2001 Open Bike Shootout
STORY AND PHOTOS
BY BLAKE CONNER
I
f you've been reading any of the
early magazine articles about the
new GSX-RI000, you already know
that a bunch of journalists have
thrown them down the road. Just to
come clean from the start, we're no
exception. The boss tossed one in
turn three at Willow Springs, on cold
street tires - he had just been on a
bike with warm race tires. Then I
threw one down in the most embarrassing fashion - a block from the
office on a cold new/old tire. By
new/old, I mean that it was new to
that bike, but used - get it? Don't put
take-offs on this bike, especially ones
that have been sitting on a shelf for
'six months - it high-sided me at 1015 mph! Great torque though. It sucks
to crash, but to crash a block from
work really sucks. I swear that everyone I work with drove by, wondering
why I was pushing the Suzuki back to
the office with oil puking out of the
side cover. There was no getting out
of that harassment the next day ...
Anyway, this is the shootout
everyone wants to hear about, right?
Big bikes, big power, and killer handling. We loved riding the 2001 600s
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APRIL 18, 2001 •
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Not a single person on this page
works for Cycle News, but that's okay,
because we like them all. !Above, from
left to right) Jeff Haney from the
Freddie Spencer High Performance
Riding School, Brent Avis from
Motorcycle Online, and former AMA
Twin Sports competitor Nigel Gale.
(Left) Haney and Avis wheelle-test the
new Suzuki and Yamaha R1.
in January, but this is the test that we
were really looking forward to.
TRere's nothing like the exhilaration
of an open-class bike on the racetrack, especially with Suzuki back in
the game after such a long absence.
On paper, the new Suzuki looks like a
schoolyard bully, but we were curious
to see if it could walk the walk.
The last time that Suzuki had an
open-class sportbike (the Hayabusa
doesn't count) was in '98 - the GSXR11 00 - and it was an outdated, overweight relic. But times have changed.
Honda started the entire revolution
with the '93 CBR900RR and were
quickly reeled in by Yamaha's R 1.
Then, Kawasaki jumped into the fire
with the revised ZX-9R in '98. So here
we are in 2001, with four open-class
sportbikes ready to wage war against
each other. God I love this job.
