2001 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000R
B y B LA K E C O N N E R
P HOT O S BY K EVIN W IN G
h en I w as a k id , I re mem ber
going cam pi ng wi th m y fami ly
o n a regul ar bas is , and one of the
coo lest th ings about ca m pi ng wa s the
campfire it self. I vividly remember my
father on occasion - frustrated by his
own fi re- st arti ng skill s - dou sing th e
wood with Col eman wh ite ga s, and
th en stand in g b a c k an d fl icki n g a
match at th e timber-bom b. I alwa ys
loved the huge flames that sho t out of
th e litt le m etal fi re ring. So what do es
thi s have to do with a Suzuki GSX -R,
you ask? More than you think. Suzu ki ' s la te st, greatest sport bike is th e
hottest th ing on the market right now ,
but wouldn 't it be cool to put some
fire in its belly? When the guy s at
Yoshimura told me that they had
done j ust that, memories of m y dad
torchi ng the fire came to m ind, at
least th e visual impact of the flames
shooting int o the air . After all , how
could the volatile GSX-R I ODOR get
any hotter? .
Whe n the Suzu k i Hayabusa came
out a few years ago, and I finally got
t he oppo r t u n i t y to test t h e bike, I
reca ll thinking that I sho u ld buy one
befor e som e on e came a lo ng and
banned it. I w as bl own aw ay at th e
pure sp eed o f t h e Ha yabu sa , and
wondered how an y compan y could
ever top that. Of course, th e answer
was so obviou s I never thought about
it - j ust m ak e the thing considerably
light er ; a Sup erb ik e for th e ma sses.
Suzu k i ha s gone ahead an d bu ilt
t h at b ik e, essentially a street - leg al
Su p erbike - a motorcycle t hat p rodu c es so mu c h horsepower that it
isn 't even legal i n the Unlimited
Superb ik e class in Formula USA road
raci ng . Ho w 's over 145 horsepower
sound? Stock !
Our test bikes (y e s, plu r al ,
bec ause we 've c rashe d a co u ple)
have mad e 145.5 and 14 7 .5 horsepow er , an d that ' s bon e stock . Put
ra ce bodywork on th e bik e and i t
would l ik e l y b rea k t h e minim u m
weight requ ir ement rules as w ell Formula USA's m in imum w eight is
3 70 pound s (Su zu k i's cl a imed dry
weight is 375 ).
A bike l ike the GSX -R 10 0 0 R
should be more than enough motorcycle for almost any street rider out
there, and is probably too much for
most. Yes, the Hayabusa makes more
power, but it has a th ree -inch longer
wheelbase and weigh s some 100
pounds more, making the bike a bit
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JULY 1 1 , 200 1 •
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