Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128112
ed up and after a quick techn ica l briefing about the bikes, in which we were told that the 1000 made 167.9 horsepower at the rea r wheel (yikes!) . Andrew elected me to ta ke the ma iden voyage on that bike. YOSHIMURA GSX-R1000R TECHN ICAL OETAILS less lively . The new GSX -R 1OOOR does n ' t reall y leav e you aski ng fo r more - but if it' s a va ilable, why not? We dec ided that we would throw some basic parts on our GSX-R test bike, such as a pipe and a Yoshimura EMS (Engine Management System ), and see what k ind of improvements we co uld make. Duri ng m y tel ephone conve rsations with the marketing guy fro m Yo s h im u ra, he a ske d me if I wou ld like to ride th e GSX-R 1OOOR and GSX -R750R tha t they had built to Look carefully and you 'll see the Yoshimura digital Multi-meter accessory screen and the FI-mapplng toggle switch and shift ligh t . showcase the n u m e ro us p roducts that their com pany produces. So I ju mped at the chance to ride the bikes out a t Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond , California. By th e time I went out to Willow to ride the Yo sh bikes , I had a lready insta lle d a s lip -on p ipe on our stock GSX-R a nd the n ran it on the dyno. We were able to inc rea se the performance a d ecent amou nt with just th e s lip-on (see s idebar ), so I wa s e xcited to see wha t Yos him ura had in store for us. W h e n Sportrider ma g a z ine 's And re w Trevitt and I arrive d a t the track , the Yoshimura gu ys h a d two bikes raring to go for us - a GSXR750R and a GSX-RIOOOR . I got suit- Here's the skinny on the 1000 first. The bike looks surprisingly stock in outward appearance , all of the requi site street parts such as headlights, tum signals, mirrors, and stock bodywork were in place . If it weren't for the Yoshimura stickers on the bike, it would take a keen eye to tell that anything was done to the b ike other th an the exhaust system . However, the s ha rp -e ye d o bserver would not ic e the add itio na l LCD screen below the sto ck d a s h , with oil tem pera tu re info rm a tio n and a feature that allows the rider/mec hanic to reca ll th e m axi mum rpm 's of the bi ke. There is also a toggle switch on th e right handlebar for three different fuel / ignition maps , and a sh ift light over the top of the }Y@rBDDDffUD[jj][?@ @~E.CJfXJll@ @fXJ U@ [}uUDO@ff1D @@11ff10D @ &) The same day we rode the Yoshimura GSX-R1000R, we also had the opportunity to ride one of their 750s. We quickly found that their GSX-R750R has a lot of parts in common with the 1000 and was just as polished. The 750 is another sleep er, as the bike looks almost compl etely stock in app earance. Besides the beautiful exhaust system, it's the EMS accessories that stand 'out - such as the added LCD screen, shift light, and handlebar-mounted togg le switch for the various fuel ma ps. The bike has the company's own TRS Tri-Oval titanium race exhaust with a ca rbon canister and , like the 1000 's exha ust, the core , end caps and tip on the ca nister are all titanium. The motor has Yosh' s Stage - I ca mshafts that have 250 -degrees of duration a nd 9.2 mm of lift on the intake side and 228-degrees of duration and 7.6mm of lift on the exhaust side. They then adde d a BMC racing air fil ter and then the EMS (Engine Management System ), with all of the accessories, linked into the accessory hub. Just like the 1000 , the 750 features the same ignition kill power shifter for full-throttle, c1utchless upshifts. The chassis has Yosh's fully adjusta ble CNC-machined aluminum rearsets and chassis protectors. Riding Impression I had never ridden any two members of the GSX-R family back to back, so I never realized how differently they handled , despite the identica l wheelbases and front-end geometry . At one point, I pulled into the pits a nd switched from the 1000 to the 750 and went straight back out. As I ente red tum two on the 750, I was stunned how much easier the bike tumed into the corner, and how much easier it held its line. The 1000 has so much more reciprocati ng mass in the engine than the 750 that it's instantly noticeable on the track. I felt right at home on the GSX-R750R as it wasn't nea rly as much of a handful around the fast Willow Sp rings track as the beastly 1000. What' s funny is that, down the front straight, the 750 felt really slow com pared to 1000 , but that's just a testa ment to how fast the 1000 really is. The 750 is pumping out 134.8 horsepower at the rear wheel a nd almost 60 lbs/ft of torq ue, compared to 123.1 hp and aroun d 55 lbs/ft of torque stoc k. With almost 12 more horsepower on tap , the bike is act ually anything but slow, and the throttle res ponse was perfect. The thing that really impressed me was how well all of the modifica ti ons work ed in co nju nc tion with each ot her. The stock sus pension was set up perfect ly, and corner exits were mu ch less in t irn - idating on the 750. A co uple of times going dow n t he front straight, so meone would pull past me on a Hayabu sa or an RI , but the S uz u ki' s bala nce on t he brakes was so goo d that I co uld outbrake them easily into turn one and then never see them again. Like the 1DOD, the 7 50 was immaculately p repar ed , and a h uge im prove ment o ve r an alrea dy wo nde rful moto rcycle . Yoshimura definite ly knows how to get the most out of a bike. c ue . e n e _ S • JULY 1 1 , 2001 31