Cycle News

2014 SUZUKI GSX-R1000 FIRST RIDE P66 Suzuki, like most manufactur- ers, went through some difficult times a few years back with the recession hitting the motorcycle industry hard. Motorcycle sales on the whole were down and sportbike sales took the brunt of it. At the last Suzuki intro I attend- ed back in 2010, we were told that its dealers had way too much back stock and older models were piling up in its warehouses. In order for the company to move forward, some hard decisions had to be made. A big focus was placed on re- ducing debt and clearing out older stock. As you may know, Suzuki discontinued its North American auto sales and distribution last year. With new and expanding markets opening up elsewere in the world, Suzuki felt it was best to get out of the U.S. auto market and concentrate its efforts solely on its motorcycle division. "By going against the norm and not putting out anything new in the sportbike market," as one Suzuki person told me, they managed to achieve the goal of eliminat- ing back stock and seriously re- ducing debt. Suzuki is now posi- tioned quite nicely for the future. The same Suzuki person told me, "they [dealers] do not have any- thing older than a 2013 model on the floor in their dealerships." The new GSX-R1000 is un- changed for 2014, but by all means it is still a very capable motorcycle. After Eugene Laffer- ty won the first World Superbike race at Phillip Island and Roger Lee Hayden barely missed out on Daytona gold, it seems the old horse still has plenty of fight left in it. How much racing affects sales is still a point of contention within most motorcycle companies, but such a good showing at the be- ginning of the season might just breathe some life back into the GSX-R's phenomenal sale poten- tial. Remember, since the intro- duction of the GSX-R1000 back in 2001, more than 87,000 mod- els have been sold in the U.S. market alone. Very impressive, but in today economy it's all about the new, though it just might pay off for Suzuki to wait another year or two before a completely new GSX-R1000 hits the market. Nevertheless, I was in Austin for the 2014 GSX-R1000 press launch so I was going to make the most of it. I was hoping that MOTOGP DREAMS Fortunately the weather-shortened GSX-R1000 adventure wasn't all Suzuki had on our menu in Austin. We also got the chance to watch Suzuki's MotoGP team test its bike for a sched- uled return to MotoGP racing in 2015. That meant we got the chance to chat with the man in charge - Davide Brivio. Brivio explained that Suzuki has nine tests scheduled for 2014 and that the possibility of entering the MotoGP circus in 2015 is on the table, depending on how the rules play out. There were plenty of questions float- ing around the garage and I had a few of my own. It's common knowledge that the new layout of the Suzuki MotoGP bike's motor is an inline four cylinder, but I asked what type of firing order the bike had and if the crank rotated opposite to the standard clockwise-ro- tating streetbike design. There was a brief pause, a little back- and-forth between the engineers and Brivio, but no answer was given. Guess they are still trying to hide what they're using, though it's fairly obvious to the trained ear that it sounds very similar to the Yamaha M1. On other fronts, yes it has pneumatic valves, but no seamless transmission - yet. I was also interested in knowing about the electronic package that they were using. Apparently the team started with Mitsubishi electronics, but has since switched to Magneti Marelli, which will be standard issue when they return to racing. That makes sense. Right now Suzuki is in the midst of developing its software package. Brivio said that Marelli was going to take data from all three of the current MotoGP teams as well as Suzuki to further enhance the software they are going to produce in an effort to have a solution that works best across the Suzuki MotoGP boss Davide Brivio listens to what Kevin Schwantz thinks of Suzuki's new MotoGP bike.

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