Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1995 Kawasaki ZX·6R The Kawasaki ZX-6R may just be the fastest 600cc of them all. The bike Is an al lnew mode l, jo ining the Ninja 600 and Ninja ZX· 6 to give Kawasaki three motorcycles In the 600cc sportblke class. e ngine co nfig u ratio n , but p ro vid es a s t raigh ter, more efficie n t p ort for im proved volu metric efficiency. The b ore and s tro ke has also bee n cha nged to accom moda te the b igg e r valves . T he b o re is 22mm la r ger at 66.Omm, and the stro ke is 2.8mm sho rter a t 43.8mm. As a result of th e s ho rter stroke, the ZX-6R red lines at 14,000 rpm. Tha t's way up there. A co ns ta n t sup ply of fres h air is dem anded by the high -revving engine, so the ZX-6R inco rpo ra tes the sa me dual ra m- air d esign th a t is fea tu red on th e ZX-9R. Ka w asaki wen t to g rea t le ng ths to keep the ZX-6R light and trim. As mentioned , the narrow inclu ded valve ang le help s keep things compact, the cams are h ollow ed ou t, th e larger pi st on s a re lighter, the spa cing of the gears are closer together, a nd th e switch to a rightside cam drive also reduces eng ine size significantly. Now that the cam sprockets ar e mounted to the side, this allows the cylinders to be placed close r togeth er and to provide a straigh ter and sho rter comb ustio n path from the airbox to the exhaust pipe. To h an d le the extra .torqu e, the all new cable-actuated clutch has tw o additional steel and fricti on plates, ye t ar e smaller in d iam eter to keep weight at a minimum. More power eq ua ls more heat, so, as a resu lt, th e rad iat or cooli ng ca paci ty has been sig nificantly increased. Kaw a s ak i cl aim s th a t th e e n t ire Kawasaki f ro m goi ng a ll-o ut a n d squeezing even more power fro m the liq ui d-coole d , in -l in e, four-cylinder, do hc, 16-valve mot or . Simply put, this bike rips. And ther e are man y reason s for this. For one, the intake ports, which are fe d by a b an k of n ew 36 m m Ke ih in down d raft CV carb ure to rs, are sho rter and provid e a straighter shot of fuel into the combus tion chamber. Tucked inside the redesig ned head are mu ch bi gger v alv es. The intak e v a lves are n ow a who ppi ng 27mm and the exha ust valves measure 22.6mm, giving the ZX-6R the b iggest va lves in it s cla ss. Plus, the in cluded valve angle is now super-narro w at 25 d e g re e s, w hich , n ot o n ly allow s for a more compact fron t-to-bac k engine, in cluding th e ex ha ust system, cooling system and carbu reto rs, ha s be reduced by 16.5 pou nd s. Kawasaki also spent a lot of time and effort keeping the ZX-6R qui et, despite th e fact th at th e new four-into - tw o exhaust sys tem, which features an aluminum instead of steel, silencer bod y, is less res trictiv e than before. According to Kawasaki , eng ineers paid most of their atten tion into muffling en gine /mechanical noi ses. In theory, by reducing engine noise, the exhaus t sys tem can be made less restricti ve, thus improving engine performance. Some of the more uni qu e way s Kawasaki d eadens eng ine noise was by installing foam on the righ t side of the engi ne, and va rious engi ne covers , s uc h as the clutch an d ge nera to r By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones a lk a bo ut -r a in in g on s o m e o n e's parade.Tu st whe n Honda thou gh t it had the 600cc spo rtbike class firm ly clenched in the pa lm of its hand for th e umpteenth time w ith its a ll- ne w CBR600 F-3, Kaw asaki comes along and casts its sha do w over Honda's seemi ngly premature ce le b ra t io n p arty b y unveiling an all-new and tightl y' spru ng mi ds ize sportbike of its own - the lon g overd ue and much talk ed abo ut ZX-6R. The ZX-6R is now the third motor cycle in Kawasaki 's line of very flickable, 600cc sportbikes, Kawasaki is still offer ing the "budget" Ninja 600 at $5599, as well as its previous answer to the CBR, the Ni nja ZX-6 a t $7099 - but n ow they' ve added what cou ld end up being th e new king o f th e 600cc sportbi ke cl a ss, th e ZX- 6R . Bu t wait, there's a catch. The ZX-6R is a little on the pricey sid e, retailing for·$7899 (ouch!), which is $600 more than the asking price of the Honda C BR600 F-3 , a m ode l lon g regard ed as the class standard . If price is any indica tion as to it s performance, then the ZX-6R sho uld (or, had better ) be one hell of a bike. High pri ce means high expecta tions, and th at is exac tly w hat we had aft er Kaw asaki phoned u s to say we could get ou r swea ty little h and s on one of only four ZX-6Rs in the country (at the tim e) and hang on to it for abo u t two week s. Th ese are th e kind . of ca lls w e lik e. Unfortunately, a few day s later, Kawa saki called us back and said there had been a change in pl ans an d that th ey ne ed ed th e b ike re turned eve n soo ner. These are the kind of ph one calls we don' t like . Howev er, a littl e rid ing tim e is better th an non e at all, and' we did get a chanc e to wring out the ZX a few times befo re reluctantly han ding the keys back to the Big K. T 26 It' s o nly n atura l to comp are the super-serio us ZX-6R to the more amiab le an d easygoing ZX-6 , fir st in trodu ced in 1989 and further updated in '91, but about the onl y th ing these two bik es ha ve in common are their nam esa kes and mod el d esignati on s. Tha t's about it. You see, every part on the ZX• 6R has been eithe r chan ged, redesign ed, or at the very least, refined . Thou gh this was to be expe cted. After all, with rivals like th e CBR and th e n e w Ya ma ha YZF600 to con tend wit h, Kawasaki had no choice but to go all-out wit h the ZX6R in order to perh aps surpas s or, if a ny thi ng, to just kee p p a ce with the "[oneses, " . The ZX-6 was never criticized for the lack of horsepower, but that didn't stop

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