Thanks all for the welcomes
In response to Steve's post, I did manage to make it to the NEC on the first Sunday and had a good half an hour looking around the M and sitting on it whilst the missus was snapping away!
Agree, you'll need to be careful with the swingarm as it will easily get marked.....same thing started to happen on the R7 when I was wearing my Supertech R's, but luckily noticed it before any lasting damage was done. Switched to SMX Plus's after that and problem solved.
I believe last year's M allocation was a bit of a clusterfuck from talking with a contact in a Yam dealer......he had 5 reservations and 1 bike so he contacted YUK asking should he give it to the first person to register and they responded he could pick whoever he wanted

So of the 5 orders, only 1 customer had actually visited his showroom hence he gave the bike to them. I suppose at least he knew the customer and that he was genuine purchaser not looking to sell it on for a profit. Funny story was that when the bike came back in for its 1st service, the customer was telling tales of knee down wild moments, and when they plugged the bike in it showed a maximum lean angle of 16 degrees

.....no doubt when it was on its side stand
Anyway, I figured it was time for a new bike, since the last brand new machine I bought was an R6 from Carnells Milton Keynes (my old employers) back in 1998
And to finish off with......this is the result of low-siding a Bimota SB6 on a sunny Sunday morning

I'd never treat a Yamaha like this.......
