Quick Cadence
CW FIRST RIDE
YAMAHA YZF-R6
Quick Cadence
Marching to 17,500 beats per minute
DON CANET
IT's BEEN NEARLY TWO DECADES SINCE THE AMA FORMED THE 600cc Supersport class. The bikes that have filled the grids during that time have evolved greatly, but while technology has made great strides, it's the design philosophy and hard-edged focus of the latest race-bred supersports that have changed the most.
Those early years saw Supersport championships won by ma~thuuies that, when in civilian dress, sacrificed no great practical ity or convenience for the street rider. Times have changed, however, particu1arly now with the Daytona 200-America's most important bike race-downsizing to a 600cc format. The stakes have reached an all time high in motorcycling's most hotly contested sales category.
Touted as the most advanced production motorcycle Yamaha has ever built, the allnew YZF-R6 is also the most narrowly
focused Yamaha sportbike to date, with its sights unrelentingly trained on circuit supremacy. Having a strong support cast of three additional 600s in its 2006 middleweight sportbike line has allowed Yamaha to pull out all the stops with the R6, and to do so with a clear conscience. Last year’s R6 (a CWTen Best winner) returns as the YZF-R6S, now wearing the conventional (non-inverted) fork it had
when first introduced in 2004. and tagged with a sticker that’s $1000 under the $9199 premium placed on its successor. The aging, yet competent and relatively posh,
YZF600R fills an even more affordable price point, while the sport/standard FZ6 returns as the gentleman’s choice.
Given the new bike’s
extreme nature, common sense and logic might rule out the purchase of an R6 for all but aspiring racers; yet there’s no denying the seductive attraction high-tech hardware holds on performance enthusiasts regardless of how fast or slow they intend to go. Cashing in on its YZRM1 MotoGP development program, Yamaha is quick to point out that its ’06 R6 incorporates more Grand Prix tech and visual cues than its competitors. It’s nice to see that all the money and manpower spent racing in the sport’s premier class is justified.
Starting with the real Star Wars stuff, the R6 is the first production motorcycle to feature fly-by-wire throttle control Today’s sophisticated electronic fuel-injection systems have addressed maintaining optimum intake velocity and smooth on-throttle response in various ways. Dual throttlevalve systems have become commonplace. While most of these use servo-controlled secondary valves, the previous R6 borrowed the YZF-Rl’s approach-a vacuum-operated secondary flat-slide that of a CV carburetor for each cylinder. On the new bike, the Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle (YCCT) does away with the secondary valve altogether and is said to improve peak performance due to its less-restrictive intake tract. When the rider opens the twistgrip, the request is forwarded to the CPU, which takes into account engine load, rpm and gear selection, then determines how much to open the throttle. All at the speed of light!
Shower-type secondary injectors located above each intake funnel kick in above 6000 rpm, feeding a cooler atomized charge for increased power output. A 2mm shorter stroke has allowed a 1.5mm growth in cylinder bore, which in turn has led to larger-diameter valves-made of titanium-claiming the additional real estate. A narrower included valve angle keeps the combustion chamber compact and raises the compression ratio from 12.4:1 to 12.8:1. Valve lift has also been slightly increased along with adjustments to valve timing to keep
the engine from hyperventilating at 17,500 rpm. Gasp!
Exhaust exits through an advanced stainless-steel 4-into-1 system using a unique two-stage muffler. The bulk of the muffler resides beneath the engine (somewhere, Erik Buell smiling), helping to centralize mass for improved handling. After passing through two catalytic converters and an EXUP valve, spent gas passes out the stubby titanium silencer.
An all-new Deltabox aluminum frame mimics current
GP design, offering a significant increase in vertical and sideways rigidity over last year’s cage. The new frame-like the Rl’s-is constructed of castings and pressed-aluminum plate. Similar construction has resulted in a lightened swingarm. Suspension upgrades are significant, with the 41mm inverted fork now offering highand lowspeed compression damping adjustments along with rebound damping and spring preload.
The same wide range of adjustability is offered on the shock. Wheels and brakes are the same as
last year, aside from the
310mm floating front rotors now suspended with lighter aluminum carriers.
The sleek, GP-inspired bodywork makes removal of ancillary bits for track days or racing nearly a snap, as the rear-fender/license-plate/tumsignal assembly detaches as a whole. Triple-digit club racers will find the tailsection too slim to properly display their competition number, though.
I shudder to think how unsexy the bike will appear if you’re required to lash a pair of Class-C plates to its flanks!
No matter, the view and sound from the saddle is awesome.
A year ago, I attended the ’05 YZF-R6 press launch held at Willow Springs Raceway in the California desert. It was a pretty low-key affair as the bike was only slightly changed from the previous year, having received an inverted fork and little else. This year, Yamaha once again invited the press to the desert to ride its latest R6, only this barren landscape was on the other t
side of the globe in Qatar, a Gulf of J»459
Arabia state the size of Connecticut.
