What’s it like on the road?
Bloody fast, as you’d imagine — 180mph on an imaginary Autobahn — but that’s far from the whole story. There’s no drama when you hit the starter button — at least on standard exhausts. That comes when you let the clutch out and wind the throttle on hard. 160+ genuine horsepower is always going to be entertaining but it’s the way it delivers — you’ve got a tall first gear (90mph-ish at the redline) which, with the linear power delivery, means you can scream away from the line without getting smacked in the face by the top yoke. At the other end of the scale, you can toddle along smoothly in top in a 50 limit and it’ll pull cleanly away when you hit the open road, no snatch, no coughing and no spluttering. It’s entirely civilised. But bang down a couple of gears and really start exploring the power and the world starts changing shape. Of course, all big sportsbikes can do this but somehow the GSX-R manages to stay civilised even when you’re being a delinquent, in exactly the same way that, say, a ZX-10R doesn’t. From 2007 onwards, there’s a little less of that midrange shove (more on that later) but a little more top end. Braking is two-finger sharp on the road, although it is a little bit inclined to fade at the track. Handling-wise, earlier bikes are perhaps the sharpest, but later ones tend to be more stable on bumpy roads. At least, they are once you get the suspension set up to suit. On standard settings, they’re a bit harsh on anything but perfect tarmac.
“There’s no drama when you hit the starter button”