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/1542351
2006 Middlewerght Shodlt TO SKIN A CAT stx DIFFERENT SOrur'ONS rO MI D D LEW E I GHT. S P O RT BI KE N'R YANA. \ffi$ I aetEftffiea what the numbers reoill meon. To further confuse thinSs' the 600s are I 599s, the 749 is a 748. and the Kawasaki and Triumph are often r€ferred to as ! cheaters. So we busted out the abacus and dusted off the addiriS machine in an efiort ! to make some sense of the numerology of our "2006 MiddleweiSlt Shootout." I The sheer rrariety of motorcycles that fall into this cateSoq/ make it one of the most t interesting. l[ one of these bikea do€sn't app€al to you, you're on your olvn f The usual wrecking crew wat Pull€d back together just weeks after completing our f 'open-Class Shootout" (lssue #lo). Not that we misied former Pro Thunder / champion Tom Montano or former three-time quarter-liter master Chuck Sorensen, , bfi wkh six bikes waitinS to be flo8sed. a reunion was inevitable. Once again we enlist- ,/ ed the help of AMA Superstock comPetitor Brad PueE. we also added a new face for the I *et portion of the test, Hichelle *nrd, a Cycle NeY/s staffer and weekend MSF / (Motorrycle Safety Foundation) instructor, to Sive us a fresh P€rsp€ctive I We decided to head up nonh to Bunonwillow Raceway in CElifomia's breadbasket' a nice 7 track in a not-so-fancy town. But who carcs about accomrnodations when a Priv-ate track day' a truck ,ull of sticky Dunlop tire6, per{ect weather and six of the b€st-handling sportbikes on eafth await you? Sure, ttre open-class bikes steal most of the headlines, b{rt lhis year eve.yone is talkinS about the Bv Br.rxr Cotr:n PHoros BY BRraN J. NEtsoN l! I It a ltr II a { I F new Suzuki GSX-R600, Yamaha YZF-R6, and Triumph Daytona 675- These three bikes came roaring into this shootou( with a lot of hyPe and heavy expectations placed upon them. Not to be forgotten, the exceilent Honda CSR600RR (second in our 2005 shootout), the monster Kawasaki ZX-6R and swee!-handling Ducati 7495 are also back and ready to rumbie. Vvhen it comes (o handling, the middlewe€ht bikes are amazrnS. Looking back at Sorensens lap times from our open-class shootout a year a8o ar the same track. rhe only bike at rhe time that could have hung with this group of mid- dleweights was the GSX-Rl00O (which turned a 2:00.23). That would've made it the meat in this middleweight sandwich, with tkee of the current middleweights tuming quicker times (Honda, Triumph and Kawasaki). The other three were right on the GSX-R1000's heels, but still ahead of the rest of [he open-class bikes from a ),,ear a8o. That handhng rhinS is amazing, isn't it? For the street-ridinS portion oI the tes! we headed from Buttonwillow west on Highway 58 - one of our favorite Central California roads, From supertwisty corners to roller- coaster strarghtaways, the 58 has it all. But, unfonunately, on this day all included lots of gravel on the roads from recent snow. We lim- ited testing to a section of the 58's asphalt, which happens to be the best part - and it was also gravel-free. Once atain Kerry Brfant at Area P ran all the bikes on the dyno for us. takint hours out of his day to help us out. Just Iike our "Open-Class Shoototrt" a month ago. we used the Formula One-style scoring system wkh l0 points forfirst. eitht for second, six for third, five for founh, and so on to sixth place - in each category The cate- gories are also the same a5 in previous shootouts: racetrack performance, drat-striP performance, dyno performance, recetiack subiective and stree! subiective. For the sub- jective ratints each participant was asked to rat€ every aspect of each bike, includint enSrne, transmission, fork, shock, turn-rn, midcorner stabilit/, brakes, ergonomics, cock- pit (including dash) and styling. Then rate the bikes in order of preference- There are some strong new players in 2006, so lets get it on. 28 APRIL12,2QQ6. CYCLE NEWS ,og DUCATI 7495 V5, HONDA CBRG,OORR VS. KAWASAKI ZX-6R V5. TRIUMPH DAYTONA 675 V 5.sUZUKI G5X-R6OO VS, YAMAHA YZFR6 -v I F 4 I t 70 S Ir +"- I' u .l 1 t; 2 \ , I D , t s / I 1 I ( L -- 1l o .er,\ -'\/t ., t '/ \ I \ r! 'l I ( t F t h b s J \r \ ft"t I ,-- 7-