SHOOTOUT
P78
2013 MIDDLEWEIGHT SPORTBIKE SHOOTOUT PART II
ly wide. It kind of gives the illusion
that the bike is a little bit bigger
bodywork and a little bit heavier,"
notes Steeves, the most aggressive rider in our testing troop.
The Yamaha's knifelike handling can be sharpened via its
Soqi suspension units, which offer four-way adjustment front and
rear (preload, rebound and high/
low-speed compression). One
rider who didn't mesh with the
R6 setup is Adey, an R1 owner
who says: "Every time I rolled off
the gas, the front end dove as if
I grabbed a fistful of front brake.
It made negotiating thru unknown
territory quite unnerving."
Adey had no such qualms with
the braking package. "No prob-
lems in stopping the R6 - great
feedback thru the levers and
plenty of bite available from the
dual 310mm front disc brake."
Again the Yamaha does nothing wrong, but rates low in braking only because it's up against
competition that's armed to the
teeth. The Sumitomo calipers
didn't quite match the precise
modulation afforded by some
of the monobloc Brembo and
Nissin bits. Still, we're talking
eyelash levels of braking performance disparity. A GPS setting
glitch spoiled our customary
60-0 braking evaluation, but the
2011 brake test results are a fair
example of how close things are,
with only a couple feet separating
the entire class.
Or maybe an unfair example,
as the R6 can't catch a break in
our performance data. It rates
behind the Honda and Ducati by
a scant 0.01 in 0-60 acceleration
tests, ahead of only the MV Agusta. It does fare better in the quarter-mile times, besting the MV
again as well as the Ducati and
GSX-R600.Far more subjective
is appearance. Of the Japanese
entries, the Yamaha maintains a
distinctive look – with its wide,
swoopy fairing. While some find
the R6 lines dated, most think it
still a racey-looking package –
though deemed not as sleek as
the supple Italian F3.
One dated aspect of the Ya-
