Gsx-R600
CW RIDING IMPRESSION
GSX-R600
Misano Masterpiece
MATTHEW MILES
LEGENDARY GREEN BAY PACKERS head coach Vince Lombardi, winner of six division titles, five NFL championships and two Super Bowls, and revered for his ability to motivate players, is often quoted as having said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” It’s the sort of statement that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end, regardless of whether Lombardi ever really said it.
It’s also the design philosophy behind the 2004 Suzuki GSX-R600, an all-new, no-excuses machine that is alleged to be like nothing else in its class, with performance features right out of the factory racing department. Talk about making the hair on the back of your neck stand on end...
Of course, Suzuki already knows how to win in the hotly contested middleweight repli-racer category. Just two years ago, Aaron Yates took home the AMA 600cc Supersport title on his Yoshimura-prepped GSX-R600. But his success was short-lived. Last season, with the Georgia native’s attention focused on Superbike, teenage-sensation Ben Spies was thrust into the role of Suzuki's lead Supersport pilot. Facing brand-new hardware from Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha, he scored one win and had seven top-five placings, but finished ninth overall. More problematic, at least from a consumer standpoint, the three-year-old bike looked dated.
Back to the drawing board? Exactly, which is how I found myself in Italy this past January at the Autódromo Internazionale di Misano Adriático. Suzuki claims the new Gixxer Six has the most torque, the lowest dry weight and the best power-to-weight ratio in its class. Given its direct competition-the Honda CBR600RR, Kawasaki ZX-6RR (with more power for ’04) and the CW Ten Best-winning and reigning AMA 600cc Supersport champ Yamaha YZFR6-thaf s saying something.
Reaching the aforementioned goals required careful, coordinated work, as was revealed in the morning technical briefing held in Misano’s upstairs press room. The stacked headlights, for example, look cool, but more importantly allowed the intake ducts for the Suzuki Ram Air Direct (SRAD) system be to located closer to the fairing centerline and the point of highest air pressure for greater intake charging efficiency. So, the fairing could be nearly 2 inches narrower. Similarly, saving 350 grams by integrating the cylinder block with the upper crankcase or 70 grams by routing the oil lines internally or 80 grams by shortening the new, narrow-valve-angle cylinder head may seem trivial, but put together helped offset the heavier inverted 43mm fork and braced swingarm. As a result, claimed dry weight is 354 pounds, a reduction of more than 4 pounds. All those grams add up.
Finding more power wasn’t easy, either. Upping displacement wasn’t an option-never mind the 636cc Kawasaki ZX6R-SO Suzuki went about eliminating sources of unnecessary frictional and pumping losses. Lighter moving parts, including flat-top pistons with thinner walls and cut-down skirts, shorter connecting rods and titanium valves (see sidebar), reduced reciprocating mass by 5 percent and pushed maximum engine speed to 15,500 rpm, a 1350-rpm increase. Adding cylinder-to-cylinder ventilation holes, cutting crank journal diameter by 2mm and slightly bumping compression resulted in a claimed 3 percent gain in top-end torque.
With all this information churning about in our heads, we were directed to pit lane, where a dozen examples of the new model were neatly lined up and idling away, each accompanied by its own mechanic. All of the bikes were European-spec, we were told, meaning they were fitted with in-muffler exhaust catalyzers and Bridgestone BT-014 radiais; U.S. models will do without the catalyzer and be shod with Dunlop D218s.
According to the Bridgestone representatives, track temperature was a chilly 4 degrees Celsius, or 39 degrees Fahrenheit. At least it wasn’t snowing; just across the Adriatic, in Athens, the Acropolis was covered in a fresh layer of the white stuff. No wonder the Japanese and European staff was bundled up in matching blue-and-white parkas! Shivering inside my perforated leathers, I secretly wished Suzuki hadn’t paid quite as much attention to reducing the width of the GSX-R’s fairing; the added wind protection would certainly be missed on Misano’s triple-digit back straight!
With factory test rider Atsushi Murata in the lead, we headed out onto the track for four laps of orientation. Exiting pit lane, we transitioned onto the final third of the front straightaway and into Tum 1, the same comer where, during the 1993 Italian Grand Prix, Wayne Rainey crashed while chasing his fourth 500cc world title and tragically was paralyzed.
A short straight followed by a fast right leads into a slow left, after which a trio of increasingly faster left-handers opens onto the back straightaway. Ben Bostrom, a winner at Misano in World Superbike, has called this section the best in racing.
The remaining two lefts, a right and a pair of chicanes complete a fun, flowing circuit that requires equal parts acceleration, braking and handling. A good venue, in other words, for shaking down a hard-edged sportbike such as the new GSX-R. With a basic idea of which way the track twists and turns, we were shuttled back to the pits, then turned loose for the first of six 30minute sessions over two days.
Despite the cold, the tires seemed to wann quickly, and within a few laps I began to step up the pace. During that first session, I came away with two impressions about the bike:
1 ) Steering is light and neutral; and 2) the new radial-mount front brakes are extremely powerful.
