Track day and racing fans in the supersport category will be happy to hear that the Yamaha YZF-R6 will continue to be offered as a track-only model for the 2022 model year, with the tuning fork brand bring two variations to market next year.
Tomorrow, Kawasaki will debut five new motorcycle models (along with a new Jet Ski). Then next month, for the EICMA show, Kawasaki has three more motorcycle debuts on its docket.
A busy timeline for Team Green, this news makes for a double-punch of new motorcycle models from Kawasaki for the 2022 model year, but we are not complaining.
The World Supersport field is ripe for change, and that shouldn’t be new or surprising information for anyone following the space.
This is because the 600cc inline-four market has disappeared, especially in Europe, leaving the middleweight class with an uncertain future in racing.
Where there is an absence, there is a vacuum, and the space being left behind by the Japanese supersports is being filled rapidly by European twin and three-cylinder offerings.
Have we just seen the unveiling of the ultimate track bike? The KTM RC 8C certainly fits the part on paper with its 128hp on tap, 140 kg dry weight (308 lbs), and high-spec components.
Though the exterior is all-new, we have seen much of the KTM RC 8C before, as the bike is really just a rebadge and massaged Kramer GP2 890R track bike, though the Ready to Race folks make no mention of the involvement of their German counterparts.
If you bought a Ducati Monster, Supersport, or XDiavel in the past few years, you may have gotten hosed…rear brake hosed, that is.
Affecting 5,909 motorcycles, Ducati North America is recalling the Monster 797 (2017-2020), Monster 821 (2018-2020), Monster 1200 (2017-2020), Supersport (2017-2020), and XDiavel (2016-2020) models because their rear brake hose line may allow air into the braking system.
If there is a silver lining at all to the news that the Yamaha YZF-R6 is being discontinued at the end of 2020 for the European and American markets, it is that a version of the bike will at least be offered for interested track riders.
The newly named Yamaha R6 RACE is pretty much exactly what you think it would be – a track-kitted version of the current Yamaha YZF-R6 sport bike.
The news came first from Europe, that the Japanese brand would no longer make the Yamaha YZF-R6 for the European market because of the costs associated with Euro5 homologation, and because of the dwindling number of supersport models sold in the region each year.
Then, the news came as a final thought in a much larger press release from Yamaha Motor USA. It said that 2020 would be the last model year of the Yamaha YZF-R6 in the United States.
The new Honda CBR600RR may not be coming to the United States for the 2021 model year, but it certainly has generated some interest on this side of the Pacific Rim.
Adding fuel to that fire now is the race-ready version that HRC is making available in January 2021.
After a bit of teasing, the new Honda CBR600RR is finally here, and with it comes a few surprises.
Because of Honda’s teasers, we already knew that this machine would be an overhaul of the current model, using the same chassis and basic engine architecture as the American-sold Honda CBR600RR.
Photos and video though confirmed that the bike would get a facelift, most notably with winglets installed to the front fairing, and that a robust electronics package would be added to the mix, to help things feel modern on this aging beast.
Also, we already knew that the late-2020 arrival would sadly not be coming to the North American or European markets, being likely a Japan-only model, though some sales in other parts of Asia could happen as well.
Now that Big Red is spilling the beans on the new Honda CBR600RR, we can see that there are a few items about this supersport that we didn’t know about.