2006 middleweight questions...

i just received my new issue of sport rider today, and was drooling over the new middleweight bikes.  i was looking over the specs, and noticed that both kawasakis use 38mm throttle bodies, as opposed to the 40 and up the other 600's use (not including the triumph.  my question is this (im curious because i plan on going to school for mechanical engineering this fall, and my dream career is r&d for sport bikes) if kawasaki were to change up from 38 to 40 mm throttle bodies, and possibly revise the whole intake side of the motor, would that up the horsepower all around, or would that just make more power up top, and lose midrange power?  i used to be big into the import car scene, and i know just a larger throttle body with an intake can add a few extra horsepower up top.  how would this affect the higher reving smaller motors of a motorcycle?  and in my opinion, next year, when the 2007 r6 is released, if yamaha improves midrange power without sacrificing top end power, the other 3 japanese companys will have a nice high benchmark to meet up to.  

The R6 is new for 2006.  What makes you think that Yamaha will change/improve it for next year?  I predict the usual new color schemes...  I supose it is possible that they could go from the 2 year redesign cycle that everyone seems to be doing, to a 1 year cycle....  Bike prices would rise quickly then...  And it looks like the R6 is missing so much low/middle power that it will take a complete redesign to fill it in.  Now if it matched the other 600's down low, and kept the steam it has on top, it would truely be a great bike.  

The bike to have IMO is the 675, unless you race or do a lot of track days.  Good power and torque everywhere.  And it is the lightest bike of the '600's.  <--That part really surprised me when I read the SR article.


Throttle bodies....

Bigger TB's along with some other intake upgrades would make more peak power.  But the bike would also lose low/mid range power...  Power that gets used most of the time on public roads.  Not sure, but I think if the TB is too big, intake velocity is too low for the lower RPM power.  With motors that spin to 15 or 16k RPM, you can't have it all...  You can put cams and TB's that give the bike snappy low end power that seem to run out of breath...  Or you can make it a dog down low, but it really rips on top.  Maybe when bikes get true V-Tech and/or varriable length intake runners like some cars, then we might have our cake and eat it too.    And as the engines become more over square (larger bore, shorter stroke), they seem to lose low end in favor of more RPMs and higher hp.

Feel free to disagree with me.  


Chris  

I was looking at the article again....

Yamaha must have really been chasing top end HP on the new R6....  Since all the 600cc bikes have the exact same bore and stroke....



Chris