Qatar Hero – First Ride Yamaha YZF-R6
That’s more than the M1 MotoGP bike Valentino Rossi rides. Claiming that there is ‘no part unchanged’ in the new R6, it’s also a stunning departure from Yamaha; the first complete overhaul of the YZF-R6 since its inception way back in 1998. The question is, why now?
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Yamaha, as demonstrated in MotoGP, has had enough of watching Honda win everything and clearly isn’t satisfied resting on the laurels of its R1. But, and this is a big but, being class leader in this ultra-competitive class ain’t easy. For starters you have to sell loads, look good, make an impact at shows and in showrooms, sustain initial media impact, have a competitive price and be good value.
You have to perform well too which means being un-complicated, functional, easy to ride and, importantly, easy to ride fast. That isn’t the end of it either, as you have to be properly fast, as in fast enough to win supersport races. Over the last few years Honda has consistently managed that, for a company liking the taste of sticking one over on its chief rival, Yamaha has to begin with all the above in place at the very least. So, welcome to the new R6. A bike faced with a fucking tall order.
First impressions are good. It immediately feels an easy bike to ride, and smaller than the old R6 which puts it closer to Honda’s CBR6 in feel than the Suzuki GSX-R600 or Kawasaki’s ZX-6R. Soaking up the first laps of the Losail circuit is easy on the tight little bike. It immediately feels small and sharp, but not as great a departure as I expected. The radical new looks had me thinking it would feel significantly different, but this is still a Yamaha at heart.
The biggest headline that stood out at me during the pre-test presentation was Yamaha’s admission that the R6 is designed for the track first and then worked back from there to be a useful road bike. It struck me as a bold statement from a Japanese manufacturer, something I’d heard an Italian sportsbike described as before but rarely a mainstream production road bike.
The reality is there to see in the bold new design, but during those first few laps aboard, it became all too clear that track focus is inherent in the chassis design as well. MotoGP hand-me-downs are sprinkled around the new chassis and show a clear sign of the Rossi/winning effect is spreading around the Yamaha factory.
The fancy new high and low speed compression damping adjusters are far from MotoGP spec but they do look the part and they are a 600 production bike first. Where GP know-how does shine through is the frame layout. The line through the steering head, rear spindle axis and swing arm pivot is much straighter, which makes it firmer and more poised on track, less likely to throw itself forward onto the front wheel, and maintaining more of an even keel into corners on the brakes.
The same is true out of bends where you feel less movement as you come off the brakes and back on the throttle. A re-positioned (20mm higher) swing arm pivot helps reduce any squat and keep tabs on rear wheel grip. The whole effect of chassis changes isn’t as simple as saying it’s a hard set-up; there’s more sophistication to it than that. Neither is it as simple as saying it’s more like a race bike set up because there’s less complicated than that.
Put simply, it is a more effective road bike chassis with more subtlety than usual and as a consequence is more agile and confident in itself. It’s important to stress that confidence because it did make me feel very much in control. Response to and through the bars, seat and pegs is direct, like a well proportioned sports bike should be and that agility helps you to push harder than would have been possible on the old R6.
Slides are inevitable in 38 degree heat, with sticky Dunlop D209GPs fitted or not (Dunlop’s new Qualifier will be OE fitment in the UK). Three or four times during each 20 minute session I had either a front or rear slide on the smooth Losail tarmac. Without wishing to sound like the racer I’m not, it almost became acceptable in the end.
I’d like to say that was my own skill but a huge chunk of it is down to the feedback and feel you get through the new R6 chassis. Yamaha has finally cottoned on to the mass centralization concept that Honda has been boasting about for years. Like the CBR600RR, the R6 now benefits from lessons learnt on the GP track which say get the mass in the right place and the bike will behave better. The new exhaust system is a good example of how that has been applied.
