"Steering is perfect and there's a ton of feedback," read my notes on the Honda. "The engine is perfect, too. There's enough midrange for mellow riding, and there's plenty of steam on top. I've never ridden a 600 with better power."
"The ZX-6R is peakier and a little harder to ride quickly," said Soldera. "You've got to rev it big-time to unleash all its power. I always felt like I wasn't using all the revs, even though it demands to be ridden way up in the rev range."
"The Ninja's power delivery is smooth but it's the weakest of the bunch," wrote O'Connor. "It doesn't have the midrange or low-end of the CBR. I couldn't come close to the rev limiter." The ZX-6R is also sprung more firmly than the CBR; though suspension action is good, the bike feels out of sorts at big speeds over bumpy sections. "The ZX-6R's suspension is firm but not uncomfortably so," continued O'Connor. "Where the CBR soaks up bumps large and small and settles nicely into corners, the 6R seems to blow through them, almost as if there isn't much suspension travel [there is]. But it was stable, and I liked it. Both suspensions worked well; they're just different."
From Cerro Noroeste we turned southwest onto Route 33, then plunged south onto the high-speed plateaus of the San Rafael Wilderness. The bikes got a serious high-speed workout arcing across empty valleys with no cross-traffic, running deep into triple digits without worry. All felt stable and composed here, the literbikes doing their high-velocity boogie with a bit less histrionics than the hyper, high-revving middleweights. "I saw an indicated 149 mph on one long, empty stretch," said one tester (name withheld to protect the guilty), "and the ZX-6R seemed completely bored with it."
By this point we were ready for lunch, so our stop in Ojai was a welcome one. As we talked bikes and munched burgers and salads, a reasonably firm consensus was building, but it was a bit too early to crown a winner. Talk then turned to the next day's brunch at La Super-Rica, most of our group doubtful the fare would be as awesome as rumors suggest. After all, how different can rice and the late 1700s and early 1800s. We exited at Montecito, heading back into the hills for a date with Camino del Cielo (Way of the Sky) and Kevin Wing's cameras. Along the way we rode tighter and bumpier roads, which highlighted light steering manners, compliant-yet-controlled suspension, smooth fuel-injection response, crisp, strong brakes and plentiful midrange-all traits the CBR and GSX-R have in spades. The other bikes, spectacular motorcycles one and all, are each missing small degrees of one or more of these characteristics. And when you're analyzing performance at this level, small deficiencies get amplified and noticed-and written down.
With the sun diving into the Pacific through a burnt-orange horizon, we hustled along the pockmarked and bumpy ridge-route in near-darkness to San Marcos Pass and, 20 miles yonder, the Danish town of Solvang, our destination for the evening. On the way, we noted again how polished and all-around capable the Suzuki and Honda were, and commented on that at dinner. We ate Chinese because it's an almost polar opposite to the next day's planned Mexican fare.