Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

f I were in the market for a 600cc sportbike, I'd run ou t and buy the Yamaha . Because I don't believe you shop for this class of motorcy cle for its comfo rt level, I pla ced nearly all of my e m phas is o n how th e bikes performed during ou r day at Pahrump. Su re the bikes have to have eno ugh co mfo rt to allow yo u to ride them to yo ur favor ite riding s pot witho ut getting ar m pump a nd so re wrists , but those spots - pla ces like racetrac ks and tight and twisty canyon and mounta in roads - ar e wha t the desig ne rs had in mind when these motorcycles were built. With that said, I believ e the Yama ha is still the best all-around 600 at the track . It really does eve rything well. It's fast, it' s light and nimb le, and it's stable . It also stops well, c ha nges dire ction with ease and it loo ks the pa rt. The perfect 60 0? Pretty da mn ed close. Prett y da m ne d close a lso desc ribes my fee lings toward the othe r bikes in the shootout. Ther e 's no de nying that the big fou r really don 't ma ke many bad motorcycles anymore and in th is class they definitely don 't . Take the Suzu ki, for example. It' s old in co m pariso n to the others , but it still hangs to ugh arou nd the racetrack . Sin ce I wasn't the "fast guy" in the group, I didn't bother with lap times , but I kno w that my times aro und Pah rump on the GSX-R would hav e be en close to the wha t I co uld do o n the Yamaha - the bike I at least felt the quickest on . As for the Ho nda , I ran k the CBR600 a close second. If I wer e purchas ing a 6 00cc s portbike strictly to ride ba ck an d forth to work (but I wouldn't ), then I wo uld buy th e Honda. I found it to be the most co mfortable of the bikes in th e test, thou gh the Triumph and Kawasaki also rank right up there in terms of sheer comfort. With the Yamaha first a nd the Honda second , I'd ch oose the Kawas aki next - but at the racet rac k I'd rath er ride th e Duc at i. Th at may not mak e mu ch se nse, a nd I was in the ' m inority by doing so, but I re ally enjoyed m y time on th e red beau ty. There's nothing in the bu nch that loo ks as good as the 748, an d there's nothi ng in the group tha t feels more like a purebred racer than the lone Italian entry. Being slight of stature, the bike fits me like a glove , a nd a t the racetra ck I found its ergonomics to be close to perfect. The bike makes yo u feel fast - even if you ar en 't. It em its an exha ust not e that is distinctively different, and there' s nothing qu ite like the mu s ic it makes whe n you accelera te ha rd out of a slow com er o n the Ducatl. Since I was the o ne who ended up with oil on his boot from the Trium ph, I rode the bike with a bit of ca ution the rest of the time at the racetrack. Prior to discovering the leak, how eve r, I co uldn't help but come awa y im press ed with the best of Britain - though I didn't go into th e test expecti ng m uch from the Tr iumph . I think th at these are all great bikes , but I favor the o nes th at allow me to get ar ound the racetrack the most comfortably. Of course, it all co mes down to feel on that day, o n that track. If we we nt to a nother tra ck, then maybe my personal picks would be different, but I am pretty confident with them, and I ra te the Ho nda CBR600F4 as the best 600cc s po rtbike of this grou p, with a close second to the Kawasaki ZX-6R ove r the Yamah a YZF· R6. To me , t he extra torque that the Honda and Kawasak i have , com bine d with their gr eat ergonomics, allow a rider to ge t o ut of trou ble a little more eas ily than some of the othe r bikes. Of these two bike s it was so close, but in the end , the Honda's sm oother throttle response is what put the F4 at the top of m y list. I rank the Yamaha third by virtue of the fact that its motor is smooth but a little soft on the bott om . You ha ve to scream it to make it go , a nd even tho ugh I went arou nd the rac etra ck a few hundredths quicke r o n the R6, the Honda and Kawasaki wer e a little easie r to ride. The Suzuki finishes fourth for me , but as soon as we get hold of the ne w GSX- R600 rum ored to be right around th e co mer, then we will hav e to do a new test. New usually means bett er, and the Gixxer wasn 't really that far off the pa ce anywa y. It's just not as streamline d of an overall package as the bikes that finis hed ahead of it. Th e S uzuk i engine had a lot of grunt, but just didn't seem to ca rry it as far as so me of the othe rs co uld, and the bike just felt a little wide r and a little heavie r. Th en we co me to the Ducati 748, a n absol utely beautiful bike that pr e sents an a bsolutely different riding experience . The Ducati just felt too stiff to me , and a little twitc hy , and I think tha t part of this can be attributed to its stretched out ergos. I also noticed a little lag in the fuel -injection . These are not confidence-inspiring attributes for a be ginne r. The 748 must be ma stered to be fully enjoyed. If I co uld o nly have one bike to ride once in a while, then I'd pro bab ly go for the Duck. It would be in m y living room the rest of the time. That leav es the Trium ph last, but I certainly don 't wan t a nyone to think th at I'm ba dmouthing it. It's a g reat streetbike th at is ma ybe a litt le slu ggis h-handling and underpowered for the track. The EFI work ed pretty well, allowing me to ge t on the th rott le rea lly early, but the s us pen s ion was too so ft, and I ran into g ro und clearance problems in some of the turns. Maybe there is some more power hidd en in the fue l management s yste m . If Trium ph e ver does decide to go raci ng , the n I co uld be th eir first factory ride r... Please? May be ne xt year, at an other tra ck, someo ne else's bike will come out on to p. This year, for me , it's the Honda. Now if I co uld just talk these cheap Cycle News guys into a two-day track test. I Paul Carrut hers J eff Han ey The Verdicts Talk about a hung jury. He re are the opinions of the four ride rs who took pa rt in our 600cc shootout. 