Motorcycle Daily comparison - 600 sports

[akira700]

Check this out...
more reviews of 2006 600s

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/23june06_supersport.html

[SmokennFasTT]

to much to read lol

[Ken C]

It's interesting that each print magazine/ online mag. chose a different bike as their winner. It goes to show how each bike has its own strengths and weaknesses and those characteristics are percieved differently by each tester.

[rjh200]

Or it goes to show each magazines bias towards there investors

[akira700]

bias towards advertisers ?
they do that?

but Ken is right...
they are all close and with a bit
of extra tweaking and $$ any or
all can be made to go up to the top.

Yamaha has opted to emphasize the
track / race aspect of the R6. And it looks like press and the buyers are flocking toward it.

What I wish they would do though is to make a bike with the R6's
handling and chassis with the 636 motor and Honda's build quality and make it comfortable to sit on for more than an hour. That would be a cool bike... though it would probably lose out in the sexiness factor that most people buy on.

[Ken C]

I thin Triumph has come very close to what you describe, Akira.

I'm taking the 636 on a TOUR all next week. It's not a long a tour as I usually do, but it'll still be about 1000 miles. We'll be camping.

The seat is better than my 99 VFR and the handlebar position isn't too bad, but the vibes get me down, so I bought some heavy bar-end weights that has helped a lot. I also bought some GSXR mirrors so I can see behind me a bit better. It takes soft luggage just fine, so I''m good to go.

I'll report when I get back.

[benVFR]

They are all pretty much the same and the differences sure seem massively exaggerated in the magazines. The comparison articles look like a waste of magazine space to me. I always read them cause they are very cool bikes but the comparisons sure don't say much.

And you can't have the best of everything. If you give a bike like the R6 a more upright riding position you probably trash the handling. That's why racebikes have extreme ergonomics and one of the reasons streetbikes don't handle as well as racebikes.

I think Yamaha went way to far with that R6 motor... the rest of the bike sounds awesome but that thing looks gutless till you hit 10,000rpm. The Gixxer & CBR look way better for the street and the 636 and the Triumph would obviously be way more flexible.

The Triumph looks quite nice to me. It's pretty darn close to 750 torque levels.

[Hoss]

I thin Triumph has come very close to what you describe, Akira.

I put 430 miles on the 675 last Sunday with out much of a problem. I'm a large guy, so the tall seat height and ergo's are not as much as a reach for me as it would some others.

It's too bad the review couldn't get thier hands on one. Would have been interesting to see what they said.

As ken and akira said before, all the bikes are so close it's up to personal preference as to who wins these things. One of the magazine reviews has someone say "well I've always been a suzuki fan, so I went with it."

[benVFR]

There are plenty of magazine articles that do include the 675.

So far the Triumph looks to be competing very well for "best streetbike" in all the tests. It's probably won 1/2 the articles I've seen.

It also looks like it has no racetrack penalty at all and should even be fine for racing. Whether or not Triumph could field a factory team with it to compete with the Big 4 factories is another question completely of course.

[Hoss]

It also looks like it has no racetrack penalty at all and should even be fine for racing. Whether or not Triumph could field a factory team with it to compete with the Big 4 factories is another question completely of course.

I think even Triumph knows the answer to that, which is why they are not supporting a team. I know British superbike is allowing them, not sure if any other "large" format has allowed them in yet.

It's a fun bike, it has lots more grunt in the low revs, a nice sound when you kick it in the ass, and looks good too ...

[Paul_E_D]

Mike Himmelsbach is racing a 675 quite competitively in the ASRA series that replaced FUSA.

I think it would kill the 600cc bikes for street performance. Some torque below 10k RPM is nice. The 636 has a little, the 675 has more.

The Yamaha is like my 125. Boggy below 10K

[Hoss]

Mike Himmelsbach is racing a 675 quite competitively in the ASRA series that replaced FUSA.

Nice, thanks for the info. I was at the classic and missed him! I'll be sure to get up to Loudon to see him race the next race weekend.

[Ken C]

You didn't miss him. The ASRA guys weren't at NHIS this year, only LRRS guys.

[benVFR]

Yah I only meant big time factory racing, where the Triumph would suddenly have to compete with 600s that make 130-140hp and cost $300k or whatever it is.