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/128317
2004 Cycle News Middleweight Shootout M ot.or If there is one thing that we learned last yea r, it was that the bike w ith most power doe sn't always com e out on top . T he Ho nda held the distinctio n of having the most peak horses and a nicely shaped power curve, but it had a torque curve that resembled a roller coaster more than anything else. It was then squarely beat by the "cheater" Kawasaki. Ducati 749 Dark The Ducati 749 could also be called a cheater, because the company has developed the 749cc Testastretta L-tw in into a rea l powerhouse and yet is still allowed to have a huge displacement advantage in the class. The bike that we included in the tes t is one of four versions in the 749 series, including the 749 Dark (ou r bike), the 749 (shiny paint), the 7495 (more power) and the homologation special 749R (see sidebar). The 749 makes 99 horsepower at the rear wheel, which is competitive with the other bikes in the class and, as you wou ld expect , makes more oo -~o3.~.QJ:1p_~_13,~Qp-"pm l ! iii 75 - - i I__ ;--I---t- - " ----,--- f---- 2S ---~ i r-; - t _ I I --r---l--J----I I , : --I----t-- r - j----t---- progress in a nanosecond. The motor may not be at its best for racing in its standard fo rm, but it makes one hell of a good street motor. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most enjoyable powerplants in this group on the street. The only other complaint that we have about it is that although the transmission shifts beautifully, the throws are kind of long, and it will jump from second back into neutral on occasion 46.47 ft.-lbJ. @ 1O,~OO rpln , , i '-I I-I I 12 torque than the others (56 ft.-Ibs.). The area that hurts the 749 the most is the bike's limited top-end performance and its power-to-weight ratio. The bike pulls well off the corner, but not as impressively as the lighter bikes; it just can't get past that weight disadvantage. The other thing about the Ducati is that the base model's motor just doesn't rev enough. It makes power almost all the way up to the point that the harsh rev-limiter kicks in - stopping all forward 14 16 under hard acceleration at the track . Honda CBR600RR The CBR600RR has a lot of top-end power - no one will argue that, although our test bike was down on power from the unit we tested last year. The showerstyle fue l injectors that kick in above 5500 rpm really give the bike an impressive to p-end rush . The problem is that if the bike is ridden on a stop-and-go-type (Left) The G5X-R's motor pumps out more torque than any other four-cylinder bike in the class. road or a tight track , the motor has to be screamed to keep it in the sweet zone. You can't rely on the powe r just builds and bu ilds all the way to redline. The payo ff is evident on the street as we ll as on the track. On the street, leaving stoplights and passing other veh icles is a to tally d iffere nt ex per ience on the Kawi than on the other bikes . That little bit of extra torque and power allows the bike to be ridden without the mandatory clutch slipping or the double downshifts to make passes. On the track the ZX-6R's motor is just awesome. It simply motors the other bikes off of the corner, making the bikes with less po wer work really hard midco rne r to keep up . The bike has so much more power down below, it really isn't fair, and the fact that the bike is o ne of the lightest in the te st does n't hurt it a bit . Our biggest complai nt is that the motor is a little buzzy, as are all Kawasaki sportbike motors. The ZX-6R's transmission is o ne of the best in the group as well, making clicking thro ugh the gears a breeze. Suzuki GSX-R600 Two years ago the Suzuki was on top of the world , and then in 2003 the G5X-R600 got its ass handed to it by every o ther bike in the class. It was low on power, low on torque and had Grand Canyon-sized holes in the torque curve. The engineers at Suzuki knew tha t if they wanted to stay in the game, they needed step it up big time . Not on ly did they need to make the motor competitive for racing, they needed to make sure that the motor was flexible and user friend ly on the street. Okay, so the new bike's torque curve still doesn't have the prettiest shape until it hits 6000 rpm , but from there on things get serious . The bike is right on terms with the other two 599cc mach ines, which are all within a quarter horsepower of each other, but it has the most torque of any of the inline fours , the 636 included. Coming off the corner, the bike screams. The flexible motor puts it right on the podi um. The fuel delivery is hard to fault, too, on the street or on the track, with nary a hiccup. What impresses us the most is that the bike does almost everything that the 636 does without cheating with mo re displacement. One thing that some testers love and some are bothered by is the Suzuki's intake howl. It's something that you can't igno re , because it's as loud as the exhaust at full tilt rpm - at least from the cockpit. Add to all of this a perfect gearbox, and you get one impressive package. Yamaha YZF-R6 Last but not least is the R6, wh ich has established itself as one of the most successful Supersport race bikes in recent memory. If you club race and aren't one . The Yamaha doesn't have the strongest motor in tioning from a closed to open throttle. When all is The R6 pu lls hard off of the corner and then revs and said and done, the Honda's biggest disadvantage isn't the mo tor, it's the extra 20-plus pounds it's carrying revs and revs, all the way to that astronomical over the other inline fours . The transm ission is one of in the torque curve at around 8000 rpm, and this is the nicest shifting bikes in the group, which is what we expect from Honda. (Below) The Suzuki's dash is easy to read and informative. We wish the shift light lit up red. torque to pull you ou t of corners. The "Streets" track probably hurt the Honda more than any other bike here in that sense, because the bike works really well on a fast track where the revs are kept above 10 grand . On the street ride the Honda's fue l injection didn't feel as spot-on as the other bikes'. It has a tendency to search a bit and also stutters a little tra nsl- very noticeable exiting tight corners in the middle of the rev range . The R6 obviously has a lot of potential due to the results that the factory Yamaha team has carded. The biggest complaint that we have with the Yamaha is the bike's transmission. The thing shifts extremely notchy, whic h isn't really a surprise because it always has. The tranny works and doesn't hit false neutrals very often, but it is just that it's virtu ally impossi ble to shift the bike smoothly when riding Kawasaki ZX-6R The Kawasaki ZX-6R has it all. The most peak power (108 hp) and torque close to the Suzuki's , but the key difference is how and where it makes that power. At 8000 rpm the ZX-6R makes 10 more horses than the Honda, and torque is another beast altogether. The ZX-6R's power and torque curves show virtually no hint of a valley throughout the entire rev range . The 16 MARCH 31, 2004 • CYCLE N EWS 40th Anniversary riding an R6, then you 've probably been smoked by the group. As a matter of fact it has fallen to last place in terms of the dyno numbers, but it still provides more than enough to complement that killer chassis. 15,000-rpm redline . The R6 has a decent-size crater aggressively on the track.