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While we owe ultra-competitive 600cc Supersport racing for propagating today's highly evolved middleweight sportbikes, working within race rules doesn't necessarily result in the best bike for the street rider. In 2005, we rounded up the middleweight supersports of the day and trained our focus on outright racetrack performance. The overall winner was closely wedded to lap times, dragstrip ETs, peak power and the Wow! factor. This year, we vowed to flesh out the best sportbike for real-world riders.
Last year's hardcore performance focus stemmed from spending two days at a race circuit, the first on track-day-spec tires at the tight and technical Streets of Willow Springs road course. Ultra-soft, high-grip race rubber and aftermarket performance exhaust systems were fitted for the following day's hot laps around the high-speed, 2.5-mile Willow Springs International Raceway. After we'd worn our knee sliders thin, multi-time drag-racing champion Rickey Gadson joined us at Los Angeles County Raceway, where he scorched the strip at a record pace. (The Gadson Factor must be considered if comparing last year's times with the quarter-mile performance of the current machines—the bikes haven't slowed as the numbers might suggest.)
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This time we set out to assess the class in a manner more suited to mere mortal sportbike enthusiasts. We limited our track activities to a single day at the Streets of Willow and a morning at the LACR quarter-mile, and spent more time riding highways, byways and backroads. Our goal: Name a winner based on most usable performance, competence and convenience.
While all the street miles were logged on stock tires, we mounted Pirelli Diablo Corsa radials on each bike for the road-course portion. Positioned as a track-day tire, the Diablo Corsa is available in both 120/70 and 120/65 front sizes, the latter of which allowed Kawasaki's ZX-6R to retain its standard tire size throughout the test. Before switching tires at the track, each bike was first lapped on its stock rubber so we could quickly identify any handling-related issues that a tire swap can potentially induce. We need not have worried, as each and every bike took to the Diablo's like hell on wheels, with excellent steering feel, stability and lasting grip.
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Straws were drawn to determine the order in which the bikes were ridden during the comparative timed-lap sessions. MyChron Light TG lap timers fitted to each bike assured accurate times were recorded. Associate Editor Mark Cernicky led off, putting in five-lap stints aboard each bike before handing over to Executive Editor Mark Hoyer and then me in turn. After a few minor chassis adjustments, Cernicky ran through the rotation a second time, establishing each bike's quickest time in the process. Following the "official" timed sessions, our new Associate Editor Blake Conner and Brienne Thomson—a competitive club roadracer—were introduced into the mix for open testing throughout the afternoon.
I handled the riding chores at LACR, keeping the number of clutch-torturing launches to a minimum, while the entire group played musical chairs swapping bikes repeatedly throughout the two-day street ride that followed. Now for our observations in the order the straws were drawn:
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