The unfortunate answer is: We ain't got one. American Honda, it turns out, is miffed at MO over a series of alleged indiscretions which came to light a couple of weeks before the CBR600RR's U.S. intro--"the straw that broke the camel's back" being Honda's impression that we crashed its Metropolitan scooter intentionally (see the "CRASH" video). Well, we would never crash anything intentionally. However, when slapstick happens right in front of where the camera is rolling, to us that falls under the category of Entertainment, and it's our duty to run with it. (And we apologized for the scuffed Metro and offered to pay for it of course, at the time of the crash.)

Meetings in which we grovelled followed by affidavits in which we promised to behave better in the future have so far proved fruitless, but did get us a laundry list of our other past misbehaviors--including "drunken unprofessionalism" on the part of the now-departed Minime at the Las Vegas launch of the 954RR, what, over a year ago now?

Say, isn't that the same allegation that got me fired from Motorcyclist magazine? (I put that one in the "Bad Things that Turned out Good" category.)

Well, it's just all a little strange. I recall a meeting with the same people at Honda about this time last year with Minime in attendance, post-Vegas, in which Honda wished us and MO all the best amidst warm handshakes and promises to keep the lines of communication open and do lunch--and nobody said anything then about drunken unprofessionalism (though nobody offered us a cocktail either come to think of it).

In short, there's some strange stuff going on at American Honda and nothing much we can do about it for now.

We decided to just buy an RR, when word came down that there's some kind of production problem which means the first RR's won't be hitting the dealerships until mid-April--one per dealer--with the rest not coming in `til June. For MO then, the bottom line became simple enough: We can't get a Honda, but neither can you. We also know the Honda did not fare so well in the already published Roadracing World comparo, and the word on the street, Huggybear, is that the Honda will not be scoring much better when the big print mags hit the newsstands either.

So who knows? Maybe Honda doesn't have it in for us personally? Maybe they just decided to adopt the old "protect the product" strategy, knowing they have a 20 or 30-pound heavier bike on their hands in an important and highly competitive class, and that MO is not known for pulling punches?

Dammit Jim, we're not politicians, we're simple motojournalists... Whatever. On a happier and easier to deal with note, our less inscrutable friends at Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Ducati and Triumph were happy to partake in the semi-annual speed binge that is the MO 600 SHOOTOUT. And so, without further ado...

CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY
Fontana, Cali 3/10/2003

And so it came to pass that on the tenth day in March in the year of our Lord 2003, the first Fastrack Riders (that's www.fasttrackriders.com) day of the season would happen at the imposing California Speedway, and that the Yamaha support crew would wait patiently at Willow Springs (ooooh, sorry about that Kurt...).

How cool is Fontana? Fontana is so cool that the Daytona 200, live, was piped into the TV sets suspended from the pit ceiling, which nicely set the mood as we unpacked our stuff: one Kawasaki ZX-6R 636, one new Yamaha YZF-R6, one Triumph Speed Four, one Ducati 749S, one Suzuki GSX R600.

Pirelli Diablos were supposed to be here, but had not arrived in time. Matter of fact it's now March 21 and still no sign of them. You think this job is easy? It's not. Anyway, there's a case to be made for testing bikes on stock rubber, especially now that stock rubber is so good, and also because we would be riding Fontana's infield course, which is not quite so ridiculously fast as the main Superbike circuit. (See both at Californiaspeedway.com.)

One thing is painfully clear; I am not getting any faster, which is really no big deal since I never was fast to begin with. Actually there's no pain. Never mind. It must be hell to be Jeremy McGrath, to have to admit you are starting to suck at a thing where you once whipped all comers. I wouldn't know. I did do well on the postal exam, though, and lately my organizational skills are coming to the fore. For instance, I was able to organize for two-time Willow Springs champion Jeremy Toye to ride all these bikes when we happened to bump into him at Fontana, and I even organized hiring our new man Sean Alexander, who organized everything else and even organized himself to go even faster than Toye in spite of the fact he looks like the guy who should be driving the MO transporter (if we had one, he probably would drive it...).

"We had a Triumph Speed Four to play with..."

The new-and-cool Triumph Daytona 600 will be here in a matter of months; in the meantime we had a Triumph Speed Four to play with, which we thought might be fun on Fontana's short circuit as it needs lots of off-the-corner acceleration--just the place where the more midrange-intensive Speed Four is said to excel. It's a willing-enough little unit, and does seem to pull out of corners pretty well. Then it gets to what feels like a power plateau around 8-9000 rpm where not much happens, then it pulls like a train again all the way out to 14K like a real sporty 600, according to the nice white-faced tach.

