2017 YAMAHA YZF-R6
FIRST TEST
P78
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
T
he Supersport 600 class.
It's the red-headed step child
for the world's motorcycle
manufacturers. Full of Peter Pan
bikes that didn't grow up when
everyone else did, the Supersport
class is—if we are to believe
the doom coming from almost
every motorcycle scribe on the
interwebs—on its deathbed.
It's not hard to see why.
International sales have tanked,
especially since the global financial
crisis pulled everyone's wallets
firmly shut. European sales are
a fraction of what they were 10
years ago, and even here in
the U.S., Yamaha has sold half
as many R6s between August
2008 to December 2016 as they
did between when the bike was
introduced in January 1999 to
July 2008.
But it's not just the GFC that's
hurt the supersport category. The
advent of tough new Euro4 emis-
sions targets (and the soon-coming
and even tougher Euro5), changing
rider tastes, a far greater variety
of vastly different new bikes to
choose from (not least from Ya-
maha themselves) and a constant
stream of bad ass technology and
good ol' horsepower for 1000cc
superbikes has resulted in little to
no innovation being passed to the
600cc class for eons.
RETURN OF
Yamaha has given their
venerable YZF-R6 a new lease
on life. We head to Thunderhill
Raceway to squeeze it.
The new front gives excellent
stability under braking and helps
the R6 turn in faster.
