Yamaha lied about the new R6 redline

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https://www.motorcycledaily.com/01february06_redline.htm



New Yamaha R6 Does Not Rev To 17,500 RPM After All
By Alex Edge

A few days ago we started receiving e-mail from readers concerning the rev limit of Yamaha's 2006 R6. I'm sure by now most of our readers have seen our review of the bike, as well as those of other web media and print mags. All of these reviews emphasized that the new R6 revved to an incredible 17,500 RPM redline - by FAR the highest-revving production bike in memory. We were so impressed by this claim, we wrote an article on September 28, 2005 asking whether valve springs could control valves at this RPM level -- approaching the 19,000 RPM achieved by F1 race cars.

R6s have already begun arriving in dealers, and a few early buyers have had a chance to take them to the dyno. Anyone who has dyno'd a bike knows that the dyno can take its own RPM readout by means of a sensor clipped to one of the bike's spark plug wires. It seems that "unbelievable" might have been a better term to describe the 17,500 RPM limit - the tach may say 17,500, but the dyno's RPM plot tells the real truth, and that is that the R6 is revving to somewhere around 16,200 RPM before hitting the programmed-in rev limiter.

When we first heard about this on the message boards at r6messagenet.com, we found it somewhat hard to believe. After all, the 17,500 redline was a centerpiece of Yamaha's pre-release promotional campaign, and our own tester rode a bike whose tachometer spun far enough to touch the edge of the 17,500 RPM "red zone". That would mean that not only did Yamaha promote the R6 (heavily) as having something that it didn't, but that the tachometer actually deceives the rider by telling him that the bike is revving much higher than it actually is.

To confirm the truth of these claims, we turned to Yamaha Media Relations Manager Brad Banister. In a phone call yesterday afternoon, Banister confirmed that the 2006 R6 is definitely not revving anywhere close to the claimed redline - admitting that the tachometer is "over 1,000 RPM off".

We later spoke to another, more senior Yamaha representative, who told us that Yamaha Japan blames the issue on tachometer error. He stated that all bikes have some margin of error in the instruments, but because the tachometer on the R6 is reading so far off from the engine's actual RPM, Yamaha will no longer be advertising the R6 as having a 17,500 RPM redline. Yamaha has already modified their web site to remove all traces of the 17,500 RPM claim.

This still doesn't explain why Yamaha claimed that the bike revved so much higher than it actually does. Whether or not the tachometer reads accurately, the ECU certainly knows exactly how many RPM the engine is turning - it has to, since it sends the signals that tell the spark plugs to spark and the fuel injectors to open and close. Most ECUs determine engine RPM based on signals from a sensor that monitors the rotation of either the crank or the camshaft, and these sensors are typically extremely accurate. If they weren't, the ECU wouldn't know where each cylinder was in its cycle, and thus wouldn't know when to open the injectors or send a spark to the plug.

The rev limiter is programmed to take effect at a certain RPM, and it gets its cue from the ECU, not the tachometer. This means that the actual RPM that cues the rev limiter (we've heard 16,200 RPM, but Yamaha won't say exactly and we haven't had the opportunity to test it for ourselves) was programmed into the ECU by the engineers who designed and developed the bike. If the development team KNEW that the bike didn't rev to 17,500 RPM, why would Yamaha promote it as doing so? We're not sure, and company representatives did not say anything beyond the statements we quoted above.

We'd like to apologize to our readers for the fact that we included this incorrect information in both our technical preview, and our ride review of the R6.

Keep your eyes on Motorcycle Daily for more information on this situation as it develops.



I say good for them, they must have known that the true redline would be discovered. Any publicity is good publicity as they say.

I couldn't really care if it didn't have the 17,500 redline but I'm sure there must be a few racers ou there who are a bit miffed.

