Apocalypse Now!
APOCALYPSE NOW!
SPECIAL SECTION: SUPERBIKES '04
Quoting scripture as the lead-in to a sportbike comparison? Has it really gotten that serious? Sometimes, it seems as though it has...
Consider the players, and what the makers of those players have on the line. Used to be racing rules let a factory team make a good bike into a great one, but with today’s emphasis on production racing, even the top-level Superbike class is fairly restrictive. The only way to end up with a great racebike, then, is to start with a great streetbike. And if you want to sell those streetbikes on Monday, the racing version had better have won on Sunday.
Which brings us to the quartet shown here. Like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, these four Superbikes arrived one at a time, seemingly from the ends of the Earth. Japan, anyway. First came the Suzuki GSX-R10OO, unchanged from its update last year, and still wearing the Best Superbike crown that it’s owned since its 2001 debut. Then came the new-for’04 Kawasaki ZX-10R , followed in short order by the brandspankin’ Honda CBR1000RR. Road Test Editor Don Canet rode the two bikes days apart in Florida and Arizona (“Jet Set,” CW, March), and speculated that both had a legitimate shot at unseating the Suzuki. When we got a Honda testbike in-house, it did just that in a Mini-Shootout at The Streets of Willow (CW, April). But just one month later, Canet had a chance to ride the totally revised Yamaha YZF-R1 in Australia, and proclaimed that it, too, was on pace. Then, just days before that issue’s deadline, we got a Kawasaki testbike in-house, and its dyno and dragstrip numbers surpassed all of its competitorsJo date. When we finally got an R1 testbike in time for this issue, the Four Horses were assembled for the final showdown.
What to do with them, though, that was the question. Given that this was the first time each of the Big Four manufacturers had a competitive Superbike, we were naturally drawn to the racetrack, but we didn't want to pick a winner based solely on lap times. Ditto the dragstrip: Having the quickest ET is great for bragging rights, but it doesn’t mean much in the real world. Which, after all, is where these bikes will be ridden.
So we concocted an elaborate plan wherein we would subdivide this comparison, picking separate winners based on their racetrack, dragstrip and street performance, plus a technical inspection and, as a final wild card, their race results at Daytona. With four bikes and five categories, elementary mathematics would suggest that one bike would have to win two or more times, thus making it the Best Superbike of 2004.
A simple plan, barring rain, mechanical problems or crashes, and for once the heavens smiled on us, blessing us with unseasonably warm weather and incident-free testing. For that, we were thankful: With these four Superbikes having remarkably similar capabilities, picking a winner was already going to be hell...
It’s the end of the world as we know it for Open-class sportbikes
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, 1 heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an Ashen Horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. -REVELATION 6:7-8
