Editors' Notes
EDITORS' NOTES
I HEREBY NOMINATE THE 2003 GSX R1000 for Best Dual-Purpose bike.
Insane? Well, maybe.
But consider a few points: You can take your D-P bike and jump curbs, powerslide across a median strip and cut through your neighbors' backyards on a ride home from work. But you save these kinds of antics for when you put the bike in its dirty, free-riding ele-
ment, off the highway and far away
from the watchful eyes of the men in blue. It remains a fine streetbike, perfect for commuting, zipping off to the store or Sunday morning roosts on asphalt.
Same goes br the (ISX-RIOUU. You can ride this thing on the street as though you were on a racetrack, drag your knee, wheelie through the gears, effectively triple any posted yel low "suggested" corner-speed signs on a winding road and reach 140 mph in not much more than 10 seconds. But you don't. This bike is so capable that you really have to save its special powers for "off-road" use. Well, most of the time... —Mark Hoyer, Feature Editor
YEARS OF PERFECTING THE GSX-R LINE have yielded yet another incredible motorcycle. There are no huge tweaks to boast about this year, but lots of refinements-such as reduced suspen sion friction, more efficient evacuation of spent gasses, smarter fuel-injection and a GP-inspired frame-all hinted at by the subtly sleek new bodywork.
But there's never been anything subtle about the big GSX-R's performance. No other production bike gives me Superbike delusions or the same feeling of sheer excitement-~on the road or the racetrack. With its Open-class-topping attributes at your command, you have the power to move and stop like noth ing else you can buy off the showroom floor. It's everything one could want in a big-bore sportbike. And now that it's legal in AMA Superbike racing, it's everything a privateer could want in a Superbike, making the delusions more vivid than ever. —Mark Gernicky, Assistant Editor
I ENJOY SPEED CHANNEL COVERAGE OF F-i and CART as much as the next gearhead, but can't begin to imagine what it's like driving one of those open-wheeled wonders. The same bar rier doesn't exist for fans of motorcycle roadracing.
Want a taste of the performance you might feel aboard a factory Superbike? Then turn off the tube and visit your local Suzuki dealer.
The gap between racer and road bike seems to be getting narrower each year. Look for that trend to become even more evident now, with both 1000cc Superbike and MotoGP four-strokes fueling the product planner's fires.
Makes me feel really fortunate to be a sportbike nut in a time of rapid trickle-down technology. Best of all, this level of performance hasn't been priced out of the common man's reach.
The new GSX-R1000 is better than ever, but it's only the beginning. —Don Canet, Road Test Editor
