1996 Suzuki Gsx-R750

1996 SUZUKI GSX-R750

CYCLE WORLD TEST

NO MORE EXCUSES!

THERE'S A SCHWINN AD CURRENTLY RUNNING IN various bicycle magazines that sums up the history of Suzuki's GSX-R750 better than any literature the motorcycle manufacturer could ever produce on its own. Intended to win back Schwinn's lost share of the enthusiast market, the ad depicts a mountain biker with road-rashed leg and the simple statement: "We fell. We got up. End of apology."

An analogy can be drawn to the development of Suzuki’s GSX-R750. When the race-replica first appeared on these shores in 1986, it set new standards for power and weight. In an era when its peers typically made in the neighborhood of 85 horsepower and weighed more than 500 pounds, the GSX-R made a claimed 105 ponies and weighed 423 pounds. Hallelujah! Over the years, however, efforts to improve chassis rigidity to cope with ever-rising power levels and tire grip saw the GSX-R’s weight climb, culminating in the porky, 503-pound 1993 model, the first example with liquid-cooling'. Hey, we all put on a little weight over the years, right?

Surprisingly, the added girth affected the Gixxer little on the sales floor. Its combination of competitive pricing, abundant horsepower and, perhaps most importantly, racy styling ensured this. Even more astounding was the fact that the bike wasn’t hurting in roadracing competition either, as it won the 1988, ’89 and ’93 AMA 750cc Supersport Championships. Only the potent combination of Scott Russell and a Rob Muzzy-tuned Kawasaki ZX-7R prevented Suzuki riders from tallying additional supersport titles in the interim.

In 150-horsepower Superbike trim, however, the GSX-R was a flexi-flyer, and had gone winless since 1990-an eternity in racing. Suzuki needed to do something to save face, and it needed to do it ASAP. A stop-gap measure came in the form of the 1994 GSX-R, based on the previous model, but with numerous weightsaving measures. Working with one part at a time, engineers pared 31 pounds off the old sled. The result was a leaner, meaner package that won a fourth AMA 750cc Supersport crown.Q

Suzuki put the lessons learned on that redesign to good use on the 1996 GSX-R, development of which began way back in the spring of ’93. The company sent its engineers back to their CAD/CAMs with instructions to produce an all-new machine. It had to meet two important criteria: 1) Be as light as possible; and 2) have a class-shattering power-to-weight ratio.

Beyond that, engineers copied the dimensions of Suzuki’s 1993 World Championship-winning RGV500 grand prix bike wherever possible. This went so far as to include the downward taper of the tailpiece, which company literature bluntly states “directs the airflow down instead of out, making the bike difficult to draft.” Not an everyday feature on a streetbike, but then again, the new Suzook is no everyday streetbike.

Examining the ’96 GSX-R750T, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by its racetrack focus. Behold the two-piece subframe: The rear section unbolts to accommodate a racing seat; the front portion unbolts to expedite crash repair. Note the fuel tank prop-rod, which eases carburetor jetting changes. See the threaded shock clevis and the frame recesses around the swingarm pivot? Those-with parts from the available racing kit-allow the rear ride-height and swingarm pivot point to be altered. Check out the six-piston Tokico front brake calipers grasping fully floating 12.6-inch rotors, and the 6-inch-wide rear wheel shod with a 190 Dunlop Sportmax radial. Remove the fairing to reveal the three-piece engine cases, which allow the transmission gears to be changed without disturbing the crank. There is nothing frivolous about the GSXR. The only street amenities beyond those required by law are the liquid-crystal odometer/tripmeter and water-temperature displays, low-fuel light, adjustable-reach front brake lever and small underseat storage compartment.

As they had done on the ’94 model, Suzuki engineers examined each component carefully, deleting a gram here, a few more there. Through careful analysis, they were able to reduce the number of bolts used on the new bike by 10 percent, a weight savings of 930 grams, more than 2 pounds. When they were done, they had a bike that not only had a better power-to-weight ratio than its 1995 predecessor, it beat the original ’85 GSX-R by a claimed 28 percent. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Most of the technical details of the '96 GSX-R were covered in Professor Cameron’s preview in our December, 1995, issue. For the sake of those napping in the back of the class, a brief recap:

As per current four-stroke practice, the high-revving (13,500-rpm redline), short-stroke (72.0 x 46.0mm), 749cc, dohc, 16-valve inline-Four is designed to be as compact as possible. Liner-less construction, wherein a nickel-silicon carbide coating is applied directly to the siamesed aluminum cylinders, and a crank-end-mounted camchain (previous GSX-Rs had their camchain tunnels between the center two cylinders) helped trim 1.2 inches off the engine’s width. The four 39mm Mikuni CV downdraft carburetors are fed by a new ram-airbox and are electronically controlled, delaying slide lift at low rpm to prevent stumble.

