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Obviously this bike shares its look with its smaller sibling, the 600RR. One of the things about the six was its ability to get the power down to the ground and to how deliciously easy it was to get going pretty decent due to that fact. This bike is so much the same, but with nearly 50% more beans (I was quoted 174BHP) open the throttle early on this bike and you're greeted with great drive with no wheel spinning drama at all, this makes the bike fast and, more importantly safe. The AZ track was remarkably grippy, sure, but I never saw any spin regardless of how careless or impatient I got. Ham-fisted jockeys unite. |
That get up and go-ness is from a completely redesigned motor that shares no parts with last years 954 engine. For starters the all new liquid cooled motor has a short stroke motor tuned for for top end gee gee's. For maximum strength the cylinders are cast with ridges to mate the head and cylinders together for rigidity so nothing will go pair shaped under duress, literally. Those cylinders, by the way, are inclined in a manner that allows space for that aforementioned larger radiator. When you look at the specs you'll also notice that the compression ration is lower than both the Gixxer and the new ZX10R - go get your tools, there's some free(ish) horses inside there - I'll wait here...
| The gearbox is something special too, apart from being absolutely silky yet positive in usage (Kawi' engineers take note) they are also of a cassette style design - no good for AMA usage (not legal yet), but great for Sunday AM bragging, and of course, race winning quick gear adjustments as the whole kit and caboodle slide out in one go. |
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Feeding the fuel to that new motor is a system lifted again from the RC211V's part's bin. This is an acronym overdose with a system labeled PGM-DSFI... basically it's a dual stage fuel injection system with two injectors per cylinder. One low, in the intake venturi's, and one higher up in the airbox, showerhead style. The second one responsible for a denser charge and some boosted top end. The fuel injection was a little notchy down low, but felt perfect with some minor RPM added. For you technophiles it also has dual stage ram air, to ram in some air, and an exhaust valve that monitors back pressure and engine pulses. |
| All these engine management systems are controlled by a very sophisticated 32-bit ECU. That PDA sized electronic control system handles the 3-D mapping for the fuel injection, the ignition and emissions, the ram air intake system, the exhaust valve and even the steering damper. Heck, if the thing had big boobs and made a decent cup of tea, I'd marry the thing. |
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Likewise the braking on this bike was superb too. I soon got into the "later is better" mode, and I was especially taken with how well the, new for Honda, radial brakes felt. This is a partially due to those new, made for Honda, Tokico calipers' up front, and with the radial style master cylinder up top too. I could also fine tune the span for both clutch and brake for maximum comfort, cause' a comfortable rider is a faster rider. One thing about the brakes that I felt showed tremendous attention to detail was the fact that Honda opted to use Tokico front calipers and a Nissan rear. Different manufacturers? I think this just goes to prove the fact that each individual piece is there because it's the best part for the job, not for parts sake... good stuff. |