Money aside... Out of the following bikes which one would YOU get, and why over the others?

2003-2005 Yamaha YZF-R6 (or R6s)
Honda CBR 600F4i
Suzuki Katana 600
Kawasaki zzr600

All "comfortable" middleweight sport bikes, very similar, meant for the same purpose. Which would you choose?

R6

Pumpkin450sxf, on 02 April 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

I think the R6 is probably the sportiest one, and gets the most looks. At the same time I've heard bad things about the bikes? Compared to Hondas? Nothing against them, just heard of little things going wrong here and there.

Plus insurance might be more?

Can't beat the CBR F4s for reliability, that'd be my first pick.

Suzuki Katana likely be the least expensive, and easiest to maintain, no radiator to leak.

ZZR6 and R6 are both too peaky for daily street use, better suited for track bike.

Edited by cat0020, 03 April 2012 - 10:08 AM.

cat0020, on 03 April 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

The can-o-tuna.....is.......air cooled???!?!?!?!?!?

The thing I like about the Honda and Yamaha is that they're fuel injected. And living in Utah that's realllllllllly nice to have.

twistedkeys, on 03 April 2012 - 03:49 PM, said:

Yeah, same powerplant as the late 80's GSXRs, and Bandits until 2006 or so, air/oil cooled engine, simple and effective.
I doubt carb-ed bike would have any trouble perforing at Utah altitude, unless you're racing to cut laptime.

cat0020, on 03 April 2012 - 06:15 PM, said:

Well the main problem is on average you'll climb 5K feet, then back down, and back up, and so on, just on a little ride. Plus winters will get down to -15 in the mornings. Now I don't mind that, but I don't want a whiny motorcycle when it comes to that.

5k ft. elevation change is not the performance affector, is when you climb bove 7k ft. the % of oxygen in the air is reduced enough to a level that woud affect engine performance at certain level. Normal commute or street level performance is no where near that performance level.
Unless you park your bike for more than a days at sustained -15 degree temp., I would imagine a FI moto would have difficulty starting if experienced the same conditions.

What do you want to do with the bike? Track days? R6. Commuting around town? CBR. Dropping from a crane? Katana.

cat0020, on 04 April 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

Oh yeah sorry I didn't make it clear lol.... I AM at 5K feet, and will ride up to 10-12K and back down. It's pretty dramatic riding in some places. I was unaware of your last point though, I was kinda under the impression that an FI would start anywhere anytime. Tricky tricky...

fttam, on 04 April 2012 - 11:18 AM, said:

lol @ the crane

For *me* it would be at most a 2-3 mile commute (that's as large as our city gets) a few times a week. Then mostly for riding down two lane highways, twisties, country roads, mountain roads. You get the picture.... You can't do any "city riding" for more than 5 minutes before you find yourself near a ranch and on your way to the next town

Would love to do track days, but I assume with the closest track (MMP) being an official SBK/MotoGP (can't remember...) track it would probably be pretttty pricey to race there.

MMP? I'd love to hit Miller, but I'm about a bazillion miles away. By the same token, they run track days at Miller ALL the time, and while any track time is sort of expensive, it's well within the realm of most people provided you have leathers and good tires.

Any 600 makes a pretty fun bike, but they can all be a bit high strung (you gotta rev 'em a bit). Drop a tooth off the front sprocket for a little extra grunt and you'll have a fun ride. Find the one you like the best at the best price and go with it.

Make sure you are covered financially and physically when you participate track day events.

Near me, a track day event cost $180-300 per single day, less than 3 hours of track time.
$450-650 for a 3-day weekend, you may or may not need a set of fresh tires before or replacement tires after the event.

Physically, bring someone with you to pamper you while you exhaust yourself on the track, feed you, make you drink fluids. Track riding require intense concentration, your body will be tired without you even realizing. Having someone there to pamper you reduce the chance of ignoring the physical signs of fatigue and ride in the late day sessions without proper hydration.

fttam, on 05 April 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

I'm still a little baffled when people tell me they know this or that about Utah when they're thousands of miles away. Seems like every American has some type of insider knowledge or experience of Utah deep down lol.

The high up powerband wouldn't be much of a problem for me, coming from two strokes though I appreciate the info, I was under the impression you had to do some other tweakies if you changed the sprocket out.

cat0020, on 05 April 2012 - 05:38 AM, said:

Thanks for the info I'm not usually one to have people do things for me so that would be interesting

I have to ask so I can get an idea for pricing. But how large is your track? What facilities does it have? Would you consider it a "well known track"? Compared to MMP..........?
Man that sounds so biotchy... ^^^

The R6.  I used to do track days on a 2000.  I'm not sure I would call it comfy, but it was a good bike.  I would rather an SV or a Monster over any of the other three.

twistedkeys, on 05 April 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

No so interesting when you lose concentration on the track due to dehydration, crash out yourself or cause others to crash on the track.
Do not think of it as asking for people to do things for you, but your survival depend on it.

The tracks near me are NJMP,




Pocono East



Summit pt.


I've also done track events in Willow Springs, Laguna Seca and Infineon when I used to live in CA
I don't know how those track compare to MMP, but track riding is serious business.. you need to have proper gears, your vehicle has to be top condition with equipment designated for track use, not only for your own safety, but also for others on the track.

Alright, thanks for the info But yeah I couldn't imagine racing the F4i or Katana   So I guess it depends on your current financial situation, like most things.

twistedkeys, on 05 April 2012 - 01:00 PM, said:

Not sure what anyone knows about Utah (I've been there once myself, it wasn't all that remarkable) but what I do know a little bit about is racetracks....and MMP isn't any different than any other track in that they need to pay their bills the other 364 days of the year when WSBK isn't racing there. So, track days are running there daily. Check out Team ProMotion or APEX for dates.

NJMP, which Cat0020 posted up is one of a few tracks I'm intimately familair with, and it's a world class facility that hosts a number of races including an AMA double header. There are actually 2 tracks there, Thunderbolt and Lightning (named after the P-47 and P-38's that used to fly in and out of it's airstrip). I've run stadard format track days there (seven 20 min track sessions) and I've run a few "open pit" format days (unlimited track time....I've put in 175 lap days that way!). I'm most familiar with Thunderbolt, not only as I've run it probably close to a dozen times, but also because I highsided my R1 out of the chicane there at somewhere north of 90mph. I still can't remember that crash, tho.....

Oh, and no other tweaks are needed when dropping a tooth off of the front sprocket except for perhaps something like a Speedo-healer, but with 1 tooth off, you can get away without it. Best bang for the buck, that front sprocket.....$20 for a pretty good change in feel around town.