What a difference a new bike makes. I jumped back on the mighty 9 and discovered that it all felt loose, sloppy and not so mighty anymore, it felt like a comfortable armchair with the performance to match. Gonna write a review shortly.

Does anybody own an '07 CBR6/R6/Gixer 6 I'd be interested to find out your thoughts on the ZX6's rivals, for comparison.

I'm not if I can afford it yet, but I might look at buying a new bike next year and litre class bikes seem almost unneccesary in terms of performance delivered by a modern 600 these days. I've always been into Kawasaki's but do like the CBR6 which I think 'Bike' voted bike of 2007 and both the R6 and the Gixer get rave reviews. Help me out here folks, Just having a standard test ride doesn't reveal the real truth about actually owning a modern 600 guided missile.

Sideways through time

I was having a reminisce the other day about bikes I used to own, and I have very fond memories of two bikes - a Guzzi V50 and a 350 Power Valve.  Neither had anything like the performance of the Bandit, but in their own and very different ways they were just as much fun.  I probably used to travel about as fast on the RD350 as I do on the Bandit, but it needed a good spanking to achieve those speeds.  I kind of miss that.  If I try to treat the Bandit in the same way I will either be in jail or on a slab somewhere.  The performance of the Guz was much more modest, but it had a kind of "rightness" that made it just as much fun to ride and own.

In my daydreams, I find myself thinking much more about elderly Italian exotica and old Brit iron than I do about the 0.2 seconds someone has shaved off a lap of a race track on the latest GSXZRRS-TRD-K7, compared to last year's GSXZRRS-TRD-K6.  Biking is, for me, becoming more about the quality of what you do, and less about achieving meaningless numbers.

This probably marks me out as an old git, and fair enough I suppose.  But I like RH's question - if a smaller (and you can substitute slower, older or whatever) bike can offer as much real-world fun as a cutting-edge litrebike, why bother with the big numbers?

[1] A lie, actually.  I once had a ZZR600 as a loaner when my GSX750F was in for some repairs.  It was smaller, lighter, quicker, and handled better.  Unfortunately, I had to hand it back.  I liked the Zook, but the Kawasaki was a better bike all round.  Proves your point, I guess.

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2003 ST1300 Pan Euro
1995 Yam XT600E
http://goingfastgettingnowhere.blogspot.com/

I've always thought that a 600 is more than enough for me, and from what I've read above, I think it is! Todays 600s are the 1000s of 5-6 years ago. They're lighter, faster and far more manouverable. Somebody keeps heckling me to buy is ZX9R off him... Thing is, I really don't want to. Not because it's a nasty example (It's emmaculate and he's kept it very clean) but because I really can't see the point in a 9 when a modern 6 will do the same.

600's all the way for me. It has the fun, but also the seriousness and is more forgiving than a litre bike.

Yamaha FZS 600 Fazer ... in gold! 

Ride safe, and look out for the Rainbow of Death!

^{There're only 3 kinds of people in the world, those who can count, and those that can't.}

^{Roses are red, Violets are Blue, I'm a schizophrenic ..... and so am I!}

^{Take pity on the man who invented the drawing board, when he screwed up, he had nothing to fall back on.}

^{Stuff everything, I've always got my bike.}

Sadly, my life has reached the crossroads where Italian exotica is more interesting than Italian erotica. 

Well, almost.

(Although I challenge anyone to show me a motorcycle that looks hornier than a Guzzi S3 - I think there's one in my pics.)

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2003 ST1300 Pan Euro
1995 Yam XT600E
http://goingfastgettingnowhere.blogspot.com/

Well I did threaten to assail the ether with some more verbiage, read it all here http://www.ukbike.com/Reviews.aspx or you can find it on the ukbiker blog with some pix

 ..........................................The Six is a triumph of comfort for its class. The seat wasn’t that hard, the footpegs were perfecto and though I suffered at first with a little wrist ache the bars were positioned damned near to perfect as well. (If it didn’t interfere with the leverage/fairing clearance I would adjust the factory set position of the lever assemblies further down which I think would ease the pain of this little niggle). If I had the money to pour gasoline into it’s hungry belly I could quite happily lob a double bubble screen on the thing as well and score a few miles under my belt touring, it was that good...............

Any chance of a CBR/R6/Gixer comparison anyone?

 

Sideways through time