The King is Back

Published in

Gasolirium

4 min readJun 12, 2017

They completely redesigned their superbike. They made radical changes for this model but does that mean that the king is really back?

The smartest kid in the Suzuki family

To make the new GSXR1000 Suzuki adopted much of the technology and experience learned in MotoGP. Here is an idea of what is it capable of. It has an Inertial Measuring Unit which measures three axis and six directions, knowing exactly the position and lean angle of the bike. These pieces of information are sent to the Motion Track Traction Control System that confronts it with the speed of the wheels, the crankshaft, the throttle position, and lean angle in any given gear. After this calculation, the computer adjusts speed and torque. But don’t worry because it does it every 4 milliseconds and you can choose between 10 different levels. Traction control is a good thing here since it would be a shame to crash it.

One of the best looking GSXR

Seriously, it is the prettier sister between the GSXR. I know what you’re thinking: the exhaust is bigger than a Torpedo missile. But since ten years, Suzuki’s liter bike looked like an old actress who tried to stay sexy by using Botox. Too much Botox. They tried every possible headlight shape. If you put the last three models next to each other they look like the face makeup of the Kiss. I have a K4 in my garage, which I think is the last pretty old sister. She also had the charm of the winner.

The K4 beat every superbike in every motorcycle magazine comparative and on top of that, it was the cheapest. I don’t know if it does have a winner attitude but I know this is the first GSXR I really like to look at in a while. Today the GSXR is still the cheapest superbike out there but is it at the same level of the K4 in its time?

Fast and easy

The riding is sublime. I mean, how did they manage to make 202 hp to feel so easy? It doesn’t suffer from these racing illness most superbikes have. It doesn’t push you and it isn’t nervous either. At normal speed, it’s almost comfortable. But when you twist the throttle it’s when things start to happen. Pretty fast. The Ride by Wire feels directly connected to the crankshaft and when it reaches a certain rpm 12 bearing-like steel spheres are pushed apart in the camshaft. This allows more mixture into the engine and the result of that is another injection of power exactly when you think “Oh my…”.

This is a feeling that reminded me to the old RG500. Although the RG500 didn’t have valves, it did, in fact, have the same sort of kick in the back. At 7,000 rpm the engine opened the exhaust valves inventing the power wheelie. The new GSXR does the same but with way more power and way more control. And I know that I’m riding surrounded by electronic controls but sitting on the new GSXR1000 is like piloting a jet fighter, you need computers to tame its immense power. I like this GSXR so much that I can even forgive Suzuki again for mounting a bazooka instead of a muffler. I like the shape, the colors, how it feels when I’m sitting on it, and the fact that it is smarter than me. Welcome back Gixxer, I’ve been missing you for a while.

A second thought

This GSXR1000 made a giant leap from the previous model in terms of technology and style. Speaking about innovation: the start button. Suzuki redesigned the start and off button in an efficient way without desperately trying to be different like BMW’s useless complicated turn signal buttons. And everything works well together. You just need to think about the corner and you already flick the bike. It has tons of power but it doesn’t suffer in the mid range. So yes, the King is back but will he be able to get his crown back?