…lbs w/fuel, 383.8 lbs w/o fuel Superpole Time: 1:20.34 (Atlas) ¼ Mile: 11.25 @ 134.11 mph Top Speed: 164.49 mph Overall Ranking: 4th-place Razor-sharp. Knife-edged. Precise. All words commonly associated with the 2009 Yamaha YZF-R6 . While Yamaha only did a few minor changes for this year – customary…

…Mile: 11.09 @ 134.37 mph Top Speed: 165.41 mph Overall Ranking: 3rd-place Are you a man or woman of style? Do you have passion for elegant design with performance to match? If so, Ducati’s 848 may have your name all over it. Heck, it looks fast with the kickstand down... Completely unchanged for 2009,…

Say hello to the Class of 2009! (Clockwise from left to right) Suzuki GSX-R600, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Ducati 848, Triumph Daytona 675, Yamaha YZF-R6 and Honda CBR600RR. Darwinist Domination Competition drives the world we live in. Stop for a second and take a look around – it’s easy to see how our daily…

…R6 11.25 @ 134.11 mph 2008 Hayabusa vs ZX-14 Suzuki Hayabusa 10.378 @ 139.36 mph Kawasaki ZX-14 10.398 @ 139.08 mph 2009 V-Max vs B-King Suzuki B-King 10.42 @ 143.99 mph Yamaha V-Max 10.85 @ 137.5 mph Professional Motorcycle Drag Racing. Professional NHRA racers like Ed Krawiec can lay down quarter-mile…

…Inline Four belts out a pleasing mid-range punch, but is down on its rivals in peak horsepower. The Honda did struggle in the quarter-mile and 0-60 results, its 10.98 quarter time dead last and 3.36 0-60 result besting only the Yamaha. The Honda managed to haul things to a stop from 60 mph in 126 feet…

…took to sink the R6 in Drivetrain rankings. Riders deemed the Yamaha slipper clutch quite effective, however, finding it a real bonus on the street. Performance testing exposes the slim margins of difference in this competitive class. The Yamaha ran an impressive 10.9 quarter-mile, but bested only the…

…to that of the ground-based rubber shod-type, then even a million dollar-plus Bugatti Veyron supercar might fall short in a drag race under a quarter-mile. The VMax is that fast! But there's much more to this machine than outright acceleration. We expected it to haul-ass as soon as we set our eyes…

…and unforgiving ergos. The R6 is a bike which Pacific Track Time owner Michael Earnest would choose to go show those pesky A-group riders the fast way around Thunderhill. The R6 didn't fare well in the objective street metrics, as it posts the second-slowest quarter-mile run at 11.10, but its 127 mph…

2009 Yamaha YZF-R1 - 5th Place MSRP: $12,390 Curb Weight: 476 lbs. Horsepower: 146.08 @ 11,800 rpm Torque: 73.12 lb-ft @ 9000 rpm Quarter Mile: 10.53 seconds @ 137.5 mph 60 to 100 mph Roll On (fourth gear): 4.81 seconds Average MPG: 29.61 Top Speed: 186 mph Of all the motorcycles in this comparison…

…it is. Just look at the results. It is fractions of a horsepower from beating the R6 for top billing in that category, it's the torque leader among the Japanese-built machines, has some of the quickest quarter-mile times and backs that up with the fastest laps for both test riders during our Superpole…