And finally, the tail light assembly has also been redesigned for better looks.

As the FZR 1000 draws ever closer to the YZF factory racers in terms of performance, design and styling, we see a fulfilment of the Genesis concept.

The 1989 FZR 1000 is still very much the FZR 1000, knowledgeable sport riders and racers have come to love. But it is also considerably refined. Lt is faster, better handling and harder accelerating. In short, a balanced performer - balanced on the cutting edge of Sport bike technology.

Bimota YВ6 vs Yamaha FZR 1000

If this machine- 472.5 pounds of exotic materials wrapped around triple-digit horsepower—if this machine had wings it would climb so hard and so high it would give you a nosebleed. Here, Italian sensuality melds with the hardest design reason: Show-quality paint and fiberglass enclose a chassis that argues less is more, that no unneeded part or bracket should ever litter a frame. Weld beads show that smooth, uniform spacing achieved only by masters, and parts everywhere wear machining marks as badges of honor, as the sign they were carved from solid blocks of aircraft-grade aluminum.

It is a Bimota YВ6. It could be yours for only $20,500.

Alongside the Bimota is a motorcycle that shares the same power source: Yamaha's FZR1000. Yamaha's 1988 FZR1000 Genesis engine powers the УВ6; the enhanced version, with an improved cylinder head and a power-valve equipped EXUP exhaust system moves the 1989 Yamaha. The two motorcycles are more than superficially similar: Both use massive twin-beam aluminum frames, and share a sport bike mission. The $7600 Yamaha, though, provides a useful reference point for judging the exotic Bimota.

By comparison the YВ6 is something of a bargain. It shares the same twin-spar aluminum chassis with the YВ4 racer, but uses the 1987/88-model FZR1000 engine—a liquid-cooled, 20-valve four-cylinder with a 45-degree cylinder block, 11.2:1 compression, downdraft induction, and a five-speed gearbox. When Cycle last tested this engine in 1987, it made 122 rear-wheel horsepower at its 11,000-rpm redline, and launched the standard FZR1000 through the quarter-mile in 10.71 seconds at 127 mph. In its YВ6 incarnation, this powerhouse remains stock save Bimota's own 4-into-1 exhaust system.

Our test YВ6, one of only five in the U.S., was bought by Sam Bernstein through the U.S. importer, Philadelphia-based Cosmopolitan Motors. Bernstein, a San Francisco art dealer and founder of the Bimota Owner's Club, U.S. (he also owns a DB1 and an FJ1200-powered YВ5), shares the need for exotic speed with his older brother, Funny Car World Champion Kenny Bernstein. Yamaha supplied the 1989 FZR1000, which has been completely redesigned since last year (see Feb. 1989 issue).

The FZR and YB6, the best and brightest from Italy and Japan, illustrate the similarity of high-performance motorcycling. Surprisingly, it is the Yamaha that gets its design cues from the Bimota. The Japanese have always taken a keen interest in Bimota's design work, and the redesigned FZR 1000 clearly shows the influence of the YВ6.

Tо build a compact machine, Bimota engineer Martini rotated the standard FZR engine back 7 degrees for more vertical cylinder inclination, thus compressing the engine bay and allowing a shorter wheelbase. For its 1989 redesign, Yamaha did fundamentally the same thing to the FZR1000 by tilting its engine back 10 degrees to reduce cylinder angle from 45 to 35 degrees. That change, along with a shorter swing arm, netted a 15mm shorter wheelbase.

Weight distribution is another area of the new FZR that shows a distinct Bimota touch. Martini believes that the Oriental preference for front-end bias is less ideal than a perfect 50/50 front-to-rear weight balance. The YВ6, unladen, has a 49.3/50.7-percent front-to-rear weight distribution. When Yamaha engineers redesigned the FZR, they arrived at a 49.4/50.6-percent distribution—nearly identical to that of the Bimota.

For better handling, the Yamaha also adopted the Bimota's wheel sizes, replacing last year's 17 front/18-rear combination for the more balanced gyroscopic effect of wide 17s front and rear.

Roll the FZR and YВ6 beside each other, however, and it's hard to believe they belong in the same class. Despite its enviable compactness, the FZR feels huge by comparison. That's not surprising: The YВ6 has the physical proportions of a middleweight. Compared to the FZR1000, the YВ6 is an inch shorter between axles, narrower, and lower in the saddle—due partly to its 20mm-thin racing seat. At 472.5 pounds fully gassed, the YВ6 is 50 pounds lighter than the FZR 1000, about average for a 600 sport bike. It's best to think of the YВ6 as a middleweight with one-liter horsepower.

About 10 minutes with the supplied Allen wrenches strip the Bimota bare. Little else but race bikes come apart and go together so easily. The entire fairing is one exquisitely sculpted piece of fiberglass: Loosen the Dzus-type fittings in the lower fairing seam, and the fairing slides right off. The one-piece tank-and-seat section, held by four bolts, lifts off to expose the centrally located plastic fuel tank, and the airbox.

