Okey dokey, I've just had a week home from work and I finally got to drape a leg over my "new" K7 GSXR1000SE....you know, the black 'n ginger thing with the extra carbon doo dads that look good but do bugger all.
The previous owner had kindly fucked orf most of what is very nearly the ugliest OEM exhaust system known to man (undisputed king of that contest has to be the Buell 1125R), replacing the cat 'n cans with some of Pop's finest hardware in the form of a single carbon can and link pipe. A PC111 and TRE tidy things up on the fuel and ignition fronts.
Doesn't sound half bad eh?
Only it's crap.
Why? I'll tell ya why:
1) Because it handles damn near intuitively. You'd best be concentrating on the road pal, 'cos the merest glance at that tidy MILF climbing outta her Porsche Cayenne has the bike following your subconcious and going over to say "How you doin?".
2) Luckily the brakes are perfectly modulated with the same two fingers you used to salute that dodgy lane changing mouthbreather drivin' from the back seat of his scooby.
3) And that engine, since when did Suzuki start making turbines? It's amazingly vibe free and feels totally unstressed, even at the kinda revs only dogs can hear. Ok, so I'm a lil' outta the loop coming from a 9 year old modified R1, but a 13750rpm redline on a thou' is….is…er, it's just LOTS, ok?! The old R1 had a bit more mid-range and made a genuine 160rwhp, but even with balanced and lightened internals it felt crude in comparison, and would be well shaded for top end by the gixxer which just revs for Africa without being heard across whole provinces. What hp the R1 would peak at, the gixxer would make over a fair rev range.
4) Compared to the "Satan with his balls caught on a barbed wire fence" howl when you got up my dear departed R1, the OEM headers/Yoshi setup is more civilised, and combined with the standard double bubble screen you just relax in a pocket of relative tranquility as you replicate the Millenium Falcon's jump into hyper space. Even allowing for the 1 tooth smaller front sprocket, looking down and seeing 2_ _kph when you expect to see 1_ _kph is a tad disconcerting.
I could go on but you get the picture, it's just a supremely capable machine with huge reserves of performance. The thing looks good, won't upset the neighbours starting up at 6am, handles with remarkable agility and goes like shit off a shovel….it's even comfortable for fucks sake.
And therein lies the problem: forget speeding tickets, you'll be standing next to the judge as he/she feeds your license into a shredder and warns of playing mummies and daddies in the Big House if you want to have any fun at all on public roads. Not to mention if something were to go awry whilst "having fun" at those speeds you've got 2 shows of walking anywhere, let alone home. I'm no Hillman Hunter driver, with "baby on board" and "Jesus loves YOU" stickers on the back window advocating an 80kph speed limit, it's just that riding this thing at anything remotely close to legal speeds has all the excitement of a Chrissy kiss from gran.
And that's why modern sportsbikes are crap.
I've already got an F1 race bike so this jigger is never gonna see the track, which means I've effectively ensured I'm either bored even more stupid than normal (yes, it is possible) or I'm waiting for a tap on the shoulder everytime I wheel it back into the shed. I mean, a bloke just shouldn't be thinkin' 'bout doing a ride by his own house to check the driveway after a Sunday ride, should he?
Maybe I'm just missing the intensity of track riding (thanks to work I missed Round 3) but if you've got a similar late model big bore honducasukiyamawaki (they're all within poofteenths of each other performance-wise) on the road and don't ever let it loose on the track, you've got broken biscuits for brains and/or spend too much time at the latte lounge looking for reflective surfaces in which to admire yourself. It's like having Phar Lap keeping down the grass on the front lawn and never letting the big fella out to stretch his legs.
Anyone wanna buy a K7 GSXR1000SE?
Oh yeah, I don't really care what you do with your honducasukiyamawaki 1600RR, if you're enjoying it good luck to ya.
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Originally Posted by slowpoke
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