The goggles, they do nothing! My retinas are seared to within an inch of their lives and I haven’t even twitched the throttle yet. The 2009 version of Kawasaki’s super sport 600cc machine is parked gleaming in the sun outside the local office, its styling manages to take green and do with it what few have managed in the past... maybe the Hulk? Where the previous incarnation was a bit soft around the edges the ’09 ZX6R manages to look imposing and purposeful... what a difference a year makes.

 

Ok so the thing looks fantastic, all fangs and ram intakes and knife edged lines but more importantly how does it go? Does the performance match the aggressive styling? In short, yes the reworked engine makes better use of the available torque through most of the rev range while retaining a bit of “ludicrous mode” over 10,000 RPM. There is a problem however, and it is a problem with all the 600cc machines so please Mr Kawasaki, don’t take offense that I mention it here. The fact of the matter is that a track biased machine such as this is absolutely useless for low speed on road work. You see to accelerate at any kind of velocity around road legal speed you find yourself constantly in 1st gear... which runs all the way to 60 odd mph...  Useful on the track no question... A sneaky way to snag a good 0-60 time? Perhaps. You see the way these machines are tuned means that all the power is produced well up in the rev range with very little available down low.

What this means to a potential purchaser is simply be very careful about what job you want the bike to do, as a day to day urban commuter any 600cc super sport machine is really a waste of time but if you want something a bit more exciting than that... well, read on.