Unfortunately for the Triumph, there are some longish straights between the corners too. While nobody went fastest on the Speed Four, we all thought it was a blast to ride--Toye especially--and voted it least likely to eject the rider. Higher, wider bars and lower, more forward pegs don't do anything for top speed, but they do encourage you to fling the green Triumph into corners harder, semi-secure in the feeling you'll be able to grab things back should they become suddenly too slithery. Like nearly all the Triumphs, this one comes with well-dialled suspenders completely ready for a good trackday shag, and supremely strong brakes. Not able to hang with these 100-plus horse front-line beasts on the track, though, everybody turned laps two to three seconds slower on the Triumph. Things will be different on the street. Just you wait. Okay maybe not.

The Ducati 749S, some would argue, really doesn't belong in this group and I'd have to be one of them. It's not quite twice the money, but it's close--and for most riders it's just off the pace of the 600's. Will Tate went fastest on it, but he's from the Hailwood era, back when the knee puck had not yet been invented. The "S" comes with Pirelli Supercorsas, and though these had a few hard miles on them, they still seemed to give the Ducati a slight advantage. Either that, or the thing is just completely rock-solid, encouraging entry speeds and lean angles the others can't match--only to miss the bus with too much weight and not quite as much power down the straights. When we're talking pure performance, which is what we're doing, the 749 will always be a dilettante because it weighs as much as the 999.

Ducati claims 439 pounds for both of them, and the true weight with fuel is considerably more. The 999 might beat up these 600's on the infield course, but the 749, most of the time under most riders, will not.

Which brings us to the three real contenders. The Suzuki is still a cardiac-serious package, and it is not giving up much at all on the track oh no. I don't feel the excessive vibration other riders always complain about with it, I just feel an engine making power and I have really good earplugs. The other engines are a bit smoother running and more refined, but it's a racetrack isn't it? And the dyno says the GSX-R has the widest sweet spot--2600 rpm separates its 10,600-rpm torque peak (lowest of these) from its power peak--highest, at 13,200 rpm.

"The refinement theme carries through in everything about the bike: throttle response, brakes, suspension."

The big difference is simply how you interface the GSX-R; your butt's further back and you reach a little farther forward--which makes the Suzuki a hellacious braker but not quite so quick-reacting as the Kawasaki and Yamaha at changing course. Our fastest and heaviest guy, the now infamous Sean Alexander, couldn't come to grips with the bike's old Dunlop D207s (we thought the new GSX-R would arrive with the better D208s), but the old Dunlops didn't keep Jeremy Toye from turning his best time on the Suzuki. Toye doesn't ride on street tires much, and he thinks he goes well on the Suzuki mostly because he's ridden so many of them and knows what to expect.

Sean's greater mass and aggression had the Suzuki spinning its rear out of every corner, not a problem for him apparently but not `zackly an aid to acceleration either.

Page2Jumping from GSX-R onto Yamaha is like trading in an old car that ran fine, but... For one thing, where the Suzuki carries its gauges on an unattractive steel bracket, the Yamaha dashboard is plasticked in like a finished-off basement (so's the Kawasaki). The refinement theme carries through in everything about the bike: throttle response, brakes, suspension. Everything is 13.6-percent crisper and more responsive, and like the previous R6, the distance from you to the clip-ons is short and enhances front-tire feedback. And unlike the deep, squishy Suzuki saddle, the Yamaha seat's flatter and firmer--the better to feel the rear tire.

And yet... All was not perfect with this Yamaha: Sean felt it and I felt it and Will Tate felt it: now and then, an occasional, instantly-gone unsettling feeling like the front tire wanted to tuck. The R6 never did fold up the front, but it slowed enough to affect the results of the test. Worn-out Dunlop 208? Don't think so, but I never felt this at the Spanish launch of the bike a month or two ago when we were rolling on Michelin Pilot Sport street rubber. Um, I wonder if the front Michelin in Spain was a 120/70 instead of the 120/60 our current test bike wears (mostly for fashion's sake)?

There is no place else to fault the Yamaha. Down the straights, the bigger displacement Kawasaki doesn't feel to have much advantage, nor do the 636's radial brakes seem to be much of an advantage diving into the corners.

