There is a narrow band where a motorcycle is quick enough to hold your attention and calm enough to let you learn, and the R3 lives almost exactly in the middle of it.
The trick is that it is honestly built rather than dressed up. Plenty of small sportbikes are commuters wearing race bodywork, and you find out within one corner. The R3 is properly sorted underneath: the chassis is balanced, the brakes do what you ask the first time, and the engine keeps pulling through the range instead of running out of enthusiasm halfway.
That combination changes how you ride. It rewards smoothness rather than force, so you spend your attention on entry speed and where you are looking, not on wrestling anything. Get a sequence of corners right on it and the bike feels like it was in on the plan.
It is also genuinely easy to live with, which sportbikes usually are not. Comfortable enough for real distances, undramatic in traffic, happy to be used on an ordinary Tuesday.
Fast bikes are easy to find. A bike that is fun at legal speeds is much rarer, and much better company.
