BEEJ SUZUKI GSX-R1000R
THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “In a state of disbelief.”
One thing that’s often made our job mildly problematic over the last few years, is the fact that so many completely stock motorcycles have utterly failed to pass the strict noise tests at our local track of Castle Combe. Hamstrung by locals who’ve had decades of listening to screaming engines, and more than enough imbeciles who happily buy a house next to race track, then complain about it, the list of stock bikes that don’t pass posted on Combe’s website is long indeed.
On more than one occasion in a group test scenario, one or more bikes wouldn’t get through, leaving us a little stuck. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I approached the test area at Combe on the Gixer. I’d decided to go balls deep the first time, or rather, baffle out of the SP Engineering titanium can. I thought I’d let them have a bit of a laugh at me before I then pulled out my trump card from under my leathers – a baffle, bolt and allen key. I was mildly concerned that the engine (or ancillary parts of it) would rattle and generate enough extra noise added to the zorst’s to give me a fail.
I fired her up, cringing slightly, took her up to the specified revolutions and then, wait, why was he smiling at me and not laughing? “That’ll do, 105 decibels pal, you’re through”, said the testing gentleman. Er, what?!
“It’s Euro 4 mate, just about every Euro 4 bike to come here has passed this year,” he continued. To cement this fact, I put another bike through the same day, a Ducati Panigale 1299 FE, and it also passed – the first Panigale I’ve ever taken there that has – wow...
I’d taken the Gixer there in the hope of stealing a little extra track time to test out the brake pads. As I said last month, the ASV levers enabled me to tailor the lever-reach so I could get the very most from the extra grab the Brembo R&T pads had added, and I was so very keen to see if the fading problem was solved.
The first thing that strikes me though, is just how much more manageable the Gixer is even on track settings around bumpy Combe, than the Ducati is, which tried its hardest to throwme off it at every given opportunity. In fact the Gixer was amazing and so much fun, it partly made up for missing out at Silverstone the month before.
Better yet, and seeing how there are at least three reasonably hard braking zones, the brakes did not fade! Woo! The lever still came close to the bar, close to trapping my remaining fingers, but no further, lap after lap. I’d call that a win, however, and despite the added grab, they’re still not brilliant brakes. By contrast, the Ducati’s Brembo M50s were a ridiculous pair, using one or two fingers the lever barely needed moving to provide whatever I demanded. Clearly, even with the Brembo pads, the Gixer’s brakes need more work, so we’ll be back on that trail again next month.
In the meantime, the SP Engineering can had done its job, and done it well. It sounds ace but passed at Combe baffle out, it added power and torque, and all for the piffling sum of £250 – what a bargain! But now it was time to switch it out, and so the Yoshimura R11 ‘magic metal’ exhaust from Performance Parts Ltd, is now on. It took about ten minutes in total to remove the SP and stick on the Yoshi, and boy does it look different! I’m not going to say ‘better’ just ‘different’ as it’s a much larger unit than the SP. It does appear damn fly mind you, although given it costs £514 more at £764, it bloody wants to! The build quality is excellent though; it’s a gorgeous creation to tumble around in your hands and admire alone.
The big test is how it compares to the SP, so the next chance I get she’ll pop on the JHS Racing dyno to see how it fares, then we’ll try an M4 can before using a Yoshi full system.
One thing that has happened this month, is word from a couple of Gixer owners who have apparently experienced their down-blipper activating all by itself at peculiar times. Now, I have done this accidentally by brushing the lever, but there have been a couple of moments where I thought it had blipped at an inappropriate time, or unexpectedly, but put it down to user error. Suzuki are looking into this, but in the meantime I’m going to upgrade this one anyway, with a strain-gauge item from HM Racing. At £400 it may not seem overly cheap given that it works with the stock system, but as the Gixer’s is occasionally clunky now and then it’ll be interesting to see if the HM unit cures this. So, as always, lots more next month!