Yamaha r3 highest mileage reliability
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Welcome! There's a few threads around that have discussed this. If I recall there were a few riders upwards of 60k, even up to 80k with no real issues.
Other than normal motorcycle maintenance and replacements, the first 'major' thing needed to be done is the valve clearance check. R3's a very reliable and somewhat bulletproof.
Other than normal motorcycle maintenance and replacements, the first 'major' thing needed to be done is the valve clearance check. R3's a very reliable and somewhat bulletproof.
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32,000+ miles and running strong.
Read of a 650 V-Strom recently that had just passed the 480,000 mile mark. Motor had never been apart, and if I remember correctly at least 5000 miles between oil changes with dino. I think your R3 should be good for at least 100 K if you give it a wee bit of love now and then.
This is a topic that is always of interest to me as well. It's basically the first thing I try to learn about any bike. So, great minds, I guess, haha... Anyway, it depends a bit on the model year. Some of the pre-2019 models did have some serious issues. I don't remember what all, but it was enough that I would personally never buy one older than 2019. Some people are much less concerned about such things and wouldn't worry about it.
Anyway, I'm expecting a solid 50k and hoping for 100k out of the R3 (also, I assume you're referring to MILES, and not kilometers, as of course 100k km is only about 60k miles). To be honest, if you can make it 100,000 miles without ever wadding up a street bike, you're doing quite well! Still I like to think I can avoid physically destroying the R3 and myself before something lets go in the powertrain LOL.
So far, I've only accumulated 3,600 miles on my 2019 R3.
Welcome to the optimistically-eyeballing-100k club! I know there are some bikes out there (e.g. the Strom mentioned above) that have done some pretty ridiculous mileage. I think for the most part, if a particular machine doesn't have any major design imperfections, engineering flaws, or quality control failures, and is a relatively low stress powerplant (i.e. NOT a race bike motor), it should be able to do at least 50k -- even if single cylinder, and hypothetically a fair bit more as a twin or four cylinder. I have seen, over the years, some things like a CBR 600 and a Hayabusa that hove gone to multiple hundreds of thousands of miles without internal engine work. A lot of a motor's shelf life comes down to a pretty wide array of factors -- such as if the owner lets it warm up a bit before ham fisting the throttle on cold mornings, if the owner makes sure the oil level isn't allowed to get low between changes, how hard it gets hammered on in general, average speed and engine RPM, terrain conditions (i.e. around town vs. highway vs. out in the hills vs. race track), the quality and frequency of maintenance services, etc.
Anyway, having researched this quite a bit myself in the past, I can confidently say that a 2019+ R3 is going to be a really solid machine, barring some kind of quality control issue that could always pop up or whatever (nothing that I'm aware of currently in that regard).
Thank you for the replies guys you had some pretty insightful stuff. When the borders open I plan on doing a 6000 mile roadtrip around Europe. I can't conseive the possibility of selling my r3 at the moment but knowing myself and the fact that I'm getting a full licence. The chance of me going to a bike shop and picking a 600/800 is quite high.
I stumbled on this old thread. I'm curious if others have similar opinions on the reliability of pre-2019 models. Frankly, if the 2015-2018 R3's have serious flaws, it's news to me. Anyhow, I'm curious what others think. Is this is one person's opinion (and he/she omitted to provide any details to substantiate his/her claim) or is this general and accepted knowledge? And if there are serious flaws, well what are they?
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I'm not sure what issues they had in mind. There were indeed some Safety Recalls issued the few years following the R3's 2015 introduction. But, I'm unaware of any real mechanical problems. It's engine has been rock solid and the few tranny/shift problems have been dealt with by the factory safety recalls at Yamaha's expense. I think Yamaha has been aggressively proactive taking care of potential problems to justify their, almost annual, reputation of being among the top manufacturers in customer satisfaction.
That's what I thought. I tend to dismiss unsubstantiated claims like that one, but I thought I'd ask just in case. Everything I've been reading about the R3, for all model years, suggests the bike is well built and mechanically reliable, as most Yamahas are.
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There are no issues with any year R3. Recalls for shifter return spring and coolant hose are the extent if it - did not effect all bikes. Permanent corrections from 2017 models onward make these irrelevant. The rumors of pre 19 model 'issues' are silly, as the frame, fuel system, drivetrain, and engine are shared with no major changes made. Front fork, rear shock, tires, LED forward lighting, handlebar/clip-on position, digital dash, and bodywork are the items changed for 19 onward. Many prefer the older fork for its ease of tuning vs inverted - but the consensus is that the fork change improvement was more about the higher spring rate and damping profile than it was about the inverted design, which is mostly cosmetic. Rear shock change in damping and spring is an improvement for some, and an easy update to older bikes. The jury is out on whether the tire change to Dunlop radials was a big improvement, or just a change of vendor when the Michelin Street Pilot bias ply were discontinued in the original sizes. Small section tires are less sensitive to construction changes. Many replace their Street Pilots with Pirelli Sport Demons, which are bias ply. Some, like myself, prefer the riding position (slightly more upright), analog dash, and bodywork of the pre 19 model - not a fan of the new Beluga whale nose, or slab-like sides.
I rode my 300 Ninja for 33,000 miles so I think any Japanese bike getting routine maintenance can go 100,000 without a problem. The bigger issue is why you would want to keep one bike that long. Change is good, and there are a lot of different bikes and brands to ride nowadays. I've had 10 and I'm still having fun.
Just because I did not directly provide the evidence in this post does not mean that it isn't out there and (in this case, at least) incredibly easy to find. Some or even most early-R3 owners will never experience these issues, and I hope no one has to. But for some, they are a very real problem.