The solidly mounted engine is used as a stressed member in the all-new twin-spar aluminum frame, which is said to be 5 pounds lighter yet twice as stiff as the previous version. The box-section aluminum swingarm looks to have been lifted off a GP bike, with massive bracing topside. Suspension is handled by a 43mm inverted Showa cartridge fork and a piggyback-reservoir Showa shock, both adjustable for spring preload, rebound and compression damping. Wheelbase is a short 55 inches, rake a steep 24 degrees, trail a paltry 3.8 inches. On CWs scales, the complete package weighs 422 pounds—50 pounds less than last year’s model, a staggering 81 pounds less than the '93 porker and 1 pound less than the ’86 original.

The fruits of the engineers’ labor are immediately obvious on the racetrack, as we found out when Suzuki invited us to a press introduction at the new Homestead Motorsports Complex just outside of Miami, Florida. Laid out inside a 1.5-mile banked oval, the 2.2-mile road course consists of four long straightaways and a few late-apex, decreasingradius corners. The layout puts a premium on a motorcycle’s ability to brake while leaned over, and to accelerate off second-gear corners. Coupled with the fact that the new asphalt was somewhat slick, traction management was the order of the day.

The GSX-R was up to the task. After some initial suspension fiddling, tire-pressure adjustments and a brief pause to bleed the originally mushy brakes, its performance was a headshake short of flawless. More on that later...

The first thing you notice after swinging a leg over the GSX-R’s tall seat is the improved riding position. “Comfortable” is a word that will likely never be associated with GSX-Rs (except when prefaced by “un”), but the new bike isn’t that bad; it’s far more tolerable than previous examples. Finally, there’s enough legroom for taller riders, plenty of space to move fore and aft, and the fuel tank doesn’t split you like a chicken. The windscreen, however, is only effective with the rider in a racing tuck; taller riders will find their heads and upper torsos totally exposed to windblast.

The next thing you notice is the engine, which sounds and feels much like previous GSX-Rs, particularly in terms of the amount of off-throttle vibration. It’s not too buzzy when you’re on the gas, though.

Carburetion felt quite crisp on the racetrack, with ample power down low and a gradual build-up beginning at 6000 rpm that really takes off beyond 10,000. The top-end rush is electrifying-more like an Open-classer than any 750 we’ve ridden. A Dunlop representative present at the Suzuki intro said that the stock GSX-R his company was given for tire testing went the same speed—164 mph—at Daytona as Tom Kipp’s fully developed, 1995 championship-winning Vance & Hines Yamaha YZF750R supersport bike!

Handling is nigh-on perfect, with quick, light steering that encourages the rider to snap the bike into comers. The tradeoff, however, is a touch of twitchiness, particularly under acceleration. The GSX-R would definitely benefit from a steering damper; strange that one isn’t fitted, as previous models were so equipped. The six-piston Tokico front brakes, awesome when they were introduced on the ’94 GSX-R750, are even more so now, thanks to the bike’s reduction in weight.

One casualty of the excellent brakes are the fork springs, which are on the soft side, letting the front end plunge under even gentle braking. Dialing-in more preload and compression damping helped, but then showed up another shortcoming-a tendency to chatter the front tire when the bike was tumed-in on the brakes. Consulting the project chassis engineer, Katsuya Shimizu, resulted in us pulling the fork tubes up 5mm, raising the front tire pressure to 35 psi, then raising the rear to 33 to maintain the proper front/rear balance. This change helped greatly, but did not entirely fix the problem. Stiffer fork springs will be necessary for racing.

Things were better in the rear, where the stock spring rate worked fine for our 150 to 200-pound testers. However, with preload increased to yield an inch of sag for the lighter pilot, rebound damping was insufficient for racetrack use at even the maximum setting. Racers will want to have the shock revalved before attempting to use it on the track. On a brighter note, damping remained consistent even after the shock heated up, thanks to the piggyback reservoir and an internal temperature-compensating mechanism.

One thing that wasn’t apparent on the racetrack, but was quite noticeable on the street, was a dip in the powerband around 5500 rpm. This, unfortunately, comes at highway cruising speeds in sixth gear, which makes it difficult to maintain a steady pace; the bike wants to either accelerate or decelerate.

