Intro

During our recent visit to Brisbane to cover the Australian Formula Xtreme round at Lakeside we had organized 3 bikes to test – a new GSX-R 750 from Suzuki along with the latest model Yamaha R1 and Honda Fireblade.  We had asked Kawasaki to supply a ZX-9R for comparison but they chose not to do so.  Many thanks to Suzuki for organizing the GSX-R for us in Brisbane, sorry about the shagged tyres and brake pads but at least we cleaned it.  Honda for sending up the same Victorian Fireblade that we used during the model launch back in April and also thanks to Yamaha for shipping the immaculately prepared R1 up from Sydney.

Testers/Mileage

The editor of this electronic mag’, Trevor Hedge, has done all the bike testing so far.  In a bit of a change for MCNEWS.COM.AU we also had Owun Taylor ride the bikes on the track and the road.  Owun has covered the Formula Xtreme Tri-State series for us this year and as an ex-racer and current ‘Stay Upright’ instructor we decided to include his opinions in this comparo.  

Owun rode both the GSX-R and Fireblade at Lakeside while I rode the GSX-R at Queensland Raceway and the Fireblade earlier in the year at Winton.  We spent over 3,000 kilometres aboard the Fireblade earlier this year but Owun was yet to sample the bike so most of his time during the first few days was spent aboard the Fireblade.  This was my first ride on the new GSX-R, so most of my time was spent aboard the Suzuki.  We logged over 2,000 kilometres aboard the GSX-R, 700km this time on the Fireblade and 700km on the R1.  The R1 time was pretty much split down the middle between Owun and myself while I did around 75% of the Suzuki kilometres.  Owun’s opinions on the bikes are immediately below while my ramblings start on page 3.  The images and multimedia are on page 5..

Owun’s bike-by-bike opinion

Yamaha R1 - The City Yamaha guys standard response to people when they ask if the Y2K Yamaha R1 is better than the ’99 model it replaces - “Its just a nicer bike”, there that was simple.

It's true really, the ’99 R1 didn’t have much wrong with it and Yamaha have done a great job of not stuffing the sequel up like Hollywood does with movies.  When I returned the beastie to Yamaha, Editor Trev asked me to sarcastically tell them it needed more power. The look on the guys faces at City Yamaha said either you are motorcycle riding God, a complete wanker or taking the piss big time.   They probably just decided that we are complete wankers.

Trev and I stopped at a set of traffic lights just short of Lakeside raceway and he finally let me swap the GSXR for a go on the R1. There is a huge difference in the feel of the R1 to the GSXR/Fireblade. I thought I’d left my tank bag on the seat because I was sitting so high and the handle bars take a bit of getting used as well.

If you have ever ridded a hotted-up 1980’s bike, the kind that normally got fitted with those big fat foam grips, well that's what it felt like to me. They also have the feeling that they have been fitted on the wrong sides, or pushed too far forwards, weird feeling for me.

Anyway back to the traffic lights and Trev has pissed off whilst waving the Suzooks front wheel at oncoming traffic (he thinks Shell put Viagra in the petrol & that’s why it pops up all the time), I made it just across to the other side of the lights before the front Dunlop popped right up in front of me. If you like to wheelie really easily, get an R1, it did wonders for me.

I can’t say how the R1 street bike tackles the track because we got it a day late for track testing but Michael Thomas (the winner of the F/Xtreme R1 in ’99) races a fairly standard R1 with good results. 

I did have trouble getting the blue beastie to shift from 1^st to 2^nd  & 2^nd to 3^rd when the noise needle (tacho) got up to near red line. I had to let the revs die right down before it would clunk into gear. This only occurred when I was trying to do race type starts at an airfield and would (should) not affect you when popping to the shops. How Kevin Curtain gets the Radars machine off the line without turning himself inside out I’ll never know.

The Yammy has the looks to make small kids run to their parents screaming. I could sit and look at the aggressive lines all day (although its more fun from behind the handle bars).  The exhaust can has to be the best looking standard can I have seen, you’d have to be mad or hard of hearing to want to change this Titanium piece of art. As your relationship grows with the bike, so does the colour of the can.......nice..

Brakes, yep it got them. But I didn’t like the way they clamp so hard on the dinner plate size brake discs. I tried a bit of lever adjustment but that seems to be the way they are, still mustn’t grumble. 

It’s a sports bike and if you need to take a bag with you ring your mate with the BMW, the blue beast provided me with 10 minutes of creative ocky strapping before I was happy, the rear foot pegs was the only place I could safely attach them to.

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