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/128176
ersleben circuit on a standard road version within two seconds of his time on his current race bike. This on a model whose distinctive shark-nosed styling envelops a leading-edge chassis design worthy of a GP racer, with upside-down forks, radial brakes, an adjustable swingarm pivot, and central ram-air induction feeding air to the engine through the headstock, as on Honda's RC-51 Superbike World Champion. Weight? Power? Kawasaki ain't saying, and anyway catalog claims often have little bearing on reality - but this looks like an exciting package that takes the 600cc;: Supersport class on to a new level, technically. Honda will have been surprised to be overshadowed by its Kawasaki rivals, for the world's number-one made great play of its only significant new model shown at Intermot, the CBR600RR. This marks a racefocused departure from Honda's bestselling all-rounder approach to the Supersport class, though the company will continue to sell the existing CBR600F alongside the new bike. Aimed at redressing the embarrassing situation whereby, this year, Honda was the last Japanese manufacturer to finally win the World Supersport title, and to build on the 2002 success of the Ten Kate team, this new package has clearly been styled as a visual spinoff from Valentino Rossi's dominant RC211V World Champion MotoGP bike, with a squat front end, massively braced swingarm and, for the first time on a Japanese fourcylinder 600, a single exhaust silencer exiting under the seat, albeit with conventional fork and brake designs the same as Yamaha and Suzuki, so without the new Kawasaki's more impressive chassis hardware. But while retaining the existing model's 67 x 42.5mm dimensions, the CBR600RR's fuel-injected dohc engine is in fact all-new, with stacked gearbox shafts as pioneered on the Yamaha R 1/R6 to deliver a more compact engine and thus a greater concentration of mass to promote improved handling, enhanced forward weight bias, and a longer swingarm for better traction. Honda has also matched Yamaha on its new R6 in moving to cast-alloy frame spars rather than fabricated ones, a step pioneered by Aprilia some years ago, and further centralization of weight is delivered by a fuel load stored low behind the engine. Apart from expanding its range of made-in-Italy Bulldog BT1100 V-twin cruisers with a series of Harley-esque style options, Yamaha, too, displayed its new Supers port contender as its only significant new product at Intermot, with subtly restyled bodywork incorporating a sleeker, wider intake mouth to its trademark 'face.' The revamped R6 follows its R1 sister in now adopting fuel injection for the first time, in the form of a system combining injection nozzles with secondary CV throttle slides, to deliver a more refined response. Some 90-percent revised internally, says Yamaha, the new R6 engine uses the same cycle 65.5 x 44.5mm dimensions as the old carbureted bike but has lighter, smaller engine castings, reduced internal friction, and a catalyst exhaust which, being made out of titanium, is still lighter than the old bike's non-cat steel system. With a comprehensive range of factory tuning parts matching those available for the RI, the new R6 leaves Suzuki as the only manufacturer in the 600cc class with a holdover model for 2003 - especially with Triumph's new racefocused 600 Daytona coming next spring - though at two years old the current fuel-injected GSX-R600, which won the 2002 World Supersport constructors crown and was lightly updated at Intermot, hardly qualifies for a pension book. Anyway, Suzuki had bigger fish to fry in Munich, with the unexpected debut of a completely revamped version of its class-leading GSX-RIOOO introduced just two years ago - a defiant toss of the gauntlet at its three J-rivals in advance of the complete restructuring of the Superbike class for 2004, when 1000cc four-cylinder bikes will at last be permitted to join the current Battle of the Twins. The new Suzuki has sleeker styling partially sourced from the firm's V4 MotoGP contender, with a taller, narrower Hayabusa-derived central headlamp cluster which is sure to presage the arrival of a 600cc clone in a year's time (though, perish the thought, maybe not a GSX-R750 as well), which permits much larger, albeit more closely spaced, dual air intakes, as well as a narrower, more aerodynamic front profile. Inside the engine, which retains the same overall architecture as before, Suzuki has matched Yamaha's move in linking the cylinders with ventilation passages to reduce pumping losses, which together with the greater airflow increases claimed overall power to 162 bhp, but the fuel-injection sysn ... _ S • OCTOBER 16, 2002 29