Another aspect that was more appreciable on the streetq was the GSX-R’s tendency to wheelie. Pin the throttle in first gear and hang on: Once the tach needle sweeps past 10,000 rpm, the front end shoots skyward, producing a long, lurid wheelstand. Scoot your weight back against the unpadded tailpiece and it’ll power-wheelie in second, too. Click the smooth-shifting tranny into third, give a healthy tug on the bars at just the right rpm and...ditto. Do so while cresting a rise in fourth, fifth or sixth, and the result can be quite hair-raising.

As impressive as were our seat-of-the-pants impressions, the results of our performance testing were truly eye-opening. Limited by its tendency to wheelie during hard launches, the GSX-R blazed through the Carlsbad Raceway quarter-mile in 10.61 seconds at an astounding 132.68 mph. Then, during top-speed testing at our top-secret, high-desert test site, it uncorked a mind-blowing 167.5-mph pass. This was balanced against a 165.3-mph run in the other direction, however, yielding a 166-mph average. The GSX-R was equally impressive on Cycle City’s Dyno-Jet dynamometer, where it recorded 116.3 peak horsepower at the rear wheel.

These figures are absolutely unreal for a 750, and are more in line with Open-class machines. In fact, they compare quite favorably to the reigning power-to-weight king, Honda’s stellar CBR900RR, which posted a 10.54-second/131.07-mph quarter-mile time, a 161-mph top-speed pass and 117.1 horsepower during a recent test. The only place the CBR shows a significant advantage is in torque, that trump card of large-displacement motors, as it chums out 65.8 foot-pounds vs. the GSX-R’s 55.3.

Reading between the lines, you’ve probably already guessed that Suzuki’s got a winner on its hands. Well, here’s the clincher: In an era where 750cc sportbikes are nudging close to the $11,000 mark, the 1996 GSX-R750T retails for-deep breath, now-$8999.

Apology accepted. □

EDITORS' NOTES

THE NEW SUZUKI GSX-R750 HAS A not-so-subtle way of letting me know when I’m getting carried away. It would be civil if it simply flashed “Cool It!” on the digital temperature gauge, like the “HI” displayed in the event coolant temp exceeds 254 degrees. But, no, Suzuki’s fourstroke road-going version of Kevin Schwantz’s RGV500 grand prix machine says, “Whoa,” Texas-style, by occasionally shaking its head like a longhorn steer.

I learned right away that you best have the front wheel pointed straight ahead, with a tight grasp on the ’bars when setting the front wheel down from one of the Gixxer’s routine monster wheelies. Ditto under hard braking, when the rear tire is just as prone to leaving the pavement. This thing’s a thrill-a-minute. But, hey, that’s the nature of quick steering geometry coupled with a short wheelbase, the very traits that make the GSX-R such a turn-on to ride.

-Don Canet, Road Test Editor

SOMEBODY STOP THIS MERRY-GO-ROUND of escalating perfomiance while I catch my breath!

Has streetbike performance finally reached its peak? I mean, a 165-mph 750?! A few short years ago, that was a good top speed for a racing Superbike. What will they come up with next, a 155-mph 600? Oops...they already have.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. Riding this new GSX-R reminds me of some of the racebikes I’ve ridden, particularly-dare I say it?—a certain 500cc GP Honda. The way the GSX-R’s chassis teeters on a knife’s edge, the way its front tire tums-in, then skims the pavement while accelerating out of slow comers, and its propensity toward low-altitude, long-duration power wheelies all shout out “Racebike!” Isn’t that why we invented cafe-racers in the first place-to live out our racer fantasies on the street?

Stop this merry-go-round? No way. Let’s just add some comers and call it a roller coaster. I’ve always liked those

-Brian Catterson, Executive Editor

better, anyway.

TEN YEARS AGO, AS PART OF AN EIGHTrider Cycle World team, I was pounding the original Suzuki GSX-R750 at full song around the parabolic banking of Uniroyal’s high-speed test track, a perfect circle, five-miles in circumference, laid down among West Texas puckerbushes. By the time we wrapped things up, we’d set 12 world speed records, including the Big One, the 24hour mark of 128.3 mph.

To muster that kind of average-including numerous fuel stops and tire changes-our two bone-stock Suzukis were held wide flippin’ open for the duration. They never missed a beat. To say we came away impressed would be an understatement of epic proportions.

Just as that first GSX-R marked a serious escalation of the sportbike wars, so does this new version. It’s already on par with Honda’s CBR900RR-just wait ’til Suzuki gets out the boring bar and makes a liter-class model.

But first, anyone know what the weather’s like in Texas this time of year? -David Edwards, Editor-in-Chief

SUZUKI GSX-R750

$8999