Yamaha introduces ride-by-wire motorcycle

A decade ago, a fast 600cc supersports bike had 90 bhp and weighed in at over 400 pounds dry. Then came the focus of world supersport racing, where 600cc four cylinder (and 750 twin cylinder) road machines are allowed just minor modifications to race on a prominent global stage. Suddenly the factories began to make racers out of the box - when Yamaha redesigned its 600 model in 1998 it shed 42 lbs and added 25 horsepower, winning a supersport title or two before it was swamped by the technological progress of the other manufactuters doing likewise. Indeed, Honda has now won the last four riders title and the last three manufacturers titles in the class thanks to its CBR 600 RR and this year Yamaha has decided to make another monumental effort to wrest back class leadership.

In the history of World Supersport racing, Honda leads Yamaha with 36 wins to 30, with Yamaha leading Honda in terms of podiums, 96-88. Suzuki is a distant third in both cases, with 16 wins and 61 podiums. From the raw stats, you’d think Honda and Yamaha had shared the spoils in Supersport competition at the highest level but that’s just not the case. Honda has won the last four individual world titles, and the last three manufacturer titles and this year Kevin Curtain’s second place in the title on a Yamaha was entirely due to his riding as the technologically superior Honda won easily until Charpentier had snared the title. Indeed, the Honda was so potent that even second-string teams were 5-10km/h quicker than the fastest Yamahas all year through the speed traps.

We expect that the third generation R6 will be blisteringly fast next year in Supersport racing and equally as exciting on the road, as every square millimeter of the machine has come in for a a redesign.

The design concept for the first model YZF-R6 that debuted at the Intermoto show in 1998 and went on sale in Europe and North America the following year was that of the "fastest and most exciting 600cc model on winding roads," and its actual performance quickly won customer support and set a new standard in the midsize supersport bike category.

The second generation YZF-R6 was released in 2003 and while a great road bike, it was gazzumped by Honda’s CBR600RR on the racetrack. Accordingly, the new "YZF-R6" builds on the initial design concept of the first generation and signals its intention to be the "fastest extreme supersports machine on the circuit.".Through the lavish adoption of the latest MotoGP technologies (ride-by-wire is not yet on the company’s MotoGP machinery), the third generation R6 machine looks set to scoot to the front of the pack .

Engine

1) high-revving engine As with all other aspects of the R6, the engine is newly designed. It is a liquid-cooled 4-stroke, DOHC in-line, 4-cylinder, 4-valve, fuel injection engine with a shorter (42.5mm versus 44.5mm) stroke than the previous engine. The bore x stroke specification come sin at 67 x 42.5 mm, where it was formerly 65.5 x 44.5 mm.

The intake/exhaust valve angles have been reduced from 14 to 11.5 degrees on the intake side and 14 to 12.25 degrees on the exhaust side, and the combustion chamber has been given a more compact design and fitted with larger diameter 27mm valves for intake and 23mm valves for exhaust (formerly 25 mm/22 mm).

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