Reviews

Browsing through reviewcentre.com I found this review of the Cat and its 2nd gear 'issue' -

Seems a bit heavy handed to me as its less of an issue than reviews like to make out...

There a few interesting reads on the site if you get 5 mins...

Review of Yamaha YZF-600R Thundercat 600
"Very notorious gearbox"

The biggest flaw of this bike: gearbox.
Bikes of this generation are very notorious for their 2nd gear issues. The dogs on the 2nd gear cogs wear out pretty soon than many other bikes, which leaves it exposed to grinding every time you shift. I had been jumping from 1st to 3rd to avoid this, but my neighbourhood is traffic-less,nothing like a typical neighbourhood. I can manage many turns in 3rd gear, barely able to keep it from stalling. A few times while shifting down from 3rd to 1st directly, my gearbox jammed. You heard it right, "jammed" in the middle of the road. Thankfully it was a stop sign. I muscled my bike to a parking lot nearby. Embarrassing! Shame on you, Yamaha! At least make the replacement parts cheaper!
Eventually, you WILL have to replace the 2nd gear. Here is another nightmare! To open up the gearbox, you have to take the whole engine apart. That means that you have to takes the plastics off, wiring off, carburettor off, chain, sprockets, dismount the engine off the frame, open up the engine, the clutch AND THEN access the gearbox! Silly, isn't it?

Not a particularly well written review from the other side of the pond is it!

Might have been helpful if he mentioned how he has been riding his bike. A few wheelies maybe?

No Steve, because over all everyone else raves about it. He may have got a 'Saturday Morning' Cat lol.

never had a problem with either of my 2 cats at over 50k each

Aha! I get to throw my two pennies in on this one!!

Right, before I got the Cat I now have, I was doing all my homework, and read many reviews like the one above - including the one above.

A few weeks after buying my Cat, I was bearing all of that "second gear issue" in mind, and thought to myself I should try, just in case I have a rebuild on my hands. Four figures is something i dont have, or want to spend on the bike unless its doing something like a restoration!

Quite frankly, I put it down to rider error - as in the gear change may not have been all that to begin with - in my opinion. Not that I go around thrashing the daylight out of second, but out of all the times I have "had a go" at the so called test its only ever happened to me twice, the first time, thats when panic set in; not long after I bought it.

However, having tried it a few more times afterward, I picked up on a particularly "sloppy" change up to second, so its possible it wasnt selected properly in the first place, but enough to get it going, to the point where it clicked out. Probably due to centrifugal force on a non correctly engaged gear, will throw it out at 10K rpm. Continuous "rider error" will damage parts, which would mean a rebuild of the gearbox eventually. And make the bike appear to have an issue.

All it takes is a bunch of people with Cats, not changing gear correctly unknowingly, or unaware and thus knackering the box, to give a bike a reputation for having said issues. Then they just gotta post it on tinternet a few times... and hey "it must be true, its on tinternet"

The way I see it - Yamaha wouldnt design a box thats faulty, as it would cost thousands in parts and labour, under warranty and as much as I dislike the salesmen, and the mechanics are only as good as they allow themselves to be (along with keeping costs down for the company) They also have a reputation to maintain

Needless to say this is just my 2p on this, and am open to correction on most of it, but bottom line, I blame the bit of meat trying to control the machine

Wait . . . wait . . . are you telling me that what I read on the interwebby isn't true . . . . . . OMG !!!

its getting late, your imagining things