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Thread: GSX-R1000 long time dream came true yesterday...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    22nd April 2006 - 10:20
    Bike
    Suzuki GSX-R1000 A L8
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    Auckland (Sth)
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    55

    GSX-R1000 long time dream came true yesterday...

    Yesterday, after so many years of wanting to own a top end 1000cc sports bike, I finally went and picked up a new GSX-R1000/A.. The Suzuki Summerfest or whatever you call it, did me a world of good in helping me to finally own one of them, with its very low prices. Of course it was only the R1000 and not the R1000R but for my style of riding, that suits me just fine. I'll never push it along fast enough to justify spending those extra thousands for the RR with its better suspension etc. At that price, who cares..!! I've only ridden it home and then parked her up for the day (37 kms on the clock so far,, the 1st 5 of them were done by the bike shop) but after some lunch, the rest of the afternoon was spent messing/tinkering around with things,, 1st, adjusting that annoying throttle slack out of it because that alone almost spoiled the ride home, as I struggled to get smooth clutch engagement without either almost stalling it or drag race style take-offs from all of the traffic lights, then I checked tyre pressures, oil levels, adjusted front/rear suspension a tiny bit, although they don't provide you a world of tools at all in the GSX-R, do they.? Hey man, I mean two allen keys and that's it, what the heck..!! In the manual they say if you want to adjust the rear shocks pre-load, they'd rather you take it in to your local Suzie dealer, like hell.. I'll look around and see if I can buy a couple of hook spanners. I do not fancy taking a 30 km / 20 mile ride into the city simply to adjust a spring tension, no way..!!

    In that ride home (some street and some motorway), I learned one thing about this GSX-R,, it's a bike that you have to take charge of rather than letting it take charge of you, which it tries to, IMO.. For one thing, it has lightning quick steering. Leaning it even slightly into a rolling semi-fast corner, like exiting the motorway at moderate speed on some interchanges, can result in the bike taking charge and gliding through the corner its own way,, a bit unnerving on the first couple of corners like this, but I imagine that if you were ready for it at this and/or higher speeds, it would be a blessing as it seemed rock steady all through the bend as 'it' pointed 'you' in the right direction. I guess a certain amount of that was also attributable to the Bridgestone RS10's as they look to have quite a well rounded shape across the whole width of the tyre, front and rear, and look as if they're made for fast left/right's in quick succession. In my younger days, I would have loved this. Also, the GSX-R seems to beg to be able to use those ponies hidden away in that engine. Even though I rode home in engine mode C, it still showed signs of enormous power just waiting to get out, especially once you hit about 4000 + rpm. It nearly gave me a heart attack one time. I was adjusting the mirrors on the motorway more than once (not advisable in reasonable traffic). I noticed that I had slowed down a little to approx 75 km/h so I opened the throttle to speed up a bit, the roll on was not quick enough, so I chopped down one, two gears into 3rd and kind of whipped open the throttle and it simply launched into life and slightly whip lashed my head upwards for an instant. Holy sh*t, that was a wicked response man, and I'd say that I hit the speed limit in about a second and a half. No real panic, just a little unexpected - not any more, I now know what to expect. Geez, I gasp at thinking of what it's going to be like in B and A modes. I'll try those next time I get out just to put more mileage on the clock.

    When I first decided to go after a sports bike earlier this year, I really had two bikes in mind. The Honda CBR and the Suzuki GSX-R.. Kawasaki's ZX10 and Yamaha's R1 are a little too extreme for my liking - too aggressive in their seating position for road riding, whereas the Honda and Suzuki were more than acceptable, the GSX-R just edging out the CBR for my sad bag of bones. As it turned out, in the end it was the right deal for me. I am now a very happy guy...

    ManyRevs...

  2. #2
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    28th January 2015 - 16:17
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    Good reading, thanks for posting that.

  3. #3
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    17th June 2010 - 16:44
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    bandit
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    Cool - enjoy
    "So if you meet me, have some sympathy, have some courtesy, have some taste ..."

  4. #4
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    14th July 2006 - 21:39
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    Well done you.

    Given setting up suspension sag with a couple of people is pretty quick it kind of annoys me that you drop $20k plus on a new ride and part of that is not a 15-20 min suspension sag set-up with the dealer.

    Such is life.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    24th November 2015 - 11:20
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    GSX-S1000GT/DR 650
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    Nice work. That's a mint machine you have there - Enjoy.

    As for setting up suspension sag - There's plenty about it on Youtube etc. Get a friend to help you out and you'll be fine.

