2010 Yamaha YZF-R6 Graves Project Bike

If you’ve analyzed our contempo 2011 Supersport Shootout IX Street and/or 2011 Supersport Shootout IX Clue motorcycle comparisons you’d accept abstruse that Yamaha’s YZF-R6 is one of the added racetrack-oriented sportbikes on the market. Therefore if you wish to accept a go at alley racing, it makes faculty to do it at the controls of an R6. In this adventure of our activity bike adventure we chase with Willow Springs Motorcycle Club (WSMC) to see if all of the achievement upgrades we purchased in the 2010 Yamaha YZF-R6 Modified Comparison, 2010 Yamaha YZF-R6 Modified Comparison Part II and 2010 Yamaha YZF-R6 Graves Activity Bike 1 appearance were absolutely account it.

WSMC holds contest alone at Southern California’s Willow Springs International Raceway on either the 2.5-mile Big Clue or 1.3-mile Streets alley courses. Contest are captivated account (with the barring of December) so there’s consistently an befalling to compete, and if you’ve never raced, WSMC offers a new racers’ academy (see sidebar). Considering SoCal’s almost abstemious altitude as compared to added locations of the U.S. one would accept that acclimate altitude would be constant year round. However aback Willow is anchored in the top desert, that can’t be added from the truth. Surprisingly, there is alone a few weeks of adequate canicule during bounce and abatement seasons—in-between the inferno-like 100-plus amount summers and, at times, freezing algid and wet winters. Considering the division afterpiece is captivated in late-November, we accomplished the latter.

At the time, TrackDayz hosted an accessible trackday the Friday afore a chase weekend, but due to accounting constraints I wasn’t able to accomplish it out. That meant I’d accept to try and get aggregate dialed-in on Saturday. Based on my acquaintance during the 2010 Modified Supersport Shootout Stage 2 analysis at the Big Clue I wasn’t captivated with the way the Yamaha R6 was set-up. What agitated me a lot of was the broken burke response, position of the controls, and the twitchiness of the chassis, which fabricated it difficult for me to ride. So I was just a little abashed if I pulled up to the clue Saturday morning and it was… raining!

But accepting developed up benumbed bikes on water-soaked anchorage in the Midwest I’ve never been abashed of benumbed in the wet… In fact, I in fact like it. Plus it would accord me the adventitious to get to try Pirelli’s adapted rain chase tires. So I handed off my auto to CT Antagonism for some alpha and heavily treaded Pirelli rubber.

In commendations to the bureaucracy problems, afterwards consulting with Graves, they recommended I install a WORKS Progressive Burke Tube ($85) and re-map the ammunition bang arrangement with one of their pre-built maps. Voila, the brusque on/off burke acknowledgment affair was eliminated. Even easier than these tweaks was the acclimation of the controls acute annihilation added than an Allen bend to access the ambit of the clip-ons and re-position the footpegs down and aback to board my six-foot-tall body. Handling-wise there wasn’t abundant I could do until I got a few laps on track.

Just as I had accomplished ascent the wheels, the rain chock-full and the skies were alpha to clear. This meant I had to band the auto off and get a set of Diablo Supercorsas re-mounted as there’s no point in afire up an big-ticket set of bendable rain tires on a dehydration track. It was already accomplished apex by the time I had the dry tires army and on the warmers while still cat-and-mouse for the clue to dry off a bit more.