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2007 Kawasaki ZX-6R

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Friday, 15 December 2006

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The throttle to tire relationship on this bike is what made it so fun, it felt a little flat up top and perhaps didn’t quite have the power that the CBR6 made but it made it up in spades when over on its side, railing apexes and driving out. Especially nice was the over-rev, at any point in the track where an additional gear-change was marginal, I didn’t, I just hung onto the gear and throttle and let this bike sing.

At the hotel I overheard a sales dweeb telling his compatriot that he felt a synergy in his recent sales meeting - I’m not sure if his synergy with his workmate was in the same league as my top of fourth, 16,000 screaming RPM coming into turn one synergy, but I was definately feeling it too.

The bike has a very tactile feel to it now - go look at the rearsets (I’ll wait here) see how nicely they’re finished - that’s attention to detail, my freaky friends. Style-wise it’s got very graceful arcing lines. Little touches also gave me cheap thrills, like the 12-o’clock redline - that’s racer stuff too. Look, before I go on and on, I suppose I should go into some of the technical aspects and help you understand how this ZX6R’s development came about. Page/Line-one of the press kit contains four simple words to sum up the concept of this bike - the words are not for the technical minded but they offer a profound sense of the design goals of the 2007 Kawasaki 6R. Stay on the gas.

This bike was developed by an ex-125GP jockey and is Kawasaki’s first complete 600 redesign for ten years. Starting with a blank sheet of aluminum meant no real restraints. Like Honda, they used an in-line 16-valve four-cylinder motor, went smaller, some 40mm was lost in width and length, and internal frictional losses are reduced, presumedly using lashings of secret sauce, smaller parts and tighter tolerances. Valve sizes are up though, for midrange juice and the intakes are shorter for mid and high torque value as well. Those smaller cases are a little more rigid than of yore, the pistons are lighter and shorter and more forged than previous renditions. The flywheel is heavier, clutch included, which is an obvious aid to smoother power pulses (read traction). The whole thing’s going to run cooler than you’ll remember too, due to enhanced cooling coolant passageways. Finally the transmission is the now the standard tri-axis layout of a compact crank, cassette 6-speed close-ratio gearbox and whatever the third one is that nobody ever mentions.

The exhaust is somewhat familiar to last year’s bike but now has a pre-chamber under the motor (mass centralization, baby). There was a cutaway version to look at containing what I think is an exhaust valve in the silencer entrance, although I wasn’t told, I didn’t ask and the press kit was about as much use as a chocolate sparkplug. My Mum always told me not to point too, (‘cause that’s rude) so I have to assume it’s a midrange booster. That lower, under motor pre-chamber, by the way, allows the use of a lighter, and better-looking silencer.

The big deal for this bike is the chassis. The Kawasaki elves have been busy on improving flex and finding the ideal balance of that flex Vs stiffness. The Fong Shui goal was a unity in the rider to frame relationship (have you hugged your frame today?) I truly loved how responsive this bike was to my inputs and especially how it shrugged off bad pavement. Honda had us avoid the natural race line going into turn one, due to the pavement rippled by those nasty race cars. The Kawasaki never registered complaint and a better line could be chosen, with the subsequent advantage in lap times. The press kit mentions a “split-second-pause” as the rider flicks into a turn... That smacks of a wobbly mid-70's Kawasaki two-stroke to me... but it wasn’t (although I kept my finger on the clutch just in case).

Kawi might have found something with the front suspension here, it’s basically an inverted fork with the fork spring at the bottom (immersed in oil) as opposed to the top in a regular unit.

They claim less frothing and a more consistent action. I thought they work well and were very sensitive to adjustment. My only grumble is that the preload is internal so there are no visual confirmations of preload setting - I’ll get over it.

The rear is a regular looking unit that has high and low speed compression damping. It also uses “pillow balls”instead of bushings for feel and feedback. Again, no complaints about how it worked, however, I have at least 100 “pillow ball” jokes that I could have listed here if I wasn’t such a sensible person.

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