That's just plain f*cking stupid. Have they not heard of sue-happy lawyers in America. Not to mention the reputation. Every R6 owner will hear from his buddies "it aint reving that high, they screwed you". He/she will hate them for that.
I'm sure it's not the only case of overly optimistic rev limits--the ZX-6RR was found to also be deficient when compared to the claimed number. But what makes this so stupid is that Yamaha made it the centerpiece of their marketing.
Even more lame--if that's possible--is the excuse they're giving: Bad tachs! As if the people who engineered the thing had no idea how many revs it made until they put a key in a completed bike and looked at the dash.
Speaking of the R6, where is MO's R6 review? They are already in all the print mags, and on the street as well. I am also reading reviews (or seeing them on TV) on the new 1000RR, the new Triumph, and reading about the new racing Buell. You guys have consistently put out great articles and reviews, and I have no plans of discontinuing my membership anytime soon. However, you tout quick access (before print mags) as one of the top selling points for this website.
Unlike August and September, where you can just copy and paste manufacturer's press releases and photos, now is the time where you can actually ride them and provide the opinions that we pay for. For the month of January, I have seen a two bike shootout, and read about the MSF advanced course. Needless to say I was hoping for more as I would much rather read it here than in a competing magazine or website. I'm crossing my fingers that there is a ton of stuff in the pipeline, but each week I seem to be more disappointed.
Heck, I could charge people 12 bucks a month and just post links to all the news items that have the word motorcycle in the title.
I would bet that if you really started to look at alot of the other Japanese bikes out there, this is probably pretty common. Look at the speedometers, every bike from Japan (European too?) has a speedo that is reading 5-8% too high. Are you telling me that they have "defective speedos" on every one of their bikes? I hope some government agency get involves and stops all of this nonsense because its been going on for too long. What's next, root kits for the ECU?
Yamaha couldn't possibly exaggerate the performance claims of their bikes. Only Harley lies to the public by selling substandard m/c's at inflated prices.
Yamaha as well as Honda and Kawasaki are scrupulously honest about HP, RPM and wet weights
Motorcycle Daily and Motorcycle USA didn't ride them either. They bought the stories from other journalists who were invited. There were no US internet sites in attendance at any of the Japanese OEM overseas intros last fall.
As for the CBR 1000RR, I rode it in mid-December and should have had the story up before Christmas. However, I am struggling with a few issues and working on a re-write. (No excuse, my fault entirely.)
it is quite posible the bike actually does have a 17500rpm red line, as this figure is more an theroretical measure of how fast an engine can spin with out damaging itself either through detonation, or simply too much reciprocating mass: ie floating a valve.
The rev limiter is on the other hand is an electrical nanny whose sole purpose in life besides scheduling up close and personal meetings tween the boys and your gas tank when in an overzealous wheelie, is to prevent you from damaging the engine should you shift late and blow right past the "redline" into engine damage territory.
I would go so far as to guess that yamaha not only knows the tachs are off, but engineered them that way, in this fashion they have built in a "soft rev limiter @ 1300 rpm below redline, which although seems like a large # is only 7.5 %, not a lot at all especially considering the way this thing snaps the tach around.
I would guess that with the proper black box you can back off the nanny and get your full 17500, but there is probably a flat spot there anyways.
Imho at a price of 9 grand the thing is pretty amazing in the bang for the buck department. besides, a little safety margin at those revs is probably a good thing, I know the thought of having any motorcycle I own, much less one I'm riding suffer catastrophic engine failure does not exite me!
This has been going on for years. They used to do it to keep idiots from overrvving and creating crankshaft salad. Even though they now have rev limiters they still have a huge supply of tachs and speedos in the warehouse.
My truck also is exactly 2 mph fast at most speeds. I think they do this to keep the fed regulators at bay.
Even better. My 91 Suzuki has a speedo that gets ever more optimistic as you go faster. At indicted 80 I'm doing 72 actual. At indicated 90 I'm doing 80 actual. Even more suspicious is that the tach and speedo are exactly equal in optimism. Coincidence?
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