94-97

First Ride: Suzuki RF600
By Mike Franklin

Suzuki's entry in the hot-selling 600cc sportbike class - the RF600 - is a decidedly average bike, one that it will probably emerge as a salesroom winner. A contradiction? Not really: The RF600 is not the most powerful, fastest, nor the best handling mid dleweight, so the folks at Suzuki must be counting on potential buyers to look past the spec-sheet and judge this motorcycle on its merits. This strategy worked for the press-panned Katana series, one of Suzuki's best-sellers in recent years. Will this approach be successful for the RF600? It shouldn't be, at least not this year.


Sure, the RF600 has a lot going for it. The sexy full-coverage bodywork turns many heads in all its arrest-me-red glory - from the Ferrari-like side panel grates to a tailpiece that incorporates a highly visible brake light and a GP-style underbelly fair ing, the RF600 is drop-dead gorgeous. Indeed, it's one of the best-looking bikes we've ever seen. But the beauty here is only skin-deep.

The motor, canted forward 55 degrees to give incoming charge a more vertical path past the intake valves (it's always easier to "drop" charge into the cylinder than it is to suck it "up"), is an upgraded version of the discontinued GSXR600's mill, certa inly not the strongest motor in its class. This 16-valve powerplant barely managed 80 rear-wheel horsepower on a Dynojet dyno.

 

No, this bike won't be winning any Supersport trophies this year. And it won't be winning any Friday-night drag races, either: Off-idle carburetion is horrible, with a massive flat-spot that lags all the way to 4000 rpm. Launching the RF600 can be like r iding a tempermental two-stroke - get it above the low-rpm flat spot and it'll take off, come off the line with the revs too low, and you'll bog, stall, and generally look like a wimp. This is a new-for-'95 feature, as the '94 version had no such problems.


All of this is wrapped in a steel perimeter frame which is painted to match the bodywork. A few pounds were gained using steel, but it's an acceptable trade-off for Suzuki: Their GSXR line has a tendancy to wobble under high-speed, high-stress (read: racing) situations, and the RF600 exhibited no such traits when we tested it at Laguna Seca. The perimeter frame also gave the engineers more room behind - and above - the motor than the twin-cradle design of the GSXRs, and they made good use of the space . A huge, 6-liter air box mates to a rack of four 33mm downdraft Mikuni carburetors, which in turn feed the motor through a redesigned inlet system.

The seating position is very racer-like, replete with painfully low bars and high forward-mounted foot pegs that perch the rider in a painfully canted-forward position. Half an hour on the freeway is too much, and long-distance touring is a masochistic proposition, at best. Forget about spending any time on the pillion seat, too -- it's high, narrow and a pain the backside.

Startseite nächste Seite - next Side

Mail me!Fehlermeldungen an die Webmistress senden   Zu Favoriten hinzufügen / bookmark   update dieser Site am: 23.03.05