The Government Took Our 600cc Supersports ("And People Are Furious")!

adri

adri

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Time to put on our tinfoil helmets gentlemen!

In 2006, the 600cc supersport class dominated motorcycle showrooms worldwide. Today, it's effectively extinct.

Some of us are indifferent, others are like the guy at the end of Planet of the Apes.

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Either way, here are the five killers that stole the 600cc supersports from us


The two questions that come to mind are:

1) Are the 1000cc supersports next?
2) Does anyone new to motorcycling even care?
 
Yes, all valid reasons for the demise of the 600cc SS.

Some tangential information that is nice for context:

- the 600cc limit was never an arbitrary limit for the supersport market. It was also not an insurance cut-off point where premiums would rise dramatically over 600c. It was a homologation limit set by racing federations like the FIM for series like World Supersport. Manufacturers had to design a competitive sportbike within the confines of the 600cc ceiling and mass produce them to officially enter them into competition.

- there was nothing ever stopping manufacturers from upping the displacement for non-homologation models like Kawi did with the "cheater" 636 and Triumph with the 675. Production models could always be tuned for more mid-range, less revs, more compliant with government emissions and noise restrictions. Just that these bikes were ineligible for competition. No race-on-Sunday-sell-on-Monday for these models unless they borrowed the nameplate from their racing cousins.

- due to the reasons you've outlined in your video, the racing world is quickly pivoting and has now relaxed the homologation rules for displacement. As more manufacturers dropped out of SuperSport racing and stopped producing 600cc race bikes due to poor cost-benefit, the FIM were forced to chase after them to repopulate the field and as a result, are now allowing 600-955cc bikes to all race against each other in WSS. The starting grid that used to be lined with only 600cc-inline-fours are now littered with parallel twins (the easiest way to comply with emissions laws), V-twins and triples of varying engine sizes.

The FIM has instituted Balance-of-Power regulations that are tweaked regularly throughout the season based on race results. These rules force the more dominant machines to restrict their air-flow, fuel-flow and mandate minimum weights by carrying additional ballast. All in an effort to ensure that disparate models with different power-to-weight specs remain tightly competitive in the supersport racing class.

These new rules have also hammered the final nails into the coffin of the 600cc inline-four market. If manufacturers can submit for competition a variety of machinery that more young people can afford, are useable and more comfortable on the street, easier to comply with more restrictive government regulations and are cheaper to design and produce than the old SSs, then they most certainly will do so, speeding up the extinction of the 600cc dinosaurs.

No 600cc racing class anymore... no more 600cc racing machines.

Anyway, just some pedantic back-info to your video.

[/Cliff Claven]
 
Lightcycle said:
- the 600cc limit was never an arbitrary limit for the supersport market. It was also not an insurance cut-off point where premiums would rise dramatically over 600c. It was a homologation limit set by racing federations like the FIM for series like World Supersport. Manufacturers had to design a competitive sportbike within the confines of the 600cc ceiling and mass produce them to officially enter them into competition.
Click to expand...
They wern't really a thing until after 1983 when Reagan imposed a tarrif on bikes over 700cc to help save Harley.

1983 motorcycle tariff - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
timtune said:
They wern't really a thing until after 1983 when Reagan imposed a tarrif on bikes over 700cc to help save Harley.

1983 motorcycle tariff - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

I don't think the 1983 motorcycle tariffs had anything to do with the history of 600cc supersport racing.

FIM already had pre-defined class limits of 125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc. These classes have been defined since 1949. A long time before Reagan's tariffs. Manufacturers used that top class as a basis for their performance machines but the displacement slowly creeped up year by year by going from 500->550->600.

In the late 70s/early 80s, Japanese manufacturers were already providing club racers with platforms like the Z500->GPz550, GS500->GS550 and the XJ550. These bikes were nowhere on the radar of the 1983 Motorcycle Tariff, as they were well below the 700cc limit and did not directly compete with Harley's heavy cruiser, non-performance line-up which the tariffs sought to protect.

The mid-to-late 80s saw the manufacturers readying for another displacement bump from 550->600cc. Kawi had come out with the GPz600R, Honda had the CBR600F.

It was the popularity of AMA's 600 Supersport series in 1987 that halted progression of the middleweight displacement arms race and standardized on the 600cc platform as a separate, distinct entity. By 1987, the Reagan's motorcycle tariff had already abated. FIM then followed AMA's lead in 1990 when they created the Supersport class as a support race for WSBK, further solidifying 600cc as the new international ceiling for that class.

Cycleworld has a great article as to how 600cc sportbikes came to be:

www.cycleworld.com

How 600cc Sportbikes Came to Be

Technical Editor Kevin Cameron shares his wealth of motorcycle knowledge, experiences, insights, history, and much more.
www.cycleworld.com www.cycleworld.com

Nothing to do with tariffs, which had been lifted long before the popularity of the 600cc supersport class in the 90s and 2000s.

To your point, specific "tariff-busters" were Harley's direct competitors, bikes like the Honda VT700 Shadow and Magna, Yamaha XJ700 Maxim and the Suzuki GV700GL Madura shrinking their displacements from 750cc to come under the tariff limit at 699cc. Mostly cruisers, some sport-tourers.

But none of these were supersports which had a long history of gradually increasing displacement up to the 600cc limit, not cutting it to sneak in under a short-lived tariff.
 
Relax said:
Yup, as far as I was concerned, the single cause of the death of the 600cc supersports was simply the change in racing rules.
Click to expand...

You could add Euro emissions, or maybe the general shift from uncomfortable riding positions and anemic low down performance to upright naked bikes with plenty of low down torque? Personally i would never own a street 600cc bike.
 
Very comprehensive and throughout. Agree with all points.


I think another factor is having too much of a good thing. When the 600 SS class became popular, it was awesome.

After a few years, a few deaths, red line revs at red lights, and riders complaining there are no good places to really ride and complaining about riding half a day or a full day to get somewhere worth riding that isn’t a track, everyone just started to look for the next shiny object to spend time and money on.

Flat spotting expensive tires and riding on highways long distances isn’t fun. Even if you’re riding to Shanny for the weekend.

For bang for buck, a WRX was cheaper to own and upgrade and can insure and run year round. Carbon fibre like black hood on base Civic with a 4” can replaced the boy racer on a 600 SS. All gathered at the same Timmies and chatting about their NOS set up and sound system that rattles the truck from it’s struts.

The fad just wore out. For sure, government regs, cost to insure and those cool kids from 20 years ago got old and the youth that followed simply found becoming an influencer glued to their phone it time better spent.


Tongue in cheek of course. I think another factor is simply the variety of choice. There are so many ways to spend your cash and competing interests. Thus why Adv riding is taking off. It’s a life style. You can travel the country and the world. Watercraft, snow machines, side by sides and quads, toy diversity has expanded beyond what 20/30 years ago had to offer.


Last and not least, traffic laws. Po po just made it unbearable to ride those screaming machines any more.
 
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