CHARLIE

THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Achieving miles and miles with the R6 – in the back of a van.”

Arare ‘compliment of the season’ for me is the time to get out and ride as was the case over this Christmas. When I had the chance in between overeating and drinking there was enough snow and ice around the West Country to adopt a pack of huskies for transportation. Alas, the R6 remained warm, dry and predominantly under-used this month.

This was an opportunity however to address one of the fundamental crimes that the 2017 R6 has been accused of throughout its launch period – the suspension. Criticism has been centred on the rear; the front generally being applauded as a marked upgrade from previous incarnations seemingly developed via R1 tech. With a replacement rear in mind, I contacted Nitron Racing Systems, a British company based just outside Oxford. To my delight not only would they supply one of their top of the range rear shocks the NTR R3, but dyno the OEM Kayaba Rear too. They would also give me the opportunity to try their all new TVT fork cartridges, an upgrade I would not necessarily make immediately but a welcome option all the same. Having dropped the Kayaba out of the R6 Scott Maskell, chief bike engineer at Nitron, spent some time reviewing the OEM fitment on the Nitron Dyno. There is a lot of information from these tests that will be available on www.fastbikesmag.com as it makes interesting reading. In a nutshell though, it’s not the precise piece of precision equipment worthy of the R6. Numerous graphs detail the peak velocity plots which show a non linear adjustment range in the damping, making it difficult to tune in. In terms of rebound, the adjustments are also affecting the compression, something you are not going to know unless you have a dyno – once again creating a lot of head scratching as adjustments are not doing what they should do.

In comparison the NTR3’s rebound adjustment is linear, nigh on equal changes in force for every click from full hard to soft where the compression damping remains constant. Thus working independently unlike the Kayaba. In theory and in the graphs you can see on our website the benefits of changing the rear shock are very obvious, however the proof is in the testing that is yet to come. At the current time the bike is set up to give a good winter ride before any ‘meaningful grip’ can be found for more exuberant riding. As the season changes so will the set up, I will return to the Nitron subject a lot over the coming issues including the significant changes at the front end.