Upon arrival, I was surprised to learn that the citizens of this oil-rich region don’t have to work due to a generous monthly income provided by their government. Having no 9-to-5 grind leaves plenty of playtime, and from what I could see, frontline sportbikes are among the diversions of choice. But with a relatively flat landscape-sand dunes aside-devoid of twisty roads, local-knee draggers have turned to traffic circles for cornering kicks. I don’t hold much pity for the pampered playboys, though, as outside the capital city of Doha is a recently constructed, cutting-edge roadrace circuit. The track has quickly gained international notoriety by hosting rounds of MotoGP and World Superbike and is also used for track days and club races.
The 3.3-mile, 16-tum Losail International Circuit is ^ fast and flowing. Its surface grips like sandpaper and is free of bumps. The entire track is lined on both sides with Astroturf, there to keep the desert sand from blowing onto the track...talk about rolling out the rug for royalty! Once up to speed and fully focused on hitting my marks, the effect of this
field of green filling my periphery was profound; I didn’t give my desert surroundings a second thought.
After putting in some time aboard the bike, I also realized there was another thing that had slipped my mind: the R6’s fly-by-wire throttle system. The fact that YCCT performs transparently from a rider’s perspective-feeling no different than any well-mapped conventional fuel-injection system-is a testament to its refinement. Whether you roll the throttle or whack it open, response is crisp and power delivery linear with no perceivable holes throughout the rev range. Low-end power is pretty soft with output steadily increasing as revs build. The only significant hit is felt at 10,000 rpm. For general street riding, I’d remain below the 10 grand mark much of the time, where lower engine vibration and mechanical noise levels make for a more relaxed experience. Vibration is quite mild at freeway speeds in top gear, but be prepared to grab a quick downshift or two when pulling out to pass a vehicle in decisive fashion.
Above 10,000 rpm, the engine really gets with the program-and to think there’s an unbelievably broad 7500-rpm powerband to play with. Strumming the slick-shifting, close-ratio gearbox in time with the tach needle dancing into the red zone dips revs back to 14,000, 15,000,
15,500...as the gap narrows with each subsequent upshift. It’s a stirring beat that promises to make the R6 the bike to beat on the track in 2006. Pure rock ’n’ roll, baby!
Unlike its predecessor, the new R6 continues pulling hard in the upper reaches of its range; having less over-rev means there’s no need to short-shift shy of redline. Hence, I found myself bumping the soft rev-limiter more frequently than with previous models even though the dash-taken from the R1-features a shift light that can be set to illuminate at the rpm of your choice.
Losail’s slowest corner is a 180-degree hairpin that’s taken in first gear. Two downshifts are performed while braking hard on approach, a situation that would normally require extra care when dropping into low gear. The benefit of the R6’s new slipper clutch was very evident, as the back end remained settled, only slightly stepping out when I really charged the entry. The system eased the task any time downshifting was required, allowing the chassis to track straight and true through even the longest braking zone at the end of the main straight while going down from sixth to second gear. Throttle blips between downshifts aren’t necessary, and you can even double up gear changes without much drama.
Comer exits are equally composed. Even when slinging out of the apex of the hairpin with the throttle pinned, the bike showed very little tendency to loft its front wheel as its increased, 52.5 percent forward bias places more weight on the front wheel than did its predecessor. The front delivered very good feedback during cornering, giving a useful feel for grip at all times. The bike will come with Dunlop’s new Sportmax Qualifier radiais (see Roundup, this issue), but for the track launch the R6 I rode wore D208RR race-compound tires that allowed absurd corner speed with very little perceivable tire slip. Even so, I never found the bike’s cornering-clearance limit, dragging nothing more than the peg feelers on either side.
The new chassis offers exceptional stability that improves upon last year’s already solid platform, while providing lighter and sharper handling to boot. Losail Circuit’s comers are fairly spaced out, offering no quick side-to-side transitions-such as a chicane-to fully evaluate the bike’s agility. But judging by the ease with which the R6 flicked in at triple-digit speeds through the fastest sections, I’m pretty confident that we’ll find the new chassis offers feline-like finesse in our upcoming middleweight comparison.
The brakes-unchanged from ’05-performed flawlessly, offering strong and consistent stopping with no fluctuation in lever travel. The front system’s Brembo master cylinder offers a variable-position lever with a usable adjustment range. Doesn’t get much better.
The bike is very compact and has an aggressive riding position, but allows easy movement in the saddle. Yet it holds the rider in place well; I never felt as though I needed to pull on the bars to remain forward in the saddle, a maneuver that tends to disrupt chassis stability. There’s ample room to slide back in the saddle when tucking in on the fast straights as you peer over the top edge of the windscreen.
The clear screen is sleek and narrow but really cuts the wind well, and I observed very little buffeting at helmet height when sitting upright at 75-plus mph.
Although my time aboard the new bike was limited to five 20-minute track sessions, I gave thought to how it might work on the street during each outing’s warm-up lap. Circuit riding tends to sap every ounce of peak power a machine can muster and often skews perceptions of a bike’s lower-rev performance. What may feel feeble on the track can be more than enough for the street. Anyway, there’s no question about the YZF-R6’s strong engine performance above 10,000 rpm or its superb-handling chassis when ridden at any speed. If there’s a question at all, it’s whether the average street rider is going to be satisfied with the power at sub-teen revs.
Then again, just kick it down a gear and you won’t miss a beat.
