Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127718
R IDING IMPRESSION 1995 Yamaha YZF600R e Cflown the FZR for more responsi ve handljng and to aid in the bike's w eight d istribution char acteris tics. Speaking of we ight, the YZF600R tips the scales at a sve lte 406 pounds - 11 pounds greater than the old FZR bu t o n ly 5 p o u nds g rea ter than Kaw asaki's new ZX-6R and almost tw o pounds lighter than the Honda CBR600F3. Suspens io n is obviously race-bred . Front d amping is handled by a conventional 41mm Kayaba fork which features a tw o-piece ou te r tube and is preload adjus table. Front wh eel travel is 5.1 inches. The link-type, rising-rat e Monocr oss rear suspe ns ion is cons tru cte d of hi gh tensile steel and is adjus table for both preload and rebound damping. The Kayaba shock's rear wheel tr av el measures 4.7 inches. To h aul the little YZF down from spee d, front braking cho res are taken u p by a pair of 298mm floating di scs with four-pis ton ca lipers . . w hile a s in g le 245mm di sc with a twin-piston binder helps put on the whoa from the rear . The bike rolls down the road on new 17-inch. three-spoke wheel s sho d with Bridgestone Battlax radials - a 120/ 60ZR17 up front and a 160/60ZR17 in the rear. Anoth er area where the YZF600R mimics the YZF750 - but in a posi tive way - is in the sty ling department. The 600's large yet ae rodyna mica lly efficient fairing /windscreen h ou ses du al ca t-eye headligh ts, and the bik e's upswept rear (Left) Althoug h the Yamaha VZF600R is the exact same motorcyle that was offered in 1994, labeling it " unchanged" is somewhat mis leading. Yamaha introd uced the bike in Ap ril 1994 as a 1995 model. (Below) Poetry in motion: The VZF600R's health y midrange power and excellent handling characteri stics make for an exc it ing ride on or off the race track. By Scott Rousseau Photos by Paul Carruthers he battle for middleweig~t supers port su pre macy IS turning into a bloodbath. In fact, the competitive ferocity currently sweeping the 600cc sportb ike class may be even grea ter than that of the more premier Superbike class. The wino n-S u nd ay-se ll-o n-Mond ay adage has been take n to heart with great convicti on by three of the Big Four manufacturers as 600cc sa les hav e continued to rise even thou gh Suz uki has elected not to field a new- generati on GSX-R600, yet. Yama ha is takin g the class every bit as se rio usly as its rivals, th ough. H avin g claimed the AMA 600cc Supe rsport .title in 1989 and '90 with the hyper-ha ndling Yam ah a FZR600, the firm was content to sit back and wa tch as Honda, Suzuki and Kaw asaki eac h stepped u p w ith b ran dnew machinery and claimed the title for th e next th ree years, respectively, w hile the FZR got progre ssively longer in tooth. Finally, Yamaha sa id no more, and in 1994 came forw ard with the successor to the FZR600. Introduced as a 1995 mod el, the Yamaha YZF600R upped the ante in the 600cc Supersport stakes. With Jamie James competing in the class aboard a Vance & H ines-prep pe d version, the bike was an immed iate success, reclaim ing the AMA 600c<; Supersport tit le in '94 . How did they do it? ยท Well, for one, Yamaha started with a clean sheet of paper when designing the YZF600R. Nothi ng is carried over from the old model, yet Yamaha engineers didn't abandon the formula for success that bro ught them two straight titles with the FZR. T II e I e ~ ~ ~ w -' u: To s t ar t with, the YZF' s forw ard inclined, liquid-cooled, fou r-va lve, d oh c, in-line four is yet an other genera tio n of the gro undbreaking Gen esis engine family, and di splacemen t remains at 599cc. But the similarities end there, as Yamaha opted to o pe n up th e bore and shorten th e s troke o n th e n e w YZF m ot or to increase top-end overrev. Bore an d stroke figure s for the YZF engine are 62 x 49.6mm co mpared to the FZR 's more square 59 x 54.8mm . The YZF cylinder walls u tilize a ceramic-composite plating for increased reliability. The new bore size has spa wned a new four-valve cylinder head, which includes a more compact combustion chamber and a narro wer va lve ang le. Natu ra lly, th e shape of the ports has been redesigned to take full advantage of the head's breathing abiliti es wit h the 12.0:1 compression ratio. Having noth ing to do with the FZR, the YZF's new chassis no do ubt went to sch ool on its o ne-year-o lder sister, the YZF750R. But the all-aluminum Deltabox fram e with detacha ble subframe is still speci fic to the 600, as Yama ha no doubt wanted to avoid the de bacle of fielding an o verweig h t, 600-in-750 -c1othing mi ddl eweight a la Suzuki' s ill-fated GSXR600. Overall frame length measures in at 81.1 inches while the actual wheelbase of the YZF was shortened some 5mm over ta il section and blue / o range / m agenta splash graphic treatment complement its racy looks. Climbing aboard the bike to be tt er acclimate ourselves with th e cockpit revea led sev e ra l nice ties, s u ch as a seat / p eg /handleb ar rel a tion sh ip tha t was aggressive yet not too confining for even ou r six-foo t-tall testers. The instrument panel is ea sy to read, and all th e controls on the handl ebars were sim ple eno ugh to operate. Another neat tou ch is the bike's on / reserve fuel sw itch. located on the left portion of the fairing below the hand lebar; the bike's electric fuel pump negates the need for a standard fuel petcock. The choke lever is mounted low on