  6. #6
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    5th January 2007 - 14:58
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    This sag thing is over rated.
    I've worked with some top NZ, BSB & TT superbike racers & never had them request sag measurements once.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    22nd April 2006 - 10:20
    Bike
    Suzuki GSX-R1000 A L8
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    Auckland (Sth)
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    Actually guys I have to say, for me, I felt the suspension was not that bad as it was, and even though it was mostly motorway on the way home, I did go over a few small bumps 'n' lumps on it, especially in and around all these damned roadwork's everywhere on the south side of the city - what a pain in the fundamental orifice.. I purposefully hit some of the rough stuff to test the suspension and at least the front rear match for me was pretty darned good. On one particular bump I got a good bounce but not quite enough to leave the seat,, not quite.. Once we got off the motorway I went around a few rougher streets and even though the suspension was a little stiff for my liking, it seemed to work well.. Once home, I turned the rebound damping on the forks back by the equivalent of one graduation (these forks don't actually have any graduation marks on them) so I put a pencil mark where they were set and then gave each fork a tiny twist back and that was it. At the time I wanted to tone the pre-load down a bit on the rear but I thought I would give the bike a ride in the wild before I made any real adjustments..

    Today, I went for a ride out in the countryside and turned off any main roads in favour of the real stuff. The unnerving feeling I spoke about in the first post of coming into a progressive corner, did actually turn out to be the blessing in disguise as I thought it might be. Just go with the flow and it will see you right.. Entering and coming up to mid corner, don't be scared to tease the throttle a bit to 'almost' put power into the rear wheel and then apply some power at about mid corner and while exiting, and all that unnerving stuff is gone (I always believe that by the time you apex a corner, you should have power going to the rear wheel, just not too much). I cannot believe how good this bike feels on nice tight but flowing corners. On more open longer corners, just pick your power and let the bike take you by the hand. As I thought, you really need to own this bike by putting your input into it during cornering. Roundabouts out in the country are about the only thing the bike felt a little cumbersome on, to me anyway, and I would say mostly because I was a little nervous about really leaning it over on brand new tyres. I am sure this will be gone in due course, but you have to remember one thing, I am no boy racer and I didn't buy the GSX-R to try to become one.. On the whole, I liked the way it handled today and I think rather that going through all the sag testing and setting up, for the meantime, I'll leave it as it is..

    MPG, or should I say kmpl overall is at about 16.5 km per litre, but remember this is run-in time and as yet I haven't even used 6th gear. I've been dancing on the gear lever at every opportunity, up and down,, up and down, going through those gears and not settling on one rev range. I've made sure the tacho too is getting into the same rhythm,, and 'NO' loading up the motor by opening the throttle in higher gears, chop down a gear or two and rev it rather than load it.. So, I am 100% sure that the kmpl will rise in due course. So far I have only put about mid 80's km on the clock but I'm not scared to ride it on short but intense bursts, then let it cool 'til next time - TOMORROW...!!!

    Fun fun fun...

    ManyRevs

  8. #8
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    19th January 2015 - 10:12
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    Enjoy take care .
    Awesome to hear the passion in your words don't let the cops spoil it

  9. #9
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    27th November 2012 - 11:25
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    16' xtz125e super-adventure, Ninja 650
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    rad bike alright nice one! great deal too at the moment!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    22nd April 2006 - 10:20
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    Suzuki GSX-R1000 A L8
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    Auckland (Sth)
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    55
    [ Awesome to hear the passion in your words don't let the cops spoil it ]...
    You know, that's good advice (I mean about the cops) because this is probably the worst time for me to get pulled over,, but to be honest I haven't really been that much faster than the speed limit itself. Just once I had to overtake a milk tanker truck,, boy they are long when you want to get past them,, so I sped up a bit more than the limit, but most of that revving was actually done in the lower gears and with less than 90 kms clocked up, I am revving no more than about up to 6000,, usually a ceiling of about 5000 rpm then changing up and as soon as you get past, change back down to keep those revs up a "bit". That's mostly why I spent little time in 5th and no time in 6th gear in these early days/kms. In my opinion, it's much more important to rev higher in a lower gear than to sit at the speed limit (open road or in town) in top or even any higher gear and revving low. Early kms with high gear and low revs, is how you can turn a silk purse into a sows ear and make the bike run sluggish later in its life. On the other hand, you don't want to rev the guts out of it from mile "one" and have it rattling itself to an early grave.. I've seen this happen in the past, either way, and I've done it too.. The sows ear in my case was when I bought a new Honda VTR1000 at the same time as my brother did too. He rode his a lot better from the time we both picked them up, whereas I was a bit gun shy because I was getting over a major gut surgery a few years earlier, which refused to settle down. I promised myself I would celebrate by getting back on a bike once I was "better". Maybe I jumped the gun just a bit.. Anyway my VTR was a bit of a slugger compared to my brothers a few thousand K's down the line, yet a few years later I bought a big capacity 4 cyl bike, gave it the same sort of run-in I am doing now, and it was a friggin rocket by the time it hit about 3000 km. It used no oil, did great mileage and purred like a happy cat in front of the fire on a cold winters night.. I have run in quite a few new 4 cyl bikes of reasonable capacity (750 - 1000cc) in the past and believe me, there is a good way to run in and a not so good way and you don't have to break the sound barrier doing it. It's all a balance between gear placement and revs,, and nothing to do with speed.. The big secret is to slowly work your way up the rev range, in my opinion. If you want, you can start using higher gears along with more revs but as you mentioned, that's when the cops can appear from nowhere to rain on your parade - your call. The higher gears and higher revs might be a bit challenge with this GSX-R1000 though,, that could equal some very high speeds. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it..

