Uncle Petrol
02-05-2003, 11:01 PM
:hellobye A few things to settle before I run through this:
1. I'm not back so don't get excited
2. I promised I'd do it, and my word is my bond[heed this haters]
3. I'm not a professional writer or tested
4. I don't give a shit what you think. This is MY experience.
Saturday mornings aren't my favorite morning of the week. I spend 9 - 5 in the office, which gets me out of bed at 0700 so most Saturdays I'm sleepin' til 0900. I'm a bruva on a mission, so I'm out the sack by 0700, I don't even crack a shot into the Mrs. No time for that, I got bikes to ride.
I'm leaving names and shops out of this post as I'm still hacked at the Yamaha guys for lack of friendliness. I arrive and meet the salesman, we chat.
"You like the bike then?"
"Yes, yes I do!"
"Lets go in and do up the finance and while we're waiting for the answer you can go for a ride!"
"No lets me go for a ride and I'll come back and if I like it, we'll do the finance."
I don't know what the situation state side is but 25 mins will have you financed or rejected over here.
First impressions of the R6 is that it's seems to be the rich cousin of the ZX-6R It's nice, really nice. The Demo I was about to ride was a little dirty but she's a good lookin' piece of kit. The wheels look better on paper then they do in person, but I guess that's down to personal tastes.
Taste is a funny thing. The R6 felt a little bigger then the 636, however I'm putting that down to a slightly modified rider position, The R6 feels a little less street friendly then both the 600rr and the 636, but the 600rr sucks as a streetbike. If I had to choose which one I'd ride the 1800 miles to Philip Island, I'd probably ride the R6.
Riding the R6 and it's a different animal all together, the throttle is a touch nochy, the FI is a little jerky for me but I guess if your stepping off a Gixxer you'll feel right at home. The throttle response at these slow speeds was no problem for the 636 however the R6 didn't seem to like going slow[just over walking speed]. But so what right? this is a roadbike.
Road speeds for road bikes. The R6 comes on a little stronger then the 636, but I noticed that compared to the 636 the R6 run out of puff, fast. I guess thats down to the 36 extra cc that the 636 has over the technically square 600cc Yamaha. The engine in the R6 is peaky and has a top end rush that's different to the 636. The R6 I rode on the weekend seemed to dip in the mid power range and come back strong near the top of the clock. It's not as torquey as the 636 either, but again that's down to the lack of 'cubes.
Circles is where both bikes earn there keep, not on cubes. I rode down the service road unfortunately last weekend the Disco tins (cop cars) where posted on the road. Seems that last weekend the State Government posted a statewind 50K/33M zone through suburban streets. Cops lookin' for anything. I passed the plod and came towards the traffic circle. I managed to run at the circle in the same gear 3rd and took the thing a whole 15 k's faster then I did on the 636 - It doesn't matter if you can't work out the kilometer to mile conversion - going through the same traffic circle faster, is going through the same shit faster, end of story. Up the freeway on ramp and I just couldn't get the wheel up in the same gear at the same revs. I'm going the lack of cube's again.
The Story on these two bikes is pretty close. They are the same length - 79.7 inches a piece. The R6 is shorter in the seat by a whole .2 of an inch 32.5 the 636 32.3 the R6. Horsepower is close to. From what I'm lead to believe the R6 and 636 are only a horsepower or 2 apart.
Breaking news....... Breaking news. The R6 can stop. I mean stops nicely. The breaks on the 636 are better. Sorry lads, the Kawasaki pulls up better then the R6 - the Brakes on the Yamaha need to catch up with the rest of the SuperSport world. The Yamaha's brakes are bigger then the 636 18mm bigger, but the feedback I got from the 636 was better. It's like getting hit in the face with a baseball bat. You ask the guy doin' it to stop, not slow down. That's what I was doing on the R6, asking it to slow down. The Kawasaki stopped like a taliban eating a tomahawk it just STOPPED.
If you ride like me you're not riding for the stopping your riding for the going, that said though, I like to have BIG STRONG MANLY braking power when it's needed. The R6 just didn't make me feel that if I had to stop in a hurry, or if I was on a big ride that it'd last the distance.
These two bikes are so close in dimensions that it's hard to pull them apart. I guess at the end of the day, it's what you like that's going to determine which you buy. I'm pretty set on the Kawasaki, but that's just me. The 636 is a better buy for me.
The R6 sounds and goes like an R1 that's had some air let our of it. The 636 isn't trying to be something else it's trying to be something new. I think that if you give it an honest chance that you'll agree that the 636 is a better street bike, the R6 on the other hand would probably be a better track bike.
I like both these bikes, they're just as fun as each other, the R6 is a better handler, only by a bee's forskin though. There's more torque in the 636 but that's down to cubes.
If you lookin' for an R1 but don't have the balls, go get the R6 if your lookin' for an R1 and don't have the money, save some and buy the R1, you'll be disappointed on the R6. The 636 has my money as it's the allrounder in my book, it's a streetbike, a twisties bike and an aggressive track bike, but that seat, oh that seat, I wouldn't ride it to Philip Island. The R6 is nice but I feel a little two focused.
The R6 is a top bike
The 636 is a top bike also.
Which one you ride is up to you. Where you ride is up to you. Try and test ride both you'll get the picture.