Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2001 Open Bike Shootout find it sort of that the enjoyed riding l the mostmost. ironicone that, opena bike brief seconds, I was the for few hated the 'm little bit 1 was searching the bike that Ibestaand spentmorbid, soreally like of them.forI commuted a personified evil. I all of the bikes in this test, a lot of time on all Although I should have known better than to crash on cold tires on my first lap out on the Suzuki GSX-Rl000 at Willow Springs, it happened anyway. I slid to a stop in tum three, coming nowhere close to suffering the same sort of damage as the big Suzuki, but I held no grudges. My damage was to the ego, while the Suzuki had the misfortune of being afflicted with some extemal damage. Fortunately, it wasn't actually my first lap out on our Suzuki, as I'd actually crashed someone else's GSX-R (that's a story for another time) after putting in enough laps on our bike to come away impressed. Luckily, I'd ridden all four of the bikes in the Shootout prior to crashing and rendering myself useless for the rest of the day, so my racetrack impressions didn't change just because of a silly little lowside. I came away with one clear impression: The GSX-R is definitely everything it has been hyped up to,be, and more. The racetrack is the racetrack, and sometimes realworld impressions are drastically different than those you come away from places like Willow Springs with. I actually thought that my feelings for the Suzuki would change when it came time to ride all four motorcycles on the street, but it didn't. The GSX-RI000 held its own against the others in our combination freeway-commute/in·town stop-and-goputting/tight-and-twisty-mountain-road test. Although I can't say that the Suzuki was my favorite on the street-ride portion of our test, I can say that it came in a close second to Yamaha's steadfast Rl, and that, combined with how well it fared on the racetrack, was enough to pencil it in as my choice for the Open Bike Sportbike of the year. The GSX-R does everything well, and it's actually as comfortable as any of the others. On the racetrack, its brute horsepower wins you over so dramatically that it's really all you can think about when you sit down to compare it to the others. It f1at·out hauls ass and, if you're in the market for an Open-dass sportbike, isn't that what you really want? Otherwise, 1 figure you'd buy a 600 and call it a day. I've never ridden a stock motorcycle with more power than the Suzuki, and I'm not sure that I want to. It's fast. Real fast. And. in this segment of the market, horsepower wins. Hands down. ton and really racked up the miles. I somehow managed to get through the test without getting a speeding ticket actually Exhibition of Speed, Reckless Driving and Speeding should have been the ticket a couple of times. It's really hard to resist the power of these bikes. Second-gear l00mph wheelies just aren't prudent at rush hour. I still love the Yamaha; it's one of my favorite bikes of all time and remains so after this test. I could still own an Rl without complaint, although I ....ould be trying to find that extra power. The one bike that kept my attention the entire time was the Suzuki. On the track, the bike is so fast that It's hard not to pick it as the favorite. On the street, the bike Is equally good. I picked it as my favorite street bike as well. I even like commuting on it, which I haven't said about too many GSX-R's before. It almost handles as well as the Rl, and it has great suspension and brakes. The thing that could have ruined this test for the GSX-R is the fuel injection. As it turns out, the fuel injection Is as good as any Japanese bike I have ever ridden; it was excellent. Another thing that made me pick the GSX-R is that I respect it. It chucked me off, as you read above, but it was my fault. Not because I did anything wrong that I can think of, but because I put the crappy tire on the bike that caused the crash in the first place. The Suzuki GSX-RIOOO can be evil, trust me. It can wheelie when you aren't expecting it, and it has more than enough power to spin the tire anytime it wants. But I like an evil bike, so it's a good thing. Blake Conner J was skeptical when we first started using our new number system to determine shootout winners, my primary concem being that the numbers be believable. So far, they have every time, and this time the numbers show that the Suzuki GSX-RIOOO is the new king of open-class tarmac tamers, and that its margin of victory over the incumbent Yamaha YZF-Rl (I know, I know, some other magazines claimed that the CBR929RR was better than the R 1 last year... and they were high) is a slim one indeed. Forget about the Suzuki's roaring four-cylinder motor for a second - just don't do it while you're actually riding the thing. Lets look at handling. In my book, it was a dead heat; the Suzuki's stability and slightly heavier feel through the curves being a perfect tradeoff with the Yamaha's razor-sharp turn-in that hinted the tiniest bit of twitch on the straights. Shifting was roughly the same, the ergos favored the Suzi while the Yami had the better brakes... Okay, now lets get back to that rocket motor housed in the Suzuki's chassis - because that is, after all, what won the shootout for the GSX-R. But here's the rub: For me, at least, the Suzuki's engine proved superior not on the track, where you might expect it to, but on the street, where you might not. Cmon, we all knew that the thing was gonna scream bloody murder when flogged, but the GSX-R is also a gentle giant in civilian life, offering mountains of torque to get you in or out of any situation that might arise in