'm still the sport bike neophyte of the bunch, but now tha t I've ,got a Jason Pridm ore Sta r sc hoo l and a co u ple of trac k days under m y belt, my co horts ar en 't lettin g me off the hook whe n it comes to giving a se rio us im pression of these bikes . I'm still not exactIy Valentin o Ros si, but they claim that th is fact actually makes my o pinion all the mo re important as it len ds pe rs pective. I Bum m er. Su rprisin gly, my lack of experience didn 't seem to ha ve the expecte d effect of prompting me to prefe r less serious bikes. Fo r ex am ple, my favo rite duo consisted of two of the raciest bikes in o ur shootout . the Kawasaki ZX-6 and the Yamaha R-6. The two were simi-, .1'\ lar in their nim ble feel, agg ressive bod y positi on add a rm -straightening power plan ts , and o n a track, I can go the fas test with the least effort o n thes e two bikes . If fo rced t'? pic k one over the other, I'd give the nod to the Kawi because of a slig ht ten dency by the Yamaha to vib rate du ring street riding, though I prefer the Yvbikes tasteful looks o ver the green ma chine's gaudy gra phics. Next up I put the S uzuki, a bike that I rea lly took a liking to - both at Pah rump and o n the street. This bike's stable, pred ictable feel, st rong brak es and functional mot or made me , reluct ant to dis mou nt, with a sljphtly too-linea r powe rband be ing the sole dem erit t hat ho lds it below m y top two. Fo llowing the Suzuki on my list was a tie between the similarfeeling Honda and Trium ph , two bikes that would be near the top of m y list if street riding were to take prio rity ove r tra ck prowess. Both members of this duo have vertical seating positions, soft suspension and seats, and sm ooth, vibration-free engines, but th ey fe lt a bit wa llowy on the track when co m pared to the Kawi and Yami. If pres sed , I'd rate the Trum pet s lightly higher on the ba s is that its bor ing co lor sc heme is preferebl e to the Ho nda 's sim ply horrid orange-a nd- black "great pumpkin" appearance. Th at lea ves the Ducati 748 in last, a nd this pai ns me given my infatuatio n with Italy and its offspring . Actuall y, I'm su re that despite the fa ct tha t my lanky bod and the Duck' s tight qu a rters are at odds with each other, I'd lea rn to love th e Latin steed given more time alone with it. After all , I adored th e 996 that we tested in o ur V-twln compariso n . But when you're spend ing the bulk of the day o n the other five bikes feat ured here , hopping o n the 748 feels ak in to cli mbing ab oa rd a flying saucer, and althoug h I immediately loved t his bike' s throaty sound, sexy looks and light feel, that unfamiliarity was too mu ch for me to ove rcome in our limited track time. You can only ask so much of a rookie. eing th e las t guy to ge t hold of the floppy diskette that housed our opi nions for this pa rticular shoo tou t, I read the st atements ma de by my co horts and rea lized th at it wa s more o r less up to me break the tie in this pa rticular s hoo to ut. After all, Carruthers had favo red the Ya mah a , while Haney went with the Ho nda , J onnum chose the Kawasaki. And if I ha d followed my heart instead of my head. then I would have really sc rewed up the works because it would ha ve come down to the fun that I had on the Suzuki GSX- R600 and my lust for the Ducati 748 - even if I didn 't ride it all that well duri ng o ur track day. Instead , co m mo n se nse wins o ut, a nd I believe that the Kawasaki ZX-6 R is the not so -clear winne r of this pa rticular com paro. When all was sai d and do ne, the seriousl y. update d Kawi ha nd led with pre dicta bility, moto red with authority and s ported binders that made the bike fee l as thoug h it had just run o ver fly pape r. Sure, it' s still not pe rfect, but its ra cetra ck performance an d streetability a re not mutually excl usive. Fro m there, I'd ha ve to go with the Yama ha YZF·R6 , The R·model co uld hav e used a little more tractability on the tra ck a nd a little less bU~ing on the s tre et, but the rest of the Yama ha package is perfect. Here 's to hoping tha t Yamaha never trie s to civilize the R6. A to uch of midrange po wer a nd a tran ny mod or two may be a ll that are neces sa ry to vau lt it back to the front of the pack . Now the heart wins out, as I prefer the Ducati 748 for the sa me reasons that Haney down-rated it. It's exotic, it's Italia n, and it's not the kind of bike tha t you'd want to ride every day. That's fine with me. I don 't ride eve ry day. Score one more fo r the heart, as I picked the ve nerable Suzuki GSX-R600 for fourth tha nks to a co mpetitive pa ckage that s im ply felt ver y stable and co uld be pus hed hard witho ut any negative feedbac k. Of co urse, my head tells me that the Triumph and the Honda are be tter streetbiKes than either of those two , but I personally didn't enjoy either of them on the track nearly as mu ch . Su re, the Honda had the power , but I co uld never seem to get along with what felt like a wide seat and ba rs that were too high. And bec au s e I didn 't hav e the same performance expectations for the Triumph, I rank it higher oeca use I feel that it is the best stree tbike of the bunch, regardless of Its rather blan d styling. So ther e you have it. You can follow your head, follow your heart o r follow the road. The re's a bike for you in there so mewhe re. B Chris Jonnum Scott Rou s s eau cue. e n e _ S • .JU LY 5 ,2000 37

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