Quicker Gixxer

QUICKER GIXXER

In thrust we trust

WHAT DOES A CORPOrate pilot do with his spare time and cash? Build a street-going Superbike, of course!

A pilot since age 17,

Ken Warner flies a privately owned, $25 million French-made Dassault Falcon-“heavy iron” in corporate jet-speak. He’s also a certified sportbike junkie.

Which helps explain his pumped-up 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000. Oddly enough, Warner never intended to modify the bike, which replaced his stolen ’01 model. But when “an old lady in a Lincoln” made an illegal U-turn in front of him, he decided that even though the bike suffered only minor cosmetic damage-a scuffed muffler-he would build an all-out trackday bike and give up street riding altogether.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, Warner reveals.

“A friend of mine told me,

‘If you go through all of this-and it was a long, long project-once in a while, you’re probably going to want to ride it on the street.’”

Warner figured that was good advice. So while Hypercycle’s Carry Andrew was hopping up the Gixxer’s engine and chassis, he turned to Paul Taylor and designer John Keogh to create a package using a tiny PIAA headlight, flushmount tumsignals and the LED taillight from Taylor’s underseat exhaust that would meet the minimum requirements for street use, yet still look sleek and stylish. The only thing missing is a rear-view mirror.

“People ask me why I would do anything to a GSX-R1000,” Warner says.

“I tell them, because there’s never enough. We have a great saying in aviation: In thrust we trust. And that was my thinking here.”

Cue Andrew. Warner chose the Van Nuys, California-based team owner because he’s been around racing for a long time and is a top-notch tuner. And Warner figured Andrew could meet his goals for the bike: 170 rear-wheel horsepower and a wet weight of 375 pounds.

The uprated powerplant is a happy medium between AMA Superstock and Superbike. Displacement is unchanged, but headwork, JE pistons, Yoshimura “R” camshafts (upping redline by 600 rpm to 13,100) and a racing ECU that allegedly “fell off’ Mat Mladin’s Superbike upped output to 161 horsepower at 12,200 rpm.

So, does the bike meet Warner’s expectations? “No, it exceeds them,” he says enthusiastically. “In my experience, a stock GSXR1000 has two powerbands: There’s an increase in thrust between 6500 and 7000 rpm, and then at 9000 rpm all hell breaks loose. This bike is deceptive in that the power delivery is so smooth and linear. There’s so much power everywhere. It just keeps pulling.”

More than $3 OK in receipts later, Warner says he has no regrets, although he intends to further upgrade one aspect of the bike: the brakes. “This bike is a real rush, the closest I’ve ever come to flying on the ground,” he says with conviction. “All it needs is more stopping power!”

Matthew Miles