Featured In the October 2023 issue of Roadracing World:
Big changes can occur so slowly that it is tough to look backwards and find the inflection point. There was a blessed time when sportbikes ruled the streets. The ethos of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ fueled rapid technological progress and, more importantly, contingency money to help fuel road racing.
Every Japanese factory had, at least, a 600cc and an open-class bike. A few had 400cc 4-cylinder bikes and, perhaps the most perfect sporting displacement, the 750cc. Eventually the trends of demographics, economics, regulations (government and racing), and tastes began to evaporate this sea of choices.
A decade ago no one had a Tarot card that said the European brands were going to dominate Moto GP and that there wouldn’t be a 600cc racing class in the U.S. national series—but here we are…
“Intro: 2024 Kawasaki ZX-6R: Cleaner Old-School Power,” by Sam Fleming
While some other factories seem to have thrown in the towel on street-legal, fast middleweights, Kawasaki shaved a hair off the cams, moved power a little lower in the rpm range, and slid the ZX-6R through Euro5 emissions to be one of the last, street-legal middleweight four-cylinder sportbikes. Read Sam Fleming’s impressions in the latest issue of Roadracing World!
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