That early Yamaha R3 motorcycles had some serious mechanical problems is not an opinion. It is a DOCUMENTED FACT. I don't just make random stuff up for my own amusement, and frankly, I'm a little tired of people insinuating that I have done something like that. If I present something as a fact, it is a fact, period. If it were not, I would not say that it is, because I am an honest person. It's that simple.
I spent literally two minutes just now doing SIMPLE searches that anyone could do very easily and found MULTIPLE SOURCES of evidence supporting the fact that some early-model R3s DID, in fact, have MULTIPLE, "serious flaws" from the factory.
Aside from the reliability issue, if someone rides motorcycles and thinks that cracked triple clamps or oil pump failures are not serious flaws...well, that in itself is a pretty serious safety concern, and I would urge them to reconsider their attitude toward mechanical defects like these.
Yamaha Issues Double Recall for YZF-R3 (rideapart.com)
Problem with Yamaha R3 oil? : motorcycles (reddit.com)
2015-2106 Yamaha R3 Recall #4: Ignition Switch Problem (ultimatemotorcycling.com)
Yamaha Issues a Recall on the 2015 YZF-R3 (rideapart.com)
The "Issues with Coolant Leaks" Thread | Yamaha R3 Forums (r3-forums.com)
Yamaha YZF-R3 recalled for problem with gear shifter and potential coolant leak (indianautosblog.com)
If you spend some time researching this topic, as I did before purchasing my 2019 model, you will see that there are even more issues and that there is plenty of readily available evidence substantiating them. Some of those bikes will never have a problem; some of them absolutely 100% have or will. I don't understand the reasoning behind attempting to contend that indisputable fact, but to each his own, if it floats the boat and all that...
To Yamaha's credit, Yamaha did what it needed to do to ensure that later models (while still not perfect) did not roll out of the factory with these faults, which is why I purchased a 2019 model and routinely praise it as I do.
False. See post #12^^.
That's awesome! I am glad you didn't end up with one of the lemons.
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That's interesting..... We have three R3's in our household. All I knew about was the upper radiator hose issue? Thanks for posting-
Just found this one as I tried to look up for issue with high ODO R3… I ride the first gen 2016 R3 and now it hits near to 65k km. I have no issue with the engine and frequently test the max speed on weekly basic. But I have problems with rubber seal parts, I replaced the front fork oil seal at 40k and recently the rear wheel oil seal at 60k. The deformed oil seal did HUGE damage to my rear: replace the brake disc, 3 bearings and some other parts at this location. Luckily the aluminum wheel still OK. The problem with front fork also leaves several scratches with the outer tube, the dealer said that if that happens again the whole front fork needs to be replaced.
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As I noted, the updates and recalled corrections made to '17 and later apply to the '19 and later as they share the bulk of mechanical components. 7 references to the same two recalls does not make them more substantial. The third recall was about a rear reflector. The oil issue was a non issue, and the ignition issue was only on very early bikes, all repaired for free.
I don't understand why people are so concerned with recalls. If there is a recall notice on your motorbike, or any motor vehicle for that matter, you take it in to the dealer, and they address it for free - it's painless, other than the inconvenience of going to the dealer. Recalls are not what worries me when I look up vehicle reliability. I look for evidence of chronic failures that are expensive to repair (head gaskets, gearbox/tranny issues, engine bearing failures, etc.) that are not covered by warrantee or recall. Those failures can take a while to repair and leave a large hole in your wallet. Recalls don't. Some will argue that multiple recalls are an indication of poor product quality - I'm not convinced.
Having said that, in the limited 7 year lifetime of R3 bikes, it doesn't sounds like there are any major chronic failures identified, ones that would be costly to repair, at least not yet.
Having said that, in the limited 7 year lifetime of R3 bikes, it doesn't sounds like there are any major chronic failures identified, ones that would be costly to repair, at least not yet.
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Spot on. Recalls are free, often proactive repairs to correct an issue with a part discovered, and rarely reflect long term reliability, unless you fail to get the recall work done. Bottom line, get the repair/replacement done at the dealer, done. The recalls so far have been limited to a few VIN numbers or of small batches, so have not proven to be particularly troubling. For those concerned, there are just as many recalls specifically for Gen 2 bikes as there were for Gen 1, so regardless of bike year, check and assure that yours has had all the free work done on it.
The R3 has been sold around the world in large enough volumes that any serious issue would now be exposed as massive customer complaints read about on the web, and magazines commenting about the machine being a poor choice. With tens of thousands sold every year since 2015, thousands of journo tests, millions of miles on odometers around the world, the R3 has proven itself to be a tough ride. There does not appear to be any Gen1 issues ongoing, and, sharing the major mechanicals into Gen2 indicates Yamaha has seen no reason for a redesign going into Gen2, which is more a dress up change and model design share than anything else. If there were real issues, we'd know them by now.
That all said, the R3 is not marketed as a top level power/performance bike. It is sold as an entry level, low cost, lightweight, small cc sports bike. That means it is not designed or engineered to take riders beating the heck out of. If you have the ECU rev limit removed, beat on it every time you ride it, store it outside, ignore regular service, modify it to extract every gram of power you can at an extended redline, and/or patch/ tinker with it to avoid proper repairs, it is going to have a very short life, as will any of the sub 500cc bikes on market today. Yamaha quality can only go so far, the rest is up to owners. Asian bikes get a bad rep from owners trashing them far more than the bikes themselves having real issues. You see this in the mix of high mileage bikes that still look fresh, to low mileage bikes that looked ratted out from abuse. The R3 is no different, regardless of generation.
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