drums are cheaper than rolands, their current entry level model being sold at about £450 pounds as a 5 piece. Compared to Rolands entry level which is £600 for a 4 piece. You might not get all the fancy items as the Roland but that doesn't make the DTX series any less functional. I've used my DTX V.2 on recordings and the results have been lovely. It has a great set of sounds. About 200 for each drum with 64 preset kits and 3 user made kits. It also has a MIDI... Read review

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