    Once you take it in for that first service you can think about a more normal type of riding and once you get maybe 1500 - 2000 km on the clock, it's time to consider the 'job done' aspect. Ride normally from here.. That's the way I like to do things anyway. It's great to have a rant in here, as this time around, I guess I am quite a bit more excited than usual...

    ManyRevs

  11. #11
    Join Date
    20th June 2011 - 20:27
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    Quote Originally Posted by sidecar bob View Post
    This sag thing is over rated.
    I've worked with some top NZ, BSB & TT superbike racers & never had them request sag measurements once.
    Maybe if they rode em on the road with stock suspension it would be a different story.

    Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
    Quote Originally Posted by Katman View Post
    but once again you proved me wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by cassina View Post
    I was hit by one such driver while remaining in the view of their mirror.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    22nd April 2006 - 10:20
    Bike
    Suzuki GSX-R1000 A L8
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    Auckland (Sth)
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    55
    Progress report,,
    Another small ride yesterday - only three rides to date. Power mode B, TC 3, using lower side of revs, maybe up to 5500'ish rpm max with one or two slightly higher squirts, only using gears 1 to 4 and making sure engine is never loaded up (eg, going uphill in top etc) and always trying to rev within rev range, changing gear as often as possible. Some real power starts pouring on at approx 4700 rpm where it literally wants to take off from under you. Am quite sure that engine has shown mild signs of freeing up, even if it is only slightly. Overall fuel usage is 16.7 km/l, approx 47 mpg, which is pretty good considering the run-in regime I am using at the moment and the fact that the bike has seen 5th gear four or five times and 6th only once (accidentally) so far. The biggest positive so far is that I am getting very used to feeling the way this bike handles and corners, and that's a huge leap forward for me. The bike turns so quickly and can be thrown from side to side as quickly as you can get your mind and body to do it, and along with proper throttle use, a good fast corner exit on the cards. It is capable of being leaned over more than I am at the moment. The Bridgestone RS10's have a huge round profile and are obviously made to be leaned right over when necessary,, "I" on the other hand at my age, am not. That means whatever chicken strip is on the tyre now will probably remain there for a good while yet. Suspension is a little hard for me but amazingly accurate and very good at keeping things on track. Brakes (front brakes anyway) are amazing while rear brakes, like any other bike, may as well not be there. Every now and then I press rear brake pedal down just to try and take the newness out of them, but basically I never use them, although on one super tight bumpy corner, leaned well over, I needed to dodge a stone about the size of an egg which was right on my line and I dared not use any more front brakes, so I actually applied some rear and this helped me to slightly lift up and change the line mid corner and re-lean without any nervousness, so they do serve a purpose some of the time..

    So far, I am getting happier with this extreme bike. It 'IS' all sports and I might have to alter my riding style to suit it...

    ManyRevs

  13. #13
    Join Date
    5th January 2007 - 14:58
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    motocompo
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    Sounds awesome, I banned myself off such bikes some years ago as while i was grown up enough to make that decision, i didnt think i was grown up enough to keep riding that kind of bike
    Sounds like you are happy enough with the set up, & if so leave it alone until or if you find a characteristic you want to tune out
    Dont just mess about with the settings because thats what all the cool kids are doing
    Enjoy.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    20th June 2011 - 20:27
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    Buys a litre bike, worries about fuel economy.
    Quote Originally Posted by Katman View Post
    but once again you proved me wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by cassina View Post
    I was hit by one such driver while remaining in the view of their mirror.

  15. #15
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    24th December 2012 - 21:49
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    Quiet plodder
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    I think I saw one tonight, bike and rider looked good from every angle.

    it took off then I remembered this thread.

    just for interest, what are the lights like at night?

    READ AND UDESTAND

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