I-K wrote:[Look closer.
Apart from the suspension, the wheels and the brakes, they've changed pretty much everything. The motor, for starters, owes next to nothing to what came before it... previous ZX6's didn't have an extractable-cassette gearbox, for one.
Just because it's got the same humpbacked silhouette from side-on doesn't make it an evolutionary design.
I know it's an all new design. Just saying the styling makes it look evolutionary.
Unless Honda start selling their new, ballsier CBR600RR by the boatload.
Going on the launch reports, the new ZX6 is just as breathless below 10,000rpm as the R6. That means it's going head to head with a bike which already has an established reputation among the poseurs, while abandoning the niche it has carved out for itself among people who buy a bike for the road first, track a distant second and posing on the servo forecourt an even more distant third.
That's a dumb business decision.
Hondas sell by the boatload regardless. The current CBR is already the highest selling 600 (in Aus).
I've read varying launch reports about the Kwak. Some say the mid-range is a bit anaemic til 10k, others say it pulls ok and gets going around 7500. All say the handling is sensational and all pretty much agree that the 636 is better for the road. The R6, however inferior it may be on the road, sold more than twice as many as the ZX6R last year (once again in Aus). I don't reckon Kawasaki could give a stuff if their bikes were regarded as for poseurs if it meant they sold heaps more of 'em. Just gotta make it successful on the racetrack like the R6 to gain that cred.
Only a dumb business decision if their sales go backwards. Time will tell.
Ah, computer dating. It's like pimping but you rarely have to use the phrase "upside your head" - Bender Bending Rodríguez
