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/128601
In addition to a new engine, revised suspension and lower weight, the ZX6R gets a mean new look, characterized by dual cat-eye headlights. SUPERSPORT SOLUTIONS The increasing polarization of the Supersport spec for sales as well as sporting success has perplexed all the mai'1 players in the field, even Honda. Last year, Big H reinvented the CBR600 that was for so long the class benchmark - but while worthy and winsome on paper, it fails to reaJize its apparent potential in reality, a fact underlined by its dull looks and bland personality when ridden hard: it's a bit like a two-wheeled version of a three-door hatchback with the magic GTI letters on the side, but not the performance to go with them. Suzuki's GSX-R600 World Supersport champion, on the other hand, goes to the other extreme: rewy and quicksteering, it wears a full-time race face using makeup from its Superbike sister. Lots of street cred - but not so much street savvy. By contrast, Yamaha found the inherent compromises of catering for the 21st-century Supersport customer so overwhelming, it does what might seem the smart thing and catalogs two quite different models catering for opposite ends of the market: the YZF600 is a bike you'd be quite happy taking on a weekend trip with your favorite squeeze aboard - and be reasonably confident you'd still be on speaking terms at the end. Try that on the R6, though, and you might be looking up bus timetables before long - but then this is the bike that won more races than any other in the '99 World Supersport series. Horses for courses. But then there's Kawasaki, which may arguably claim to have invented the 600cc Supersport class all those years ago with the GPZ600R. Till very recently, the mean greenies opted for Route Yamaha. with the ZZ-R600 for everyman, and the ZX-6R for inhabitants of Racer Road. Then the ZX got made over and tried to do a Honda by being the best of both worlds - but though it came close (and certainly had more allure than the current Cap'n Sensible CBR), it was a little too peaky engine-wise, with a hole in the midrange powerband than meant you had to rev it hard and use the gearbox a lot, and boasted handling too compromised to be perfect, especially trail-braking hard into a downhill tum, where you could feel it moving about under weight transfer. Close. but no cigar. Well, that was then. and this is now - and here I'm sitting in a comer of the pit boxes at the Valencia GP circuit in sunny Spain, convinced that I've just spent the day riding the closest thing to an ideal Supersport all-rounder yet invented - the new Kawasaki ZX-6R launched at the Paris Show last autumn, and now hitting dealer showrooms around the world. By focusing on evolution rather than revolution, Kawasaki has filled in the gaps in its 600's specification and in doing so considerably enhanced its everyday rideability - yet without detracting from the on-track performance of the bike which tal speedo yet on the redesigned but rather dated-looking dash, which would also benefit from a fuel gauge or at least a warning light), and the ZX-6R really starts to motor. Top speed is now knocking on the 170 mph mark, and though the relatively short Valencia front straight didn't allow that to be tested. there's no doubt this is a potent performer - just as it always was, only now it's gotten more civilized. Same thing with the chassis, where revised steering geometry has produced a bike which is even more stable than before on fast, sweeping bends, yet turns in much better in tight ones, partly thanks to the 5mm longer rear shock which steepens the effective fork angle. as well as throwing more weight on to the front wheel, for better grip. Again, chassis-wise the Kawasaki feels very solid and robust, without being heavy-steering or unwieldy: building quality seems high, and within the 55-inch wheelbase there's lots of space for a six-foot rider. That rider will feel much more a part of the bike than being perched atop the skinnier-seeming R6, or squeezed for space like on the short- finished runner-up in the 1999 World Supersport series. On the contrary: rider Ian MacPherson, who won more rounds of last year's championship than anyone else, reckons Kawasaki has also delivered the detail improvements needed to go one better in the coming season. And by wrapping the uprated package in a junior version of the company's distinctive new family look shared with the ZX-9R and forthcoming ZX-12R, complete with the ag9ressive-looking pout to the now centrally located air-intake mouth, then decorating the result with a great-looking color scheme, Kawasaki R&D engineers can be sure that their new bike will stand out in a Supersport sector about to become even more crowded, with the imminent debut of the TT600 Triumph. cue. e n eVIl'S FEBRUARY 23. 2000 25