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RIDE tells it like it was...

IN 2005, BIG-CAPACITY sportsbikes were serious news. After a brief injection of market-leading technology into the sports 600s market in 2003, the factories returned their focus to the bigger capacity machines in 2004. Honda launched the 1000cc Fireblade and Kawasaki the ZX-10R, while Yamaha’s R1 received a substantial makeover. Arriving a year later, the revised GSX-R faced some serious competition – and not just from the other manufacturers’ machines.

The GSX-R1000 was only five years old, so those with more of an eye on their bank balance suspected there was nothing wrong with the previous versions. This made every difference between the models worthy of close examination, even though there had been only two models before the newly minted K5 GSX-R. So RIDE set out to establish which version of Suzuki’s flagship sportsbike offered the most bang for the buck.

It sounds like fast-riding heaven. Blue-sky summer weather, three sorted sportsbikes and two days in which to test them. Road tester/racer Rob Hoyles, product tester Tony Hoare and RIDE reader Arther Buck set out to pit the K1 and K3 models against the newly launched K5 on the flowing roads of Lincolnshire, followed by a trackday at Cadwell Park...

Clearly, as responsible testers, nobody was getting too giddy on the road. “With any of these bikes, the potential to get yourself knee-deep in the brown stuff with both the law and immovable roadside objects is only a twist of the wrist away,” noted Rob.

Perhaps predictably, the oldest model won the fewest plaudits. Initially, this was thanks to shonky tyres but even once those were replaced, the less forgiving riding position, weaker brakes and minor power deficit (140bhp compared with the K3’s 144bhp and the K5’s 159bhp) saw it losing out to the newer versions. Though it was only on bumpier roads that it really dropped behind the new bikes. Yet it turned out to be the one that racer Rob enjoyed most on track… though he had to admit that the other two were faster.

The battle between the two-year-old K3 and the brand-new K5 was much more closely contested. Arthur found the new bike a little vibey, but liked the brakes. Tony thought the K5 was the best on the track and found the riding position better for sporty riding. On track, Rob found the K5 fast… but the K3 was more composed and forgiving.

At the end, all three riders decided the two-year-old K3 was the pick of the bunch. “The K5’s the latest… It is the fastest. It is the lightest. But it’s the least practical, the most expensive and no more fun than the others,” explained Rob. “I know what I’d choose if someone said I could have a K5 – or a K3 with the better part of two-and-a-half-grand’s spending money,” concluded Arthur.