All-New Suzuki Gsx-R1000!
ALL-NEW SUZUKI GSX-R1000!
ROUNDUP
SUZUKI IS THE MASTER of making serious sportbikes at prices riders like. Staying competitive at a price calls for cleverness on many levels. The latest recipient is the 2005 GSX-R1000, which has to run in a new pack of literclass big-dogs. The medicine? A thousand extra revs, smaller frontal area and lighter weight-all orchestrated so that production simplification in one area pays for higher technology in another.
This is an update, not a new engine. Changes include a small .4mm overbore that takes displacement from 988 to 999cc. Upsized-yet-6gram-lighter titanium valves (intakes 30mm, exhausts 24) and larger 44mm throttle bodies conspire to push redline up by 1000 rpm. These valves have flat faces rather than the previous Cosworth style dimples, pushing up the compression ratio half a point to 12.5:1. Higher compres sion boosts torque at all rpm.
New forged aluminum pistons are lighter and shorter, with narrowed thrust faces. The crankshaft is strengthened in unnamed ways (material? balance?) and the shotpeened connect ing rods have thicker beam flanges. As with the `04 GSX R600, these changes are necessary to: 1) offset the otherwise higher inertia loads at the 1000-rpm higher revs; 2) better resist metal fatigue at higher stress levels; and 3) in the case of the crank, sur vive higher revs without ex citation of high levels of torsional vibration.
Although engine power is unstated, radiator cooling capacity has been increased by 17 percent, presumably for good reason! A separate "chin" oil radiator is fitted heat exchanger. Piston rings are hard-faced by vapor deposition of chromium nitride, an extremely dura ble compound that applies more uniformly than tradi tional hard chrome. The results are a closer fit of ring and cylinder wall and high scuff resistance.
When, as here, the intake tract is enlarged, something must restore fuel-air mixing to that achieved by the higher velocity and turbu lence of the previous, smaller port. That some thing is dual injectors of the fine-atomization, multi-hole type. One operates all the time, metering according to the rpm/throttle angle map, adjusted for air density. The other operates at high load only, from map data. As in automotive practice, an active throttle positioner stabilizes idle rpm during warm-up.
Aero drag has been cut by an approximate 10 percent reduction in frontal area. The biggest change is to the rider position, which is lowered 3Ainch (seat height is 31.9 inches) and moved forward, while the windscreen is dropped 13A inches. This required lower footpegs, made possible without grounding by narrowing their spread (and that of the chassis supporting them). To obtain a 1 percent reduction in fairing width, the engine’s outer pair of intake tracts were angled inward, trig-
gering a cascade of useful narrowings-the airbox, gas tank, the chassis itself, then the rider's knee/elbow position. Meaningless details? Hardly. In Superbike racing, these changes could buy 5-7 mph in top speed.
Refinements in aluminum casting allow a .7-pound weight reduction in each wheel. Chassis parts count is cut by increased use of castings, simplifying as sembly. The bat tery is 1.1 pounds lighter and ECU volume is cut by a third. Claimed dry weight is 366 pounds.
The pointy fairing has the current look of being made of swoopy arrowheads, but the integration of mirrors and turnsignals shows the same detailed seriousness about aero drag that you find in current autos. Vertically stacked headlights allow engine intakes to move closer to the fairing's central peak pressure region. At Daytona's 190 mph, full ram-pressure recovery is worth a 4.5 percent boost in engine power. Little things add up.
Kevin Cameron
