Suzuki Gsx-R1100
SUZUKI GSX-R1100
CYCLE WORLD TEST
Suzuki reloads its big gun
YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO SEE IT COMING. In fact, give a clear-thinking monkey enough clues, and he could have figured out what Suzuki was going to do in 1989.
Clue number one: The GSX-R 1100, generally regarded as one of the world’s ultimate performance motorcycles, was looking a little dated, especially in the chassis department. That’s a bad way for one of the world’s ultimate performance motorcycles to look. Clue number two: The GSX-R750 got a brand-new, more-rigid frame in 1988. “Ah,” says the monkey, “I’ll bet that the GSX-R 1100 gets a frame similar to the 750’s in 1989.”
So it has. For 1989, Suzuki built the bike that everyone knew it was going to build. And what a bike it is. Light, powerful, and almost sinful in purpose, it’s driven by the same concept that inspired Cycle Worlds Suzuki project bike on the cover of the November, 1988, issue. That machine, you might recall, was a race-track-oniy motorcycle, built specifically for the Willow Springs 24-Hours West endurance race.
The new GSX-R isn’t a race-only bike, but it’s close. That’s part of the GSX-R manifesto: to design racebikes, and then adapt them to the street, rather than vice versa, as the case often used to be. Like our project bike, the new GSX-R uses an 1100 motor and a frame that is similar, although not exactly like, the 750’s. The big reason for the frame swap was strength. Two years ago, when Yoshimura built Suzuki Superbikes for national-caliber racing, the company would start with two GSX-R frames and weld them together to double the strength. That’s how important chassis rigidity is in the world of high-performance motorcycles. The new 1100 frame is heavier than the old one, but stronger and better looking.
Suzuki also blended in a little bit of the Katana 1100 motor. The goal here was very simple: more horsepower. And the methods used are extremely conventional. The first change is right out of chapter one in the engine tuner’s notebook. More displacement equals more power, so like the Katana, the new GSX-R’s air/oil-cooled motor has a larger bore and a longer stroke than last year’s, now displacing 1127cc. The engine also received larger carbs than either the Katana or last year’s GSX-R-that’s right out of chapter two.
GSX-R11OO
And the motorcycle does have some power. So what else do you think is going to happen when you perform some basic, foolproof engine modifications on what already is one of the fastest motorcycles on earth? The GSX-R is faster and more powerful than ever. Because of the larger carbs and hotter valve timing, the GSX-R probably doesn't pull from as low as the Katana. But that’s okay; the Katana doubles as a tree-stump puller. It’s sufficient to say that the GSX-R has lots of low-end power. It just has lots more top-end power. After 7500 rpm, the Suzuki gets real entertaining. The machine revs up to the 1 1,300-rpm redline so quickly the tach needle just about gets twisted off. You’re peaked in no time at all, and then it’s time to either shift or shut off, depending on your frame of mind. And even though it sounds like a contradiction, all the time that this is happening, the engine is smooth and predictable, not violent. The GSX-R invites you to go fast. Some other bikes with this kind of horsepower dare you to go fast.
Suzuki has done an admirable job of keeping the vibration under control on the GSX-R. too. If you have the presence of mind to notice such things while you’re accelerating at two or three gs, you'll realize that the machine is actually rather smooth. Each handlebar is rubbermounted and has a vibration-damping weight outside the grip. The Suzuki buzzes the most at low rpm and on trailing throttle, but otherwise is relatively comfortable.
Of course, calling the GSX-R, or’for that matter, any street racer of its ilk, comfortable is stretching the point a bit. The Suzuki, one rider said, is comfortable for vchat it is. And what it is is a street-legal roadracer. That means it’s comfortable if you're going very, very fast for a very, very long time. Amend that; it's more comfortable than other bikes would be if you're going very, very fast for a very, very long time. When you’re riding that aggressively, the high footpegs are a saving grace, rather than a hindrance, because they keep your feet tucked up out of harm’s way. The low handlebars keep you out of the windblast. And the fairing on the Suzuki is actually rather generous by sportbike standards. The handlebars are also a touch higher and closer to the rider than they are on the GSX-R 750 or the Yamaha FZR1000. So while the GSX-R is one of the world’s least comfortable bikes for casual riding around town and such, it’s one of the world’s most comfortable bikes when the speeds get high.
Likewise, the nature of the machine’s handling favors fast, aggressive riding. Approach the GSX-R with racer mentality and it’s an extraordinarily good-handling motorcycle. Approach it tentatively, try to go half-fast on it, and the bike seems twitchy and unforgiving.
There are reasons for this. For example, the front tire, a radial Michelin, has a kind of V-shaped profile. This means the footprint is very narrow when the bike is upright, and wide when the machine is leaned. So the more the Suzuki is leaned over, the more stable it feels. Both the front and rear Michelins, by the way, carry a 168-mph “Z” rating, a higher standard than the old 130-mph V-rating.
Another factor that contributes to the the-faster-yougo, the-better-it-feels nature of the GSX-R is the rather stiff suspension. This year the Suzuki gets an all-new Kayaba fork that features adjustable everything-in-sight. It has a cartridge design that keeps the air and oil separated, 43mm tubes, eight-way adjustable rebound damping, 10-way adjustable compression damping and fully adjustable preload. That means you can wander around in all those combinations looking for nirvana until you’re old and gray. The stock settings work for very aggressive riding. We ran the preload in the middle of its range, and both compression and rebound on their lightest positions, and never had bottoming or fork-dive problems.
In the rear, the Kayaba suspension seemed more adaptable than the fork. It worked well for beating up and down twisty roads, and it was compliant for in-town riding, as well. There’s still no doubt that this is a sportbike, but it works elsewhere.
So you want detailing? The Suzuki's numbered brake lever adjuster is about as trick as you can ask for.
One thing that's rather unsportbike-like about the Suzu ki is the fact that you can actually see through the rear-view mirrors. There's only a little shoulder and a whole bunch of road showing when you look back. It might not sound like much, but that small bit of help relieves about half the stress of riding in dense traffic. Another detail that riders tend to like is the stainless-steel muffler. Against a backdrop of endless flat-black exhaust systems, the Suzuki’s shiny, slightly off-color pipes really stand out.
On the negative side of the coin, there’s the new hydraulically operated, diaphragm-spring clutch that Suzuki is rather proud of this year. Not one rider liked its feel. The diaphragm springs make the clutch pull difficult initially, then easier as the lever nears the grip. This makes it very hard to engage the clutch gently and smoothly.
Enough nits and picks. Overall, the GSX-R came out a well-liked sportbike. And the better the rider, the more the bike was liked. The obvious question, though, is whether or not the Suzuki is well-liked enough to be considered the best big sportbike, especially in light of Yamaha’s newly revamped FZR1000, which we previewed last month. The only answer to that is we don’t know. We haven't yet ridden a full-production U.S. version of the Yamaha. Nobody has.
But there’s no question that the all-time heavyweight sport crown will fall to one of these two machines. Nothing else offers such an uncompromised idea of what sportbiking should be. Nothing else takes such a hardline approach to being the quickest, the fastest and the best handling. Nothing else even comes close. In its present form, the Suzuki GSX-R 1 100 is a truly awesome motorcycle—we discovered as much when we built one last year.
Now everyone else can find out,too.
SUZUKI
GSX-R1100
SPECIFICATIONS
$6599