The traditional longer, side-mounted silencer or undersea exhaust system both add a good deal of weight higher and further back on the chassis. A small tool-box-sized collector box under the belly pan is the answer, feeding the stubby end can. For now it looks a bit odd but I’m sure we’ll get used to it. The interesting part will be when companies start coming up with aftermarket systems for it. Without the catalyst and EXUP valve it’s going to be amazing to hear those 17,500revs blaring out.
The other major talking point is the fly-by-wire throttle or YCC-T. My instinct was caution, cautious that a computer chip was now controlling how much throttle I was using, rather than a plain old cable. Fear not because there are no glitches, no jerkiness, just linear power, and strong power at that. At certain revs the power felt curbed or ‘controlled’ to prevent too much coming in all at once.
Even taking into account this is only a 600cc motor, something was minutely different about it. Different isn’t necessarily worse mind. As I said the power feels strong and certainly delivers more fizz for more of the time than the old model did, or my long term test CBR600RR does. From around 5,000rpm it really comes to life in harmony with the close-ratio gearbox; the motor singing away under you really sweetly.
Short-shift or hang it out to the rev-limiter and you find there’s plenty to play with, for a 600, which means you have two gear options in most corners – scream it a gear lower and you have more power on tap but hook a gear higher and you can afford to get on the throttle earlier and give yourself more torque drive down the next straight. Ergonomically speaking, the 2006 R6 looks every bit the part.
The molding and shaping across the side fairing panels is unique-looking but is there for functional reasons rather than aesthetic ones. The side venting directs cool air onto the hottest part of the engine to maintain optimum temperature and better power. Around the rest of the bike, the most striking thing remains the tail unit. It may be quick release – along with the pillion pegs and mirrors – but it regrettably still needs a number plate hanger latched on.
Other than that, the riding position is straightforward and more roomy than you imagine. You might say the small front end doesn’t offer enough weather protection but if you’re bothered about that then perhaps you should be buying a different bike. The cockpit view is typical Yamaha with familiar R-series clocks and even a lap timer for good measure as well. Finding negative points about this new bike is difficult.
The Losail circuit is very fl at, smooth and open which will fatter any sports bike with enough power and handling. In this same situation it’s possible the Kawasaki ZX-6R (636) would be a faster bike but tracks like this are rare, particularly in the UK. The only real niggle I have then is the back torque limiter. Last year’s R6 suffered badly with ‘back-torque’. Changing down the gears hard on the brakes into a slow corner was always a delicate process that needed a deliberate and careful clutch finger.
The limiter takes a lot of that away but it is far from perfect. If you’re expecting to be able to nail the R6 hard down through the gears as you brake hard into corners and have the transmission delicately ‘back-torqued’ to keep the back wheel in line with the front, then you’ll be disappointed.
It’s still very possible to out brake yourself and run into a corner with the back end slewing around the outside of you, good fun for leaving great big darkies but it can still get out of hand and have you running way off the line trying to recover (I know this because I ran off the circuit and sampled the Qatari gravel, Gibernau-style, on the triple right-hander at the back of the circuit).
Go into a corner on a really good lap and the torque limiter can also still be catching up with the road speed up to the mid-part of the corner. There’s enough feedback form the chassis to deal with it but a juddering back wheel when you’re getting the peg down is a little unnerving.
Where the hell is Qatar?
On the map, Qatar is the funny little oik of a country that juts out into the Gulf Sea just above Saudi Arabia and not far below Iraq. Qatar is at once a beautiful mix of bleeding-edge capitalism and traditional Arabia with a bizarre mixture of nationalities (only 25 per cent of citizens are of Qatari origin).
The Losail circuit looms large way out in the middle of the desert about 20 minutes north of the capital, Doha. At 5.4 km it’s one of the longest tracks in the world and was built, like much of new Qatar, from oil profits. Like many new circuits it is smart and modern-looking, with the added bonus of air-conditioned pit boxes (necessary in the 38 degree ‘winter’ heat which greeted us on the launch).
Just one hairpin bend punctuates the fast fl owing, smooth surfaced track but its featureless and soulless appearance matches the images of half-empty stands you may have seen during the WSB and MotoGP racing staged there in 2005. It’s a nice circuit to ride but beyond that, it’s pretty barren.
