Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HAVING A BALL WITH SUPER GSX
There are some sports bikes you need cojones of steel to ride. Thank heavens, then, that the Suzuki GSX comes with its own steel balls – 12 of the little darlings in the inlet camshaft which, at 10,000rpm, leap outwards with the help of centrifugal force to adjust the timing and increase the power. Stunningly simple, fiendishly clever. Not that the bike’s short of power, you understand. At 202bhp, the new engine is 17 horses up on the previous model. The good news is that in spite of being a full-on sports bike with a compact and suitably aggressive riding position, it’s actually comfortable. In front of you are pretty good mirrors and a lovely new digital dash which tells you all you need to know at a glance, including which of the four billion riding modes you’re in. “I’ve set them up so that it will wheelie nicely,” said Billy the dealer with an evil grin. Start her up, and the four cylinders growl angrily, as if eager to be off, and the first surprise is that it’s a pussycat to ride through town, with a featherlight clutch and some clever electronics which tickle the revs up gently at low speed if you are about to embarrass yourself and stall. But it’s out on the road that the fun starts. The clutch and gearbox are so good that you seem to change up and down by just thinking about it, and the acceleration is astonishing, with a bottomless well of power from basement revs all the way to 10,000rpm, at which point those little steel balls do their dance of delight and it just keeps on pulling all the way to the redline at 14,500rpm. Handling – thanks to a steeper fork rake, longer wheelbase, lighter frame and the engine being shifted slightly forward to get more weight over the front wheel – is both scalpel-sharp and planted, giving you a glorious combination of precision and stability on the tarmac. In short, it’s not only a huge improvement on the previous generation of GSX-R1000, but the best since Suzuki introduced the model back in 2001. Oh, and Billy was right about the wheelies, although I didn’t expect the first one to happen as I was proceeding down the main street. In my defence, officer, I’d just like to say that the front wheel levitated all by itself, but I’m very happy to visit it in front wheel prison every Friday from five to six.