In years past, when the GSX-R750 served as the basis for Suzuki’s AMA Superbike effort, the GSX-R600 was fundamentally a smaller-bore version of the 750. Now, with the emphasis in Superbike shifting to lOOOcc machines, engineers were able to focus on the 600. Call it a “trickle-up” effect.
A new aluminum frame combines a steeper head angle (23.3 vs. 24.0 degrees) and less trail (3.6 vs. 3.7 inches) with taller, narrower spars, which are divided into two internal sections by a reinforcing rib. The cast/extruded swingarm is also brand-new, but its main sections are the same height, length and width as before. Wheelbase, at 55.1 inches, is also unchanged.
Turn-in requires less muscle than before, yet high-speed stability remains excellent (as in the past, a non-adjustable steering damper is standard). The chassis responds well to small suspension adjustments; just a half-turn of rebound damping up front, for instance, made a noticeable difference. It will be interesting to see how the bike performs on the OE-fitment Dunlops back in the States.
Arguably the greatest improvement comes from the new front brakes. Straight off the GSX-R 1000, the massive fourpiston Tokico calipers are mounted radially for greater rigidity, and in turn improved feel and efficiency. A Nissin radial master cylinder not found on the liter-bike further enhances feel.
On the street, a single finger is generally all that’s needed to quickly stop a conventionally braked modem sportbike. On the track, however, one digit usually doesn’t cut it. This was my thinking as I flew toward the braking zone at the end of the back straight. Imagine my surprise, then, when I two-fingered the lever and promptly locked the front wheel-at an indicated 240 kph, or 149 mph! Amazing.
More progress comes in the form of the downsized gas tank. Because it is a half-inch shorter and more than an inch narrower where it meets your knees, the tank seemed to disappear between my legs, not to mention the benefits of enhanced forward weight bias.
By mid-afternoon, we’d made more than 40 laps of the circuit without a single mishap, much to the delight of our hosts. After changing out of our leathers, we hopped into our rented Fiat Ducato (shame this roomy and highly usable bike/people-hauler isn’t imported to the U.S.) and made our way back to Rimini and the beautiful and imposing Grand Hotel, setting for the Federico Fellini film, Amarcord.
The next morning, we once again assembled in the press room, where sportbike product-planner Norihiro Suzuki took roll.
“U.S.?” “Here.” “Canada?” “Present.” “Denmark?” “Here.” “Hungary?” “No, thanks,” wisecracked one writer. “1 just ate breakfast.”
Having learned my way around the track the previous day, I was able to better concentrate on the bike, particularly its engine. According to motor-man Hiroshi lio, the compact powerplant now produces 118 horsepower (6 bhp more with ram-air) and 51 foot-pounds of torque, a gain of 5 bhp and 1.4 ft.lbs. Will it be enough to put the GSX-R on par with the class powerhouses, the CBR600RR and ZX-6R?
One thing’s for certain: There’s good torque from as “low” as 9000 rpm, enough in fact to lighten the front wheel under acceleration in the bottom gears. Also, the old highrpm step in the powerband is gone, replaced by a far more linear curve. Intake noise is just as menacing, and surprisingly reminiscent of a MotoGP bike. If only the exhaust note sounded as good...
In general, the engine is very smooth, maybe best in class in that regard. And the gearbox is faultless. Thumbs-up, also, to the upgraded fuel-injection system. The new dual double-barrel throttle bodies are simpler and lighter, and are complemented by multi-hole injectors, and an upgraded ECU and signal generator. Response is immediate. Opening the light-effort throttle completely, however, takes a big twist and then some.
For me, the high point of the event came during the sixth and final track session. Accelerating out of the final lefthander leading onto the back straight, the tachometer needle rushing past 15,000 rpm and my knee skimming the pavement, I took aim at the outside edge of the track. On previous laps, I’d bumped into the rev-limiter just as I’d reached my braking marker at the end of the back straightaway. This time, however, having gotten a better drive out of the last comer, I was able to upshift into sixth. Going for the brakes, I pulled on the lever a tad harder than in past laps, and lifted the rear tire off the deck-with one finger!
Not so long ago, that type of move was reserved for GP stars. Even more compelling, several journalists in attendance cut laps within 10 seconds of last year's World Supersport fast qualifier-on a cold day with street tires.
Suzuki hasn’t taken any risks or ushered in any technical advancement with the GSX-R600. Gas isn’t stored in the frame or under the seat. Styling doesn’t mimic the revised (again) GSV-R MotoGP racer. And in a world where underseat exhausts are all the rage, the GSX-R makes do with a conventional muffler, albeit with a slash-cut tip. At the end of the day, this is a motorcycle that is state of the art. No more, no less.
Yet it performs wonderfully. Danish journalist and Supersport competitor Anders Rasmussen put it best when at the end of testing he quietly asked if anyone found any shortcomings with the bike. “I’ve got to race a Kawasaki this year,” he said, shaking his head ruefully. “But I’d much rather be on this GSX-R.” □
