In a quarter, I'd go for the R6. In an eighth it might get a bit more interesting for the Buell, but you are comparing a bike with roughly 85 horsepower to one that's closer to 105-110, and the R6 is lighter.
An R6 is a seriously good bike, too! I've had more than a couple of them kick my ass!
Torque is very useful for "digging out" of corners, I agree, but in a drag race, you have the initial pull, but then it's not so hard to keep the motor wound out and in the peak power range. The 600 will do well after the initial wind up, and if you don't mind smoking the clutch a bit, you won't be far under the power band during the launch, anyway.
I know from race starts (which I'm terrible at, BTW), which aren't full quarter miles usually, sometimes I can get a pull on the bigger bikes initially, but by the time we are winding out 2nd, they have the edge, there's just no doubt about it.
IDK guys I think we should give our bikes more credit. From the looks of this video the R6 never pulled on the Buell. I know from my own experience, I never had a 600cc bike pull away from me on my XB12.
Greg - I give Buells TONS of credit, and I dragrace my Buells with various organizations (not street racing, but legit stuff) I gave my answer based on my experience with my S3 when I was street riding it and would go to the track I could usually pull out on a 600 and stay ahead enough to win the 1/8, but they were right on me and closing QUICK!
Now in a 1/4 - youre talking being down 20-30 horsepower, they will catch us.
Its not about not giving credit, its about being reasonable.
As for videos - eh, the buell rider might have a lot of track time vs a new guy on the r6, who knows.
You realize you said that "in a 1/4 mile ...they will catch us." Which implies up to that point you were ahead. Which is exactly what I am saying and exactly what the race video is proving.
I never said a Buell would trounce anything, I said it had enough to hang in there for about a 1/4 mile. Which is all I care about, because on the street that's all you need, and that is MORE than Jamie needed to test the Myth in the video.
I understand that at some point up around 100 mph, the Buells will be taken... HARD. No big deal because I don't care to go much faster than that.
A lot of the guys I ride with ride 600's of various types. They can ALL pass me at will when I am on a straight on my XB12, except one guy that must weigh 300 pounds. And my bike runs very well.
As far as the video goes, a skilled street racer would have gone around the xb before second gear. The rider on the R6 used none of the prerace preps needed for good traction, and his starting line stance was not aggressive. He is not a skilled drag racer in "kill mode".
As far as how quick an 1125 can be, look to what racers like Joe (little but quick) have accomplished with a stretched, lowered, and well tuned bike.
There are very real limits of physics as to how quick a stock chassis/stock suspension street bike can be. If you want to go TRULY fast,as opposed to somewhat fast, you need at least 200 hp and some well thought out chassis and power management.
nope. "You realize you said that "in a 1/4 mile ...they will catch us." Which implies up to that point you were ahead. Which is exactly what I am saying and exactly what the race video is proving.
I never said a Buell would trounce anything, I said it had enough to hang in there for about a 1/4 mile. Which is all I care about, because on the street that's all you need, and that is MORE than Jamie needed to test the Myth in the video. "
I am NOT saying that a 12R would 'hang in there up til the 1/4" or anything like that. What I meant was - in a 1/4 mile race they would pass the 12R, or 'catch' the bike. Im telling you, a 12R just doesn't have the power to do much in a 1/4 mile race. Like has been said, the torque will make for a great start, and if youre good you will pull out on the person, and it might be enough to hold out on them until the 1/8 , but in the back half they would crush a firebolt (stock for stock)
Don't take one youtube video as proof of anything
For the record - I recently had someone comment on a video of me at the dragstrip, it was me vs a busa (that was modded with swingarm, airshifter, exhaust, etc etc....legit low 9 bike) Anyway - this genius poster put something like "finally I have proof that Busas are faster than Buells, Busas will go 200 mph and buells are limited to 160mph as see here" Now, neither of us reached 200mph. Neither reached 160mph. It was just someone being ignorant cause they saw a race on youtube.
Perspectives change when the safety of the environment is no longer the primary limiting factor. It becomes an exercise of you learning to coax everything you can from the machine, while mitigating new issues that simply didn't exist on the street because, frankly, you weren't going that fast.
Drag strip or road course, it's totally different than the street.
what proof do you have on the street though? "Yea I'm with you guys too, we should stop bench racing. I have all the proof I need on the street. Coincidentally, the literature backs me up too."