commute mode. Its chassis and ergos work in its favor as well. Make no mistake, though: If you ride it in the upper rpm registers around town all day, plan on spending a lot of time in a pine box in the near future • it commands all the respect and attention that you can give it. As one of the best all-around motorcycles in any category, it also deserves it. I still love the R1, though. It was my fave at the track, and I believe that if Yamaha is willing to take the time to toughen up the engine and hush some of the road noise that this bike makes, the Rl could find itself back on top of the heap in as little as a year. But, hey, Yamaha, leave the rest of the bike alone. It's perfect. As for the Honda and the Kawasaki, the first word that comes to mind with either is disappointment. They're both great bikes that are hampered by serious glitches - something that I didn't believe could happen in the high-tech realm of modem sportbiking. Honda needs to build a ton more motor, clean up the fuel-injection and go through the 929RR with a fine-toothed comb to eliminate the ·pre-pro· feel that our bike exhibited; it is so non-Honda. Kawasaki, on the other hand, needs to junk the ZX-9R chassis, fix the crappy carburetion (don't even think about adding EFI) and power-valve the motor for more ponies on top while retaining that sweet torque that is felt after the carbs quit coughing. Then the ZX might be a contender. Right now, neither of these two bikes can run with the big dogs, so they might as well stay on the porch. Nope, when it's all said and done, the Suzuki is a narrow winner in this shootout. By the numbers. Believe it. Scott Rousseau I Still being somewhat of a tarmac neophyte, I ·accldentally· arranged to be covering the New Orleans Supercross at the time that the rest of my cohorts were performing the tracktest portion of this shootout. I must say that I felt much safer in the press box than I would have riding the world's fastest production motorcycles on one of the country's fastest tracks. I did, however, take part on the subsequent street ride in the Malibu hills, and my evaluation is based on that outing and a bit of commuting. I didn't plan it this way, but my rankings are derived almost entirely on the various bikes' ability (or lack thereof) to smoothly deliver fuel at nearly closed throttle settings. You're probably thinking that only a sqUid would rate bikes this fast on how they operate just off idle, and perhaps you're right, but in serpentine tums and on stop-and-go city streets, I found this one feature to have a profound affect on many other seemingly unrelated areas. For example, the fuel-injected Honda has the worst transition from a closed throttle and, as a result, its suspension and even braking abilities are affected. Shut the throttle going into a comer, and the the rpros fall on their face, throwing the bike's and rider's weight forward. This causes the fork to suddenly dive and makes braking jerky, and opening the throttle results in another lurch as the rpms catch and the fork extends. This is something that would probably never show up on the racetrack, but it bothered the heck out of me on our jaunt. I picked the Honda last. Not much better was the Kawasaki, despite the fact that it's has carburetors. In fact, if it weren't for the giveaway choke knob on the handlebar, I'd have guessed the green machine was also fuel-injected, because of its herky-jerky behavior just off the bottom. The bike's stellar brakes only slightly made up for the flaw. The other two bikes were much smoother off the bottom, and much higher on my list of favorites. Suzuki did such a nice job with its fuel injection that I initially thought this bike was carbureted; Blake believes its admirable performance down low is thanks in part to its heavy flywheel smoothing out the transition between shut and open throttle positions, and I'm inclined to agree with him. Just edging out the 'Zuke on my list was the Yamaha, whose good, old-fashioned carbs deliver fuel more smooth· Iy than any of the other bikes. Combine that with predictable suspension action and strong, progressive brakes, and you've got a bike that performs beautifully, even - nay especially - at the snail-like pace at which I rode the thing. Chris Jonnum 32 APRIL 18, 2001 • cue I • n • _ s was a really tough between the ItGSX-RI000GSX-R justdecision came down tonew and the Rl, but it the fact that the walked away in terms of power. It was really hard to ignore the extra 13 hp that the Suzuki has over the RI. On the street, the two bikes were equals. The Rl 's excellent handling, combined with its perfect carburetion, kept it right in the hunt. Thanks to its motor, the GSX-R pulled away literally and figuratively at the racetrack. It was just so fast that, every time someone came into the pits, they had a huge smile under their helmet. The other two bikes are still good bikes, they just can't hang with bikes of the Suzuki and Yamaha's calibers. Below are the ratings for both the street and the track, and then the overall. We award four points for first place, down through one for fourth. We then add up the scores and divide them by the number of votes. It works very well for us - so please don't ask us any stupid questions about it. STREET 1. Suzuki 1. Yamaha ...............•..•• " 3. Hon'da 4. Kawasaki .3.50 .3.50 1.75 1.25 TRACK I. Suzuki 3.66 2. Yamaha : ...••• , . " , 3.33 3. Honda .....................••....2.00 4. Kawasaki ................••• , •.... 1.00 OVERALL 1. Suzuki 2. Yamaha ....• 3. Honda 4. Kawasaki 3.58 ••• _, • , , ••....3.41 1.87 1. 12 for 8lIIe: Sllghtlv UMcI OSX-R1000._ Just IdcIcIIngI

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