Wiseco Yamaha R6 Project Bike

The latest Wiseco project bike to get some ink was our 2007 Yamaha R6 project bike. We built the bike for the 2008 Dealer Expo in Indianapolis and contacted 2Wheel Tuner to show everyone the bike. From day-to-day street riding to a track-day bike, the Wiseco R6 has it all. Read the full article below.


WISECO’S Big-Bore R6-- Torque Ain't Cheap
JULY 2009 WWW.SPORTBIKECLUB.COM
Story by Arlo Redwine // Photos courtesy of Wiseco


Wiseco makes a large selection of piston kits for sportbikes. To trumpet this fact, in 2007 the company had a Yamaha YFZ-R6 customized using one of its overbore piston kits and a host of other trick parts (see spec box). The following February, Wiseco displayed the bike at its booth at the Dealer Expo trade show, where motorcycle dealers got the message loud and clear. Mission accomplished, right? Not quite. Because regular folks weren’t allowed to attend the show, nobody else knew about the bike. So Wiseco contacted 2Wheel Tuner, and we were thrilled to oblige in letting you in on this badass big-bore R6. Why did Wiseco choose the 2007 R6 instead of one of the literbikes, for which it also makes kits? “We wanted to be different,” Wiseco’s Sean McLaughlin explains, noting that 1,000cc bikes already dominate the magazines. We built it as an everyday bike that can be ridden back and forth from work, but that can also — with little modification — be a fairly capable track-day weapon.”

Wiseco went balls out with the engine. Millennium Technologies bored out and replated the cylinders. The piston kit expands the bore from 67mm to 69mm, bringing the displacement to 636cc. KWS Motorsports and Wiseco developed a blueprint of the race engine, and the former ported and polished the cylinder head, performed a five-angle valve job, and changed out the
connecting rods, head gasket, bearings, etc. It adapted the OEM camshaft to the new setup by installing APE billet adjustable cam sprockets. According to Wiseco, the result is 128 rear-wheel
horsepower on race fuel, and 121 rwhp on premium pump gas. Just as important is the added torque brought about by the addition of sixth-tenths of a compression point. “The bike really comes alive around 11,500,” Wiseco’s Jeff Clarkin says. “You feel more torque down low through the rev range, but when you start getting that engine closer to its peak revs, the power doesn’t
fall off like the stock bike would. So you can really tell the torque difference in the seat of your pants.”



Wiseco had a local race shop place the bike in a GMD Computrack machine, which determines the bike’s optimal geometry. The shop optimized the rake, trail and suspension for superfast turn-ins. What does Wiseco plan to do with the bike now? Actually the company sold it last year. But luckily a Wiseco employee is the new owner, so the bike’s still in the family. Says Clarkin, “We got about 1,500 street miles on it now by just riding it around, enjoying it, having fun. It’s a great bike.”