Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Sur e, Jami e Ja m e s w on th e A MA 600cc Supersport crown in 1994, bu t that due mor e to Jam es' ab ilities (and Mike Smith p roving hi s gift fo r sn a tching d efeat from the jaws of victory by cras hing his Hond a at Sears Point with ju st one race to go w hile in the mid dle of a poi nts bat tle wit h James) tha n it was to the Yama ha 's b rillia nce. Since that day at Sears Point - August 21, 1994 - Yamaha has n't even wo n a race in the class; H o n d a , Suz uki and Kaw as a k i ha ve, how ever. In st ead , Yam ah a co ncentra ted o n producing street-friendly, comforta ble 600s at the expense of bein g able to w in on the race track. (Las t year's YZF600 arguably the best pure stree t bike of last year's crop - Mil return for 1999.) Tha t s treet-first, tra ck-l a st attitud e will cha nge in 1999. When Yamaha project leader Kunihiko Miw a sat do wn at the drawing board to map out the R6, he d id so with visions of race tracks dancing in his head . Using a vast kn owled ge of ho w pe r forma nce mo torcycles a re su pposed to p er form, Miwa - a former G ra nd Pri x eng ineer w ho a lso led the tea m that designed last year's Rl - came up w ith a bike that' s certain to win races. After all, nowhere is the sp in cycle of cha nge more ap paren t than in the 600cc Supersp ort ranks. Each and every year , on e of the big fou r introduces a 600 that goes on to be the class kill er , mauling everything in its pa th, bo th on the race tra ck and on s howroom fl oo rs . Thi s year, it may be Yamaha's tu rn. The R6 is good - very good - and it lives ~p to its pre-ride hy pe. On to Aus tralia, shall we? Foll o wing a harro wi n g pla ne ri de from Melbourne that I'wisely passed on (America n Roadraci ng' s Dea n Adams and I rode in a ca r wi th p hotograp her David Dewhurs t. Okay, so we we re n' t manl y - but we also wer en't sick . Upo n the arrival of the three chartered planes, m y cowardly accom p lice a nd I could only chuck le and high-five ou r decision as we w atched gree n-face d Ita lians kissing the gro und upon their descent from the h ea ve n s . H e y , even Rich O liver looked ill.), we started our ride from the airfield at Gee long to the Grea t Ocean Road , headin g so ut h tow ar d our meeting spot in Ap ollo Bay. Knowing full well how goo d the bike wo u ld lik el y be when we got it io Phillip Island, it was on the stree t ride where I felt the R6 would suffer. It wa s .easy to conclu de , base d on the numbers we were given - "it's fast , it's light, it' s shor t" - that the R6 wasn't designed for street use. Surely, with such high rpm fi gu re s, it would fa ll flat on it s face w he n rid d e n cas ua lly on th e s treet. I full y expected to have to ride th e bike on th e s treet lik e yo u rid e a YZ125 at Carlsbad Raceway - it was su re to be a wil d ride that wo uld feat ure more shifting, cl utch ing a nd rev wa tchi ng th an leisu re ly s ig htseeing down one of th e world 's m ost pi cturesq u e h igh w ays . Unli ke my accu ra te p red iction of a sickeni ng flig ht in the chartered p lan es, it turns out that I was dead wrong about the streetabili tv of the R6. The 60 or ·~o miles down to Apollo Bay we nt by quic kly. The bike was easy to ride an d was, believe it or not, comfortab le. There we re no aching wrists, pumped-up arms or sore backs. And my origi na l fea rs of constant sh ift ing a lso p ro ved to be u nwarra nted. Fif th a nd sixth gea r w ere all that were nee ded for the majority of the ride , despite the fact the road was full of tw ists and turns. No matter the terra in , yo u could cr u ise alo ng on the R6 in virtu all y a ny gea r wi thou t fear of the engine bo gg ing, or not having the p ow er to accelerate when nee ded . At one point, a poor passing d ecision almost left me as a hood ornamen t on a H old en. My exc use fo r m y s tu p id ity: " H ey, th e car wa s painted th e sa me color as the highway. " I pulled out from behi nd a slower car and was sud d enly faced with the oncoming Hold en. Panicking, I sim p ly gave th e R6 a b it of stick, tucked m y elbows and knees in and mad e it th rou gh unscat hed. Afte r s ta ring d eath s tra ig h t in 't he 'roo guard, I carried on throu gh hell and hig h water, w hich in this case was intermittent rain and su nshine - and so me of the world's most beautiful coastline. We passed su ch fa mo us su r fing s po ts as Bells Beach, and eve n saw a dead kan ga·ro o on the side of th e ro ad . (So th at' s w hy m an y of t h e cars featur e ' ro o guards u p fro nt.) Since I wa s born and partia lly raised in Australia , I was also th e resident ex pert on a ll Australia n w ildlife an d the ir play hab its nea r the highway. "Are kangaroos eve rywhere, Paul?" I was quizzed . "Yes, an d watch out for koalas swinging in from the trees ove r the highway. And dingoes, too." In a ll, our street rid e on the highrevving, sh or t-wheelbased , high -horsepowered litt le 600 made for an entirely pleasant afternoon. The fact that the trip pr o ved to be e njoy ab le and relaxing speaks volumes for ho w g oo d a s tree t bike the R6 really is. Hey, we s pe n t th e afte rnoo n enjoy ing the sights of Sou the rn Austra lia .and all the w hile the tr i p , n o t th e tach, was our focus , proving m y theory abo ut how the R6 would perform as a viable stree t bike to be mistaken . Th e on ly co m p la in t I ha d on th e street rid e was th e severity of hit tha t ca me fr om th e rear sus pens io n ove r s o me o f the r oad' s harshe r bump s. Whether or not that comes from a suspension th at is simply too stiff or because the technicia ns had the bike set u p for the race track remains to be seen. We' ll find ou t w he n we get the stock bike back at our California office. Followi ng th e st ree t ride, we w ere flow n to Phillip Island on the same cha rtered pla nes th at brough t the braver among us to Gee long . This time I took the flight, havin g little choice ot her than a fou r-hour ride in a rent-a-car with a cra zed British p hotographer. Fortunately, this flight was calm, and we emerge d with our natural skin co lo r - even though the p ilot allow ed retired roa d racer Michael Martin to man the co ntro ls for mu ch of the flight. The following da y we were taken to th e Phill ip Isl and G ra nd Pri x track, where the R6 wou ld be ab le to showits true. co lo rs - th ose o f a full -o n 600cc Supersport racer. Aga in, the bike lived up to its billing. Phill ip Island is a blazin gly fastcircu it, with the majorit y of its 2.75 miles fea tu ring th ird-, fourth- and fifth -gear lefts, in terrupted by two secon d -gear rights . The track also has some cha nge in altit ud e - thanks to a climbing lefth ander d ubbed Lukey He ig hts - and a flat-out fro nt straig ht, aptly na me d after 1987 500cc World Cha m p ion Way ne Gardner. Our day fea tur ed a bit of every thing the local weather could muster up: high winds, rain and su ns hine. Fort una tely, the high winds and su nshine dried the wet spots quickly, though a I S-minute downpou rinterrupted our day. Still, we ro de the R6 in a va riety of co nditions during our day at track, wit h some pa rts . of th e tr a ck being co m p le te ly dry a t A la ,~ ~ 00 0\ 0\ ,..-< Cf5 ,..-< l-< OJ "E OJ > o z 13

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