Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

=-:=-==- =- zu O:- GS ,. . -R6:-:: O 4=2 OO Su- --.k j--:=-=,.X=-==- 0--=-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - r- it' s well over 100 mph , even on a little 600 (I can't imagine what it was like when they used to race 500cc GP bikes there), and I was going as fast as I cou ld when I came really close to do ing a litt le high-spe ed offroading. The Army in black was Sam Fleming, a road race r whose team campaigns a Suzuki GSX-R600 under th e mon iker of Army of Darkness in the WERA national series. He wears black leathers , complete with skull and crossbones on the back. You take one loo k at him in all his darkness, and you want to lead , not follow. It says a lot about my enthusiasm for the all-new GSX-R600, the Misano racet rack and my surroundings that I'd completely forgotten about my pulse-raising experie nce until Fleming rem inded me in the van on the way back to the hot el that after- noon . It was simply a blip on my rad ar screen of exhilaration. That 's how good the GSX-R600 is. The first thing you notice about t he newest GSX-R600 when yo u've finally cleared the cobwebs out of your system with some of Lolita's pit-box espresso is that the bike revs and revs and revs. And the n it revs som e more. At an indicated 15,500 rpm (last year' s red line was 14,500 rp m), it st ill revs . Only guilt forces you to grab another gear... well, that and a revlimiter that's out there somewhere. The oth er thing about those revs is how quickly they build. Come out of a slow corner, grab a fistful and the little G5X-R takes off, with nary a flat spot through the entire rev range. That creates speed. In a hurry. Leaving litt le doubt that this thing is fast. And the cool thing is that it feefs fast, just like when that 250cc rnotocrosser gets on the pipe . It makes for a stimulating ride . No rmally, at a press intro like this one, the jo urnalists get off the bikes for the first time and q uietly scurry away to the ir notepads where they jot down useful little tidbits like "good brakes, fuel-injectio n sucks , I'm better than Mick Dooh an, blah, blah, blah..." But this wasn't the case afte r the first few outings on the GSX-R600. Everybody was too busy raving about the bike to each other to actually take note s. Put it this way: I haven't seen mo re smiles from more journalists since the time someo ne accidentallydoubled the Krispy Kreme order in the pressroom. Wows! were everywhere. Although it doesn't have a slippe r clutch, the second th ing I not iced once I was finished revving the living crapola out of the GSX-R600 was the fact that you could bang off downshifts without worrying about the bike doing anything pecu liar. There were one, two o r five times that I downshi fted once too often as my mind wandered back to the previous night's pasta and vino, but the bike handled it without a pro blem. Sure it screeche d a little harder than no rmal, but there was none of tha t silly oh- rny-God-the-back-w hee ljus t - Ioc ked - u p -a n d - t he re ' s -a -goo d chance-l-might-crash feeling. The engine shrieked, but the wheels stayed in line , and I was good to go . Several things have been done to the GSX-R's engine to make it more compact, lighter and higher revving: The cylinders are shorter (Jmm) and are 200 grams lighter, thanks in part to the use of vent ilation holes ; oil is now routed internally on the new bike, the change bringing about another slight weight loss because the hoses have been eliminated ; the co mpression rat io has been upped, with the new cylinde r head (BO gra ms lighter t han last year 's) featu ring a more co mpact co mbus- 5treetwi!5e? Yeah. Baby Okay, so we've only had our hands on the brand-spanking-new G5X·R600 for a day, but we did get the chance to take it for a quick spin on the street - something that editor Carruthers wasn't able to do in Italy. 50 how is it in everyday ridingconditions away from the friendlyconfines of the fast and furious MisanoAdriatico? One thing that the old G5X-R wasn't was nimble, at least not like the darry R6or agile ZX-6R, but times have changed. The new GSX-R steers incredibly light, the revised and radicalsteering geometry becoming Instantly apparent on the street. Honestly, it makes the old bike feel... well, old. When we heard the numbers, we knew it was going to be good, but wow, what an awesome-steering motorcycle. Speakingof light, not only does the GSX · R steer light, it is light, and compact to boot . On the old bike you felt spread out inside the cockpit with plenty of room to lounge around lazily. This bike is much more purposeful with an aggressive yet comfortable seating position, even for a six-footer. The motor on the new Suzuki is, in a word, impressive. Not onty does it rev to the moon, but the tach needle snaps across its arc like a dominatrix's whip cracks across your backside. And that's also the feeling you get from the seat when the motor starts to wail. Thankfully, this isn't at the expense of midrange. Of course midrange on a bike that revs to 15,500 rpm starts at around 7000 rpm, but it' s at eight grand where the motor wakes up and realizes that you're finished screwing around and want to play naughty. For serious acceleration you simplydrop it down two gears to reallyget into the meat of the midrange, but the payoff is some serious scoot. The bike haulsass, snappingthe front end up in firstgear and then repeating the performance after a quick high-rpm shiftto second. One thingthat is noticeable immediately is that the fuel-iniectiondelivery seems smoother than before. When the throttle iscracked open from a closed throttle, the pickupisconsiderablysmoother than the previous generation's. Everything on the bike works in harmony, with a stable chassis(despite the quick geometry), great brakes (now radial mounted), and a fresh new look. This bike is goingto be an extremely hot contender in our upcoming Middleweight Shootout, Stay tuned. BLAKE CONNER 28 FEBRUARY II , 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary

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