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Saturday, 08 September 2001 |
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Drippy Words by Mike Emery ~ Photo's by Soggy Nikon 990
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| When you’re young you can sometimes get into trouble. You always run the risk of running with bad company. Youngsters need a steadying influence, an influence that sometimes comes in the form of an older or bigger sibling. Take the venerable “Gixxer” 750. Revamped in 2000 with a muscular engine rebuild, it’s got into one or two scraps on the open road since it’s introduction, with Yamaha’s R1. Hardly seems fair really considering the Yam’s enjoying an extra 250cc and the corresponding abundance of torque. Now, the 750 has not exactly taken a beating from the big open class Yam’ especially with an experienced rider on board, but it still needed a little help and guidance. |
| Enter the new 1000. Flexing considerable muscle in both the engine and chassis departments and coming from excellent heritage to boot. This was the bike that the Suzuki lovers were waiting for. To label this new bike a big sledgehammer with hit and run tendencies is a crime, but it certainly packs huge clout to back up the young and feisty little brother, the 750. |  |
| I was hoping to bag a Yamaha R1 before this test to acclimatize myself with the brute force of an open class bike. In retrospect, the plane ride here was enough. Fast, smooth and comfortable. Bit tight in the legroom department, but undeniably fast. Me biased towards the R1? Nah… |
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| I must admit the hype surrounding the Suzuki was music to a street boy like me. I’d heard big BHP figures bounced around the rumor fill Internet land. I was smacking my lips in delicious anticipation. Due to my late admission into editorial duties for 2wf, I’d missed the boat for the initial December Atlanta intro. I’d seen the wheelies, read about the back straight speeds and heard about the crashes. I was anxious to experience the same (bar the crashing) and that nice chap from Suzuki, Mark Reese had promised me a personal demo ride if I made the trek from Disney World to Disneyland. Now, hearing about the legendary combination of great roads and weather, I considered it a perfect opportunity to stretch some Suzuki throttle cables and it had a definite advantage over the cold and damp Road Atlanta circuit. Little did I know... |
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