The Yamaha's bodywork comes off in a dozen pieces, making it more time-consuming to remove and less integrated in appearance, but it's also less costly to replace in the event of a tip-over. Bimota's fiberglass panels are beautiful but costly—$3300 for the fairing alone. For the price of a complete set of the Bimota's bodywork, you could almost buy the FZR1000.

Uncovered, the FZR and YВ6 expose strikingly similar frame layouts: Perimeter-style alloy beams wrap around the engines, which are solidly mounted for greater chassis rigidity. Both bikes feature removable subframes—steel for the FZR, aluminum for the Bimota. Here the similarities end.

The Bimota's Verlicchi-made frame resembles Honda's NSR500 Grand Prix frame of two seasons past. Huge, extruded main spars of 3mm thickness connect to a tubular steering head at the front, and massive swing arm mounting plates behind that bear the marks of modern, computer-controlled machining. Intricately machined engine mounts welded to the main spars bolt solidly to the cylinder block. This upper frame section is further supported by a massive cross-member extrusion. In back, the extruded swing arm uses eccentric chain adjusters. Two cross-members, two solid engine-mounts, and the upper shock tower buttress this swing arm pivot area. The frame gives the impression of being extremely rigid and perfectly proportioned, a work of alloy craft that could justifiably share space with the $200,000 jade sculptures in Sam Bernstein's gallery of oriental art.

The FZR's Deltabox frame, in contrast, uses tapered main beams formed from aluminum sheet. This design can put metal and stiffness exactly where they're needed, but requires expensive metal-forming dies difficult to justify for small-scale production. Ditto the FZR's sheet-formed swing arm, an expensive, 10-piece affair with sliding-block chain adjusters.

Japanese sport bikes rarely look appealing with the bodywork removed, and the FZR1000 is no exception. The requirements of mass production prompt the use of injection-molded ABS plastic panels to cover what is too time-consuming and expensive to finish. Hoses and wires run amuck on the Yamaha chassis. Weld beads laid down by Japanese robots can't hold a candle to the flawless hand welds of Italian craftsmen.

Now look at the YВ6, and see Michelangelo-quality detail finish. All hydraulic lines are braided steel. Every piece is meticulously machined, perfectly fitted. All the electrical components are concentrated around the battery, leaving the rest of the frame uncluttered. One part suffices where two might have been fitted. Bimota design leaves no excess material, no rough edges.

Even small pieces, such as the pipe hanger bracket, are hollowed, thinned for lightness. You see such effort on pure racing machines where the cost of shaving a few grams of weight is rewarded at the finish line. This is the difference between mass production and the handwork of artisans, and that difference makes it easy to understand why the Bimota costs what it does.

Pared to the bone, the YВ6 has the dense mechanical simplicity of a racer, backed by front-line chassis components. Three-spoke Oscar wheels—a 3.5-by-17inch front, and a wide, 5.5-by17-inch rear—mount European-spec Michelin A59Х and M59Х radials: a 1301 60 front, and a massive 180/60 rear. A pair of four-piston Brembo calipers puts the squeeze on 320mm floating front discs. A smaller, 230mm rotor resides in back.

Suspension quality matches that of Bimota's real racers: a 41.7mm Marzocchi fork with adjustable anti-dive in the left leg, a rebound damping adjuster in the right, and air caps—though Bimota specifies atmospheric pressure. In back, a single, remote-reservoir Marzocchi shock offers 12-position compression and 25-position rebound damping adjustment, and a threaded preload collar. Unfortunately, only the rebound adjuster is accessible with the shock in place. Such is the price of the YВ6's dense packaging.

The FZR is similarly equipped—same basic brake design, though manufactured by Nissin, and same wheel sizes wrapped in Pirelli's МР7 Sport radials. The Yamaha's massive 43mm fork offers preload adjustment only, but the gas-charged rear damper also incorporates a four-position rebound damping adjuster.

Both chassis offer ride-height adjusters in the single-shock rear suspensions—a genuine racing touch. The Bimota goes the Yamaha one better with eccentric steering-head cones that can alter rake from 23.5 to 26.5 degrees, with 25 degrees, 4.03-inches of trail as standard. The longer, heavier FZR steers through slightly slower geometry: 26 degrees and 4.2 inches.

As the chassis numbers indicate, the FZR 1000 feels ponderous at low speeds, especially in company with the feathery YВ6. On the other hand, the Yamaha's more compliant suspension provides supple relief from the constant pounding delivered by our YB6's rear shock, which was not working to specification. A severe shortage of rebound damping allowed the shock to top-out hard over rough pavement, and a broken adjuster prevented us from cranking in more damping. The potholed streets of San Francisco were especially hard on the Bimota, rattling the bodywork, jiggling the rubber-mounted Yamaha instrument cluster. We headed for smoother macadam, where even a rubbery rear shock could not spoil the magic of the YB6.