By THE CYCLE NEWS STAFF
PHOTOS By BLAKE CONNER
T
he evolution of the middleweight
sportbike class has been fun to
watch over the years. The bikes in
question really started as affordable
sportbikes for the masses. The materials that were used when the bikes
were first introduced were far from
exotic - corners were cut everywhere
to keep the prices down, and the
profit margins were high.
Times have changed dramatically
in the past five years, and the popularity of 600cc Supersport racing is
the culprit. Since its inception in
1987 (in America), the 600cc Supersport class has forced the participating manufacturers to constantly
develop and fine-tune their respective
offerings. After all, the 600cc Supersport series gives the category the
credibility that only racing can give a
sportbike. And for this, the stakes
have become enormous, reflected in
sales figures that have the 600cc category dominating sportbike sales by
a significant margin.
Another interesting aspect of the
600cc Supersport class and its effect
on production bikes is the limitations
set forth in the AMA rules, which are
designed to limit the number of modifications that can be made to the
bikes in preparation for competition.
This forces the manufacturers to
make the production bikes as competitive as possible right out of the
crate. The application of technology
in the middleweight class is unique it's developed for racing instead of
coming from racing. The result of all
of this is that the level of technology
per dollar that the consumer gets
when buying a new 600cc sportbike is
impressive. The current crop of bikes
offers the same level of technology as
the open-class bikes - pound for
pound, the 600s pack as much punch
as their heavyweight siblings do. With
rear-wheel horsepower figures flirting
around the 100 mark (the new Suzuki
GSX-R600 is already there), and dry
weights slowly spiraling down toward
350 pounds, the performance of the
modern middleweights is a staggering
thing to behold.
The six bikes that participated in
our comparison are as follows: Ducati
748, Honda CBR600F4i, Kawasaki
ZX-6R, Suzuki GSX-R600, Triumph
TT600, Yamaha YZF-R6. The only
bike that has changed dramatically
from last year is the new Suzuki,
although the Honda and the Yamaha
also received significant updates.
Our testing consisted of two
locales, the street and the racetrack.
Our street ride included a little of
everything. Our route wove its way
through a maze of Southern California's most boring freeway's - to simulate commuting - then we hit a couple of the nicest canyon roads that So