On the Yamaha, you would never really know the infield circuit at Fontana has any bumps, nor would you have any idea that anybody would ever accuse the last R6 of being unstable under power. This one's a train, a really responsive 400-pound train.

And if you were Helen Keller, it would be tough to tell the Kawasaki from the Yamaha. Ergoes are very similar, the crisp control feels are in place along with a nice, light close-ratio gearbox.

"Handling-wise, it would be tough for me to tell the Kawasaki from the Yamaha"

At my speed, the brakes feel not as strong as the Yamaha's but at Alexander speed, he says, the feel is just the opposite: you have to be able to really carry the mail to appreciate the Kawasaki's stiffer inverted fork and radial brakes. (Either that or you have to be over 200 pounds...)

Handling-wise, it would be tough for me to tell the Kawasaki from the Yamaha, apart from the fact that the Kawasaki's Bridgestones seem better-matched to the task. The Kawasaki feels just as light and responsive, but a little stiffer out back than the Yamaha--which is how we know there are a few bumps at Fontana. The Kawasaki fairing might be slightly larger than the Yamaha's, its funky perimeter LCD tach is a little harder to read but still functional when you adjust to it (there's a lap timer too)--and like so many Kawasakis before it, this one has a most delectable exhaust rasp/intake honk, which is only fitting since they adorn the fire-breathingest engine in the class; sit back and the front tire rises in second gear (so does the Yamaha in fact). At the end of the day, I went 0.6 seconds faster on the Kawasaki than on the Yamaha, 1.5 seconds faster on the Kawasaki than the Suzuki.

2. Sean Alexander:
33, nasty (but damn fast) Fat Bastard - 6'2, 212 lbs

TRIUMPH SPEED FOUR

I was reminded of my Supermotarded past when I hopped back on Triumph's Speed Four. BANG!--suddenly I was back on my CR500, things were getting sideways and my smile was broadening. I ran out of laps before catching JB and Will T, but oh yes, I was gaining fast and ready to put the motardish hurtin' on those boys with my trusty CR500/Speed Four. The motor is ok, the suspension and chassis are very good, and the brakes are totally awesome. Couple this with friendly, high-leverage ergos and you get a fun bike to ride fast at the track and in the canyons. In the "real" world of blind corners, oncoming traffic, cops, squids and slick spots, the Speed Four can probably be ridden just as quickly as this latest crop of 600 racer reps.

DUCATI 749S

It's expensive and it's pretty, it also works well, in a calm and reassuring manner. I've decided that I really like the styling of the new Ducati Superbikes, and our yellow 749S, with its white number field tail section, strikes me as prettiest of all. Excellent stock suspension and Pirelli Supercorsas enable the 749 to feel planted and smooth with no drama whatsoever at the track, allowing the highest lean angle and corner speed as well as killer drive from the apex with your choice of spinning or hooked-up rear tire.

Unfortunately once up onto the center of its rear tire, our 749 was unable to fling itself down the straights with quite the ghusto mustered by the inline fours, partially due to its heavier weight, lower redline and slightly lower power.

"It was able to narrowly beat the GSX-R 600"

It was however able to narrowly beat the GSX-R 600, which was afflicted with mediocre D207 street meats. Another factor in the Ducati's 4th place finish is that when my buddy Dave and I took the bikes to the LACR Dragstrip, for a little Wednesday night drag fest, the Duc felt just plain wrong--its dry clutch acting like a loud rattling light switch. With abundant traction, this led to bogging and lurching, followed by decent pull through the remainder of the run. Mr. Duc, I really do love you, but your good looks and reassuring manners do not outweigh your excessive girth and your 95% cost premium.

SUZUKI GSX-R600

Surprise! This thing has a great motor, I said to myself on my first out-lap aboard the GSX-R 600. Whoa! great brakes, I said to myself on my second lap as I entered the braking zone for turn one. Unfortunately, the squirmy tires and very soft stock suspension settings prevented me from capitalizing on the motor and brakes.

I was able to bottom the suspension with ease on smooth level pavement, when I would put a little muscle in to a sharp transition.

"For club racers who immediately change tires and suspension tuning, the GSX-R is an excellent choice, due to Suzuki's excellent privateer support, and the huge aftermarket for racing GSX-Rs."

This isn't ideal. After cranking in a little more spring preload and a full turn on compression damping front and rear, the bottoming went away, but the tire squirm remained.

