SUZUKI GSX-R1000R
THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Going b’raap!”
So then, another month and more time spent with the Gixer. And thus far any time with her is time well spent. We’re still in the dating phase, the ‘getting to know each other’ stage, although she’s happy to put out early doors too when the hammer goes down – perfect!
One thing which I’m keeping an eye on is fuel-consumption. Yeah, set phasers to ‘yawn’ I know, but to some this kind of thing is important. So far the most I’ve seen is 32mpg, and for a long while I couldn’t break 30mpg, only by dribbling along in slow sub-40mph traffic did it increase. That being said, whether thrashing the life out of it, or crawling, it seems to be sticking to this 32mpg figure like glue. TBC on this one.
The other thing that’s stuck out is the amount of rattling it does! Gixers have never had particularly quiet engines, but this one has a variety of rattles of different frequencies that appear depending on whether it’s at a standstill ticking over, or in the lower reaches of the rev range. However, I’ve just learned that this could be the multiple exhaust valves. The odd one has needed a bit of a tighten here and there by all accounts, so next time she goes back to Suzuki we’ll see if that’s it.
So I don’t have to listen to those rattles as much, and to finally get rid of the giant carbuncle of a stock OE silencer, it was time it went. As I mentioned last month, I’m giving SP Engineering first shot at this as their kit worked wonders on the MT-10 last year.
With aural excellence firmly in mind I zapped down to SP’s home in Frome, and they set about the bike. The can I chose to fit is their Diabolus, the same type that went on the MT. This time a titanium body rather than carbon. With the bike being black, black, and black all over I wanted the can to stand out a bit.
And I’d say she does, wouldn’t you? One impressive thing about the OE can was how light it was, despite being so restrictive. But the SP is lighter still, knocking off a decent smidge of weight and, finally, allowing the Gixer to breathe better – and be heard!
It sounds really nice, with a superb scream at the top end. Yet when dawdling, it’s pretty quiet, enough so that I can still hear those damn rattles! The can comes with a baffle, so I’ll pop up to Castle Combe at some point to see if it can get through their draconian noise limits, as that will be a good indicator for other UK tracks.
But what about power? I’d heard stories about Gixers losing midrange when full systems were fitted. The SP can has a tiny link-pipe, which slots to the single-unit down-pipes that incorporate three (I think) exhaust valves and two more catalysers. So there’s still quite a lot of restriction left.
Whizzing from Frome to JHS racing, I was revelling in the new exhaust note, and on the dyno it sounds nuts – check out the video of it on our YouTube page! And blow me down, if it didn’t do really well too! We got an extra handful of ponies up top, and some extra Nm of torque when it comes to peak figures. But through the midrange at some points we are nearly 10bhp up, and an appreciable amount of torque up, too. For around £250, this is bloody cheap power, and including the weight loss and noise addition, it’s win-win-win!
I do keep promising to fit brake pads and, frankly, the bike really needs them. They have been ordered so should have arrived by the next time we speak!