A Gsx-R Timeline

A GSX-R TIMELINE

Checkered Past

Four letters and an oft-misplaced hyphen, to a generation of sportbike enthusiasts, stand in for the whole: GSX-R. Launched—almost literally when you consider it induced a Saturn V-like awe—in 1985 from a company better known for its durable and conservative designs, the GSX-R sent the popularity of hard-core sportbikes (of which there was then actually one) and Suzuki straight into orbit. Where it has stayed. For the last decade, the GSX-R has been Suzuki's best-selling model line by a mile and a vol ume leader among all sportbikes. The road from there to here has not been a perfect ribbon of fresh black asphalt, it's true, but even the GSX-R's Elvis Years were entertaining. -Marc Cook

1983 GS75OE/ES The fact that the conservative GS750 line shares nothing with the GSX-Rs is significant. Etsuo Yokouchi (left, below), father of the GSX-R, tasked his engineering team to determine which parts of the GS series never broke in testing-almost all of them, it turns out. From this simple idea, married to the belief that a motorcycle developed for the racetrack would provide uncomplicated, undiluted high performance for the street-amazingly, not obvi ous to other manufacturers at the time-emerged a design ethos that has underpinned every great GSX-R produced.

1985 GSX-R750 The first example (top). Brilliant, daring, more tightly focused than any mass-produced Japanese bike up to then. Simply put, an epochal motorcycle that even tually forced much larger companies (read: Honda) to turn around and recognize the value of racetrack-based performance. It was 20 percent lighter (388 pounds) than its competition, with 20 percent more power (106 claimed hp). Can't beat that.

December 1985 On the eve of the GSX-R750's introduction to the JJ.S. market, Cycle World orchestrates a 24-hour speed record attempt ising two utterly stock GSX-R750s. Long story short: Both bikes fin Ished and set 12 FIM world records, including the 24-hour mark, clock jng a 128.303-mph average, whipping the old record by an embarrass g 11 mph. In fact, that record was set not just for 750s, but for all otorcycles. Amazing.

986 GSX-R 1100 Brought to the Americas along with the 750 (in its second year elsewhere), the 1100 traded the 750's lithe demeanor for brute force. No motorcycle was as effortlessly fast in `86. The hooli gan's tool of choice. 128 horsepower and 433 pounds.

1988 GSX-R750 The short-stroke 750 (right) was one of Suzuki's rare missteps with the GSX-R line. Thinking that racing expe~ence would again translate to the street, the company unleashed a short-tempered, peaky streetbike that wasn't a lot better as a pure racer. 112 horsepower and 429 pounds.

1983 1985 1986 1988 1992 1996 2000 2001 2004 2005 2006 2009

1992 GSX-R750 (Left) This might be recalled as the period where Suzuki's engineers were overruled by the marketing department, which called for liquid-cooling to follow its competition. A genera tion of overweight-though powerful-GSX-Rs ensued. 116 horse power and 458 pounds.

1996 GSX-R750 It took Suzuki through Bill Clinton's first term to return to the light is-right philosophy, but it did so in stunning fashion for 1996. The updated 750 was tiny, fast and facile just as the rest of the sportbike world (with the exception of the Honda CBR900RR) was letting out its belt. 130 horsepower, 395 pounds.

2000 GSX-R750 (Right) In the new millennium, this was essentially the sole inhabitant of the 750 sportbike class. Yet even with the writing on the wall for Superbikes to move to a full liter, Suzuki uncorked one of the lightest, most surgically accurate sportbikes ever built. No part of the GSX-R was spared the chisel and file to create a 365-pound, 140-hp beast.

2001 GSX-R1 000 (Left) Quite simply, the beginning of the end for all other Y2K full-liter sportbikes-a compact, powerful engine almost literally dropped into a 750-sized package. Beat everyone in terms of low claimed weight (374 pounds, said the brochure), high power (a claimed 160, a real-world 150 at the rear wheel) and maximum drama.

2004 GSX-R75o (Right) Racing no longer required a homologation 750, but Suzuki reworked the 600/750 brothers in near-perfect harmony. In July of 2004, CW posed the question: "Might this, biking's last 750cc repli-racer, be the finest sportbike in the world?"

2005 GSX-R1 000 (Left) The K5 marked the first time Suzuki allowed the 1000 truly distinct styling and chassis components. (Yes, the 2003-04 GSX-R1 000 was separated from the 600/750, but only incrementally.) Arguably, this was one of the handsomest GSX-Rs built, even if the geometrically curious exhaust offended a few purists.

2006 GSX-R600 Finally breaking with tradition that insisted the 600 and 750 share a chassis optimized for the 750, the 2006 GSX-R600 took the development lead. This light, strong, nimble motor cycle exacted some compromises on the 750, though they were minor enough that the three-quarter-liter model remained the enthusiast's favorite.

2009 GSX-R1 000 (Right) Still blue and-white and light after all these years. All-new design for `09, the Big Gixxer's 24th model year.

For the past 23 years, Marc Cook has been writing about his favorite internal-combustion passions, motorcycles and airplanes. He also is the man who, quite literally, wrote the book on GSX-Rs. His 192-page hardcover treatise, Suzuki GSX-R: A Legacy of Performance, is available at shop.cycleworld.com.

983 1985 1986 1988 1992 1996 2000 2001 2004 2005 2006 200C