I'd never ridden a GSX-R600 before, so I listened to the tires and never really pushed for fastest time. I was reminded how good the brakes, engine and chassis were, each time I jumped back on it throughout the day. I have no doubt that with a couple hundred dollars worth of suspension tuning and some decent track tires, the little GSX-R would have been at the pointy end of the field. For club racers who immediately change tires and suspension tuning, the GSX-R is an excellent choice, due to Suzuki's excellent privateer support, and the huge aftermarket for racing GSX-Rs.

At the dragstrip, the Suzuki was easy to launch, but fell slightly behind the newer Yamaha and Kawasaki (though to be truthful, I am a terrible drag racer and my pace shouldn't be taken as gospel on 600-class dragstrip performance).

YAMAHA YZF-R6

What a trick and sweet little bike! The Yamaha YZF-R6 is compact, beautifully finished and has a killer 104hp 600cc motor. Overall, aside from the ultra steep seat on the ZX-6R, the Yamaha feels quite similar to the Kawasaki in ergonomics. The funny thing is, in the real world, even with a flatter seat, it doesn't seem to be quite as comfortable to ride.

At the tracks (both roadcourse and dragstrip) the R-6 was my second fastest bike. Like the Suzuki, the Yamaha seemed to be held back a little by its stock Dunlop D208 tires. As Johnny B mentioned, it gave the unsettling impression that it wanted to fall into the corners and tuck its front tire.

Also as Johnny B mentioned, it never did, and indeed was consistently near the top of the charts at the track. At my size, I might just be outside the target that the engineers were aiming for when they designed the R6, so my comfort and "feel" impressions should be taken with a grain of salt, unless you are an aggressive 6'+ rider. At the dragstrip, the R6 was the easiest to launch and the trick shift light was entertaining to play with, while tucked in and pinned. With different tires and another 36cc, this bike would keep the ZX-6R honest.

KAWASAKI ZX-6R

There's no denying the Kawasaki ZX-6R's "edge." It is evident in the styling, in the handling and especially in the 636cc motor. This bike is so close to the edge that it is on the edge of crushing your naughty bits every time you ride downhill or over a bump on the freeway, due to the extreme slope of the seat and extreme height of the tail, in its "stinkbug" racer stance.

It is also on the edge of violent headshake, when you slam it right-left through the chicanes at Fontana, or when you are hard on the gas in 3rd gear at 110mph and you hit the right shaped dip or bump in the road, due to its raceresque geometry and riding position.

This is a take no prisoners/ask no mercy race bike, that happens to have turn signals. Don't let my description scare you away though, the bike is actually surprisingly comfortable in every day life and doesn't feel like it is going to bite you. You might want to invest in a steering damper, though. Speaking of every day life, the bike's edge might be partially responsible for it being livable on the freeway, because the extreme forward mounted seat makes the reach to the extreme low clip-ons shorter, allowing you to sit almost upright, with your hands close to your body (knees in my case) That seat may be too steeply raked, but it's still comfortable to your tailbone after over an hour on the freeway. I may have felt fastest and most comfortable at the limit, on the Ducati, but the time sheets don't lie. At Fontana, I was nearly 2 seconds per lap faster on the ZX-6R. That's nothing to sneeze at. Factor in purchase price, dominating dragstrip and dyno performances and the winner is clear.
Page33. Will Tate
Scary fast, wicked smooth More than half-a-century old, about 6'0" and 175 pounds...

Proprietor California Speed Shop 949-642-3080
That's: www.ca-speedshop.com

Fastest Laptimes: (1. Ducati: 1:19.1)   (2. Kawasaki: 1:19.9)

Do you think this is an easy job? The first part at the track is easy (thanks Ashley, John, Sean), the second part, writing this, is hard. Sort of reminds me of an old Tina Turner song (a 20th century American female vocalist-Ed.). With the exception of the Ducati 749S, all these 600's are remarkably similar. They are all intended for the same purpose, so that makes perfect sense--but each has a very distinct personality.

The Suzuki feels kinda old in the way it handles and the noises it makes--neither of which detracts from its ability to rip. Power delivery is sharp--a tad soft on the low end, but picks up nicely `til you get a good shot on top. The motor feels very busy, lots of noise and vibration. Suspension is very good, well-controlled over most bumps, (not many at Cal Speedway). Great brakes, easy to modulate right up to the lock-up point. Suzuki designed a great bike just a few years back, she feels old, but that don't mean she's slow. The R6 feels like a much more complete package than the other bikes. Everything just works well together.I cannot fault the handling in any way, I only comment that it has very light turn-in initially, probably just the tyre profile being somewhat triangulated.