[White Noise]

if that is true yamaha have a lot to answer for!
i am sure they could be done for mis-advertising
WN
____________________
Buy my wife: 96' Yam XJ600s (Diversion)
Wing Commander White Noise - SE Clique
Riding Tip #86: See God, then back off a bit: Problem is i haven't seen god yet, just a close up of tarmac on revett straight

[NC30UK]

[NSR Mick]

Dont the cbr, zxr etc.. 250's rev to 18,000??
____________________
If you dont like the way that I ride.......Stop trying to keep up!!!

[Wooly R6]

i couldnt really care less - unless your a racer the redline wont be seen that often anyway!!!

all the power comes before that anyway!!!!!!!
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R6 has been sold - 2004 Honda VFR VTEC now sold too - no bike at the moment

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[NSR Mick]

[Andy C]

i swear it was 22K that the new R6 was ment to be relining at as was ment to be more than rossis race bike, so they said (was MCN mind )

i could be wrong though
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[NC30UK]

of course the R6 revs higher than rossi's bike. the higher something rev's the shorter the stroke length is likely to be, and the stroke length of a 600 4 is going to be shorter than that of a 1000 4.

The limiter on my bike kicks in at 15,500 rpm, but then thats nothing amazing as it's a 400 4 with an even shorter stroke.

Yes you do hit the power well before the red line, but the higher the red line and the earlier the power kicks in, the wider the powerband.

[Kickstart]

Hi

In the previous thread craigT19 says that the Yamaha race kit control units will allow it to rev that far.

Although I susepect if you fit that kit then you will probably dump the standard clocks.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

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[EuropeanNC30R...]

It isn't unusual for tachos to overread either. Think the NC30 one is overreading by 750rpm when its at the supposed 14,500 redline.

[NSR-Rulez]

[loply]

Actually I have heard that this is common practice - Apparently the 16,500rpm GSXR600 from last year isn't really revving that high either.

But adding a whole 1,500rpm to get ahead of the competition is really cheap.
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Yamaha SZR660 Caution to the wind, the throttle pinned!

[woodyfjr]

I read that it only revved to 17,500 in race trim anyway and 14,500 standard road trim.

We will see on the track if it's as good as they say?
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If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.

If you have to rev it! Don't Buy it!

[G]

[Jack_Cheese]

That is a bit iffy - yamaha must have known that it wasn't revving that high. The engine would have been tested before being put in the bike anyway, meaning the bike's tacho would be out of the equation.

[Fortuna]

[Motkram]

What a suprise, all the hype isn't true; must be a first at the launch of a new generation/model.....
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Part-time GSXR1000 pilot>Micron Serpert system+K&N, PC111, Sigma slipper clutch, Brembo m/c+Galfer discs, Gilles rearsets, Translogic Quickshifter.

GP125>GSF400>VFR400NC30>YZF600R>YZFR1(1998)+KLR250>YZFR1(2003)>CBR900RRY>YZFR1(2002)>GSXR1000K1+RGV250

[palmer]

16,200rpm is nothing to be sniffed at either...

[Mongrel]

Come on guys, surely you must have realised by now that specs are always 'optimised', at some point under perfect conditions etc,etc it probably did hit the mark, just won't normally....

....in exactly the same way as you will very rarely see the claimed power figure for a particular bike when you put it on a dyno unless you too can replicate perfect conditions.

All the manufacturers are guilty of this, it's not just Yamaha!

Either way it's still a bang on bit of kit.

[NC30UK]

The R6 has a claimed power figure of 133bhp, and a weight of 161kg resulting in 823bhp/ton!

In reality it's more like 118bhp at the rear wheel, and a wet weight of 185kg + an average 65kg rider = 472bhp/ton just over half what yamaha would have your believe.

Manufacturers bend the statistics to get hype and attention, they allways have done it and allways will, thats why test rides and reviews are allways needed.

[Mongrel]

[G]

[lilredmachine]

You wouldn't want to run it to the redline anyway, the motors got nothing left to give after 15,000 rpm.
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Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.