Final analysis
A back-torque limiter, USD forks, radial brakes and central ram-air intakes may have been around on other sports bikes well before now but few can claim to have them all, especially in the 600 class. Add on some top of the range Italian sports bike-spec suspension and very of-the-moment designer looks and you have a highly striking new Yamaha YZF-R6. In putting all those things together, plus a waft or two from the magic MotoGP wand, this could be the most complete sports bike Yamaha has made.
To my mind Yamaha has finally bucked the trend and created a bike which stands apart as a sports bike and nothing more. For all the praise we have heaped upon the R1 over the last couple of years it is very firmly a road bike first and a race bike second. Switching that emphasis is exactly what Honda did with the CBR600RR a couple of years ago and a strong reason why it won our 600 sports shoot out last year.
The days of the 600cc sports bike being the all-rounder are long gone and I’m damn pleased about that – if you want a big tank and a comfy seat then go buy something else. This is a pure bred track bike. With new bikes from Suzuki and Triumph this winter, the supersport class shootout looks like being – again – the most exciting test of the year.
What makes it tick?
Fly by wire
New fuel injection control technology hits bikes
A part from some very sharp styling and a headline 17,500rpm redline, the most striking part of the new R6’s specification is its computer controlled throttle. Dubbed ‘Y-CCT’ (Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle), it’s also known as ‘fly by wire’. That term refers to similar systems used in modern aeroplanes, where electro hydraulic actuators operate control surfaces according to signals sent down electric cables from a flight computer.
In essence, when you turn the throttle on a conventionally-injected bike, you move a wire which moves a physical thing (a slide or a butterfly). The problem is that it’s impossible to decouple this action, and that any intervention has to come afterwards. So the computer is lumbered with the throttle position you have dictated, and then has to juggle various other parameters to suit. This is most obvious in Suzuki’s dual-valve setup, where a computer controlled secondary valve controls the airflow through the injector body independently of the manual throttle valve.
With fl y by wire, the twist grip merely turns a sensor connected to the fuel injection computer. The computer then monitors other things that affect the engine’s performance – revs, gear, air temp, airflow etc. Once it has these, it’ll decide its ideal injection butterfly position. The key difference between this and conventional systems is that the injection control is influenced by these other parameters, as well as the throttle valve opening. But the ECU has decoupled the rider from deciding that massively important parameter – the amount the actual throttle valve is opened. The rider just ‘tells’ the ECU how much throttle he’d like, and the ECU does the rest.
This opens up a number of other possibilities. The ECU can monitor the rate of attack of the throttle position (how quickly the twist grip is turned), and work out that the rider is really going for it, then steepen the injection fuelling for a more aggressive result. Or, it could determine that the rider is an idiot, and curb the injection fuelling to calm the response down.
Some car ECUs (posh cars have had throttle-by-wire for years) actually learn the driving style of the individual driver, and modify the throttle response to suit. How close the R6 system is to Rossi’s M1 setup is moot – but we guess not much. Looking at the R6’s setup, it seems to be a ‘second generation’ design – i.e. the actuating motor and sensor setup has been bolted on to the existing arrangement, so expect future installs to have a more ‘integrated’ feel.
Under the covers, you can see the Y-CCT system. Note the two banks of injectors – one high up in the air box for high-rpm, high throttle opening fuelling, the other in the throttle bodies. The lump in the middle of the throttle bodies is the motor, which operates the butterfly valves via a set of plastic gears. The throttle position sensor is the round black plastic part on the left, attached to the throttle cable connector.
A future system would probably place this sensor in the twist grip, dumping the conventional cables altogether. Interestingly, the throttle cable also has a physical connection to the butterfly valves, via a sprung shaft. We guess this is to provide a failsafe manual backup in the event of a motor failure. Looks lovely now, but imagine the fun you’ll have trying to service a 30,000 miler at home in six years’ time…
Source: SuperBike Magazine