"The R6 feels like a much more complete package than the other bikes."

General feed back from the suspension is a little soft in comparison with the Kawasaki. Power delivery seems the most linear of the group and is in no way lacking. Vibration isn't noticeable at all. The brakes feel numb, so I rate them the poorest of the bunch--not to say they don't stop quickly.

Ducati's 749S was the best bike there for me. I went fastest on it and was comfortable, relaxed and confident. Not being the great technical guy, I cannot explain why the 749's chassis/motor combo works so well, I only know I had to work to keep my knee off the ground. Compared to the other bikes we tested, the Ducati had less power, but as usual you can get on the gas waaay early for great drives off corners.

This bike had Pirelli Supercorsa DOT race tyres on it, so some question would arise about its ability compared to the others, if the others had similar tires on them: I personally think the Duck would still be the best. The brakes were very good and suspension action the best I sampled that day. This bike is just in a class by itself, it is unfair to compare it directly with the Japanese 600's.

This brings me to the bike I pick as the best of the 600's, the ZX636 Kawasaki. This bike is about half the price of the Ducati. It has more horsepower and torque than its competitors. I was second fastest on it, only a tick slower than the Duck. The brakes are very powerful, but with a bit too much initial bite for good feel. Suspension is better than any other Brand K 600 I've ridden to date, not as much high-speed compression damping as we've seen in the past. I would say it's almost supple! The riding position feels natural, could even be OK for day-long sport touring. Kawasaki sure knows how to build a motor; this thing is fast and it makes really cool sounds, kind of a roaring ripping noise from the intakes, Hoo Haa! The ZX636 should be a great club racer. Play around with some suspension pieces and brake pads and let the motor do its thing.

"Honda's CBR600RR was a no show. Ratz."

I did sneak a ride on one a few weeks ago. My views don't directly apply to this comparison as I was limited to a short ride up the local canyons, but as you might expect the new 600 from Big Red is very much a player in this arena. The most noticeable thing for me was that perched on the Honda, the bike totally disappears from your view. You must look down to even see the top of the windscreen. It's like flying like a bird, a different perspective for sure. The suspension is very plush but controlled. Front feel was good and the brakes were linear in effect. Power seemed peakier than previous Honda 600's, but the power was there! I think this bike and the Yamaha are the most similar in their targeted consumer. It was a shame to miss the opportunity to compare them.

I brought my own 2000 Triumph TT600 along for fun--I've been using it as a track bike for a couple of years. It puts out 95 hp and is a great-handling bike. I took it out for a session late in the day and flogged it mercilessly. Although my corner speeds, braking and exits were similar to the test bikes, I was down three seconds a lap compared to the new stuff; amazing what ten horsepower and 35 pounds will do to lap times. I am looking forward to the new Triumph Daytona 600 later next month!

HIGHER MATHEMATICS

Shame about the missing Honda, and yet judging from Daytona, you can cover several CBR-RR's and Yamaha R6's with a large tarp, in terms of outright speed, which tells us the two are pretty near equal. Our own performance testing tells us the Kawasaki 636, under most riders most of the time, will outdistance the Yamaha. Given then, that if Y=H, and K>Y, then K must also be >H. As for the Suzuki, it's still a contender, particularly if your dealer wants to make you a smoking deal on one: Know ye, however that a redone GSX-R600 will very probably be here for `04, in the same mold as the new GSX-R1000.

"It snarls, it bites, it looks even better in the flesh, and it wins the performance portion of this year's 600 Shootout handily."

Is 636cc cheating? Initially, as your knee jerks, you might say yes. On the other hand, many racing clubs set the middleweight cut-off point at 650cc--and Kawasaki offers its RR for those clubs that don't. On the street, you very seldom get torn down, so who cares? More power to  Kawasaki for building a 110-horse "600," for charging no more for it than the other guys' 600's, and for giving it an upside down fork and radial brakes to boot.

Whether you're able to exploit the extra performance or not is really beside the point; having cool tackle is its own reward. The 636 is bad to the bone. It snarls, it bites, it looks even better in the flesh, and it wins the performance portion of this year's 600 Shootout handily. Stay tuned for the street bit.