CCM ARCHIVES: GSX-R1100 v GSX-R1000 by Michael Neeves

Same track, same corner, same riders… two weeks and three seconds apart. But which bike’s faster?

Fifth session in and it’s fair to say I’ve got to grips with Suzuki’s long awaited GSX-R1000R, here at its world launch at Phillip Island.

With mid-summer tarmac sizzling away under my wheels Suzuki’s new superbike feels sensational. Cresting the rise that swoops down into the fearsome, fourth gear Doohan the screaming GSX-R1000R shows an indicated 180mph. Snick down two clutchless gears, letting the slick auto-blipper do its thing. A whiff of 21st century radial Brembo, a gentle nudge of the bars and we’ve hit the apex at full lean, 120bhp stability.

A quick squirt of full throttle power to Southern Loop happens without a thought as electronics keep you in a controlled drift. Back down another gear and feed it around this long corner, enjoying the feel and precision of the new chassis, before unleashing hell again down towards Stoner Corner. Electronics take care of the impending wheelie and with Stoner’s handled neatly, but with none of the style of the sideways style of the man himself.

Hard on the brakes for the slow second gear Honda Corner and the GSX-R1000R stops obediently, brake lever gently pulsing as the ABS senses a front wheel lock-up. From here through Sibera, the Hayshed, Lukey Heights and MG any chance to pin the ride-by-wire throttle to the stop is taken. The Suzuki spears forward with the magic hand of electronics helping you along.

Suzuki’s silicone chips stop tyre spin turning into a catastrophe, save the effort of controlling wheelie and slicing up and down through the box, leaving you the brain power to saving you skin to pick the perfect lines through this amazing track.

Turn 12 is the final one leading back on to the straight. It’s one-handed tyre smoking Melandri corner. It seems to go on forever, overheats tyres and shreds them. Bridgestone’s R10 trackday tyres do their best to hang on (and do a much better job than the standard RS10 tyres), but full lean and 199bhp is too much for them. But it’s hello traction control again and instead of worrying what Australian hospital food might taste like the electronics hold you in a fourth gear slide all the way to the bright blue and white exit kerb and a view down to the track to the sparkling blue Bass Straight ahead.

I’d raced here the week before on the Carl Cox Motorsport Suzuki GSX-R1100 at the Island Classic – the third time I’ve competed in this super event. That old ’89 ‘7/11 hybrid is 20mph slower down the straight, feels more raw, has a strange frame and none of the electronics that make the new GSX-R1000 so safe and easy to ride.

I would’ve put good money on guessing I’d be faster on the new Suzuki than the old one, but there’s three seconds in it, in favour of the classic. GSX-R1100 1:40.6, GSX-R1000R 1:43.4. How can that be?

It goes to show that having big power isn’t everything and electronics aren’t a one-way ticket to blistering lap times, either. But we kind of know that already. We’ve tested an R1 against an H2 at Rockingham and the supercharged missile was three seconds slower on the same tyres.

BSB’s lap times have barely changed in a decade despite the bikes getting faster and at places like Phillip Island and Jerez, WSB bikes go just as fast as more powerful MotoGP bikes (but really top factory superbikes are just as prototype as Grand Prix missiles). Over the past few seasons a good rider on a Blade can keep up with 200bhp S1000RRs and ZX-10Rs, despite a complete lack of electronics.

Sure you need a decent amount of power to demolish straights. Phillip Island might have a flat in top straight, but the rest of it, like most tracks is mostly curves, corners, kinks, hairpins and chicanes. It’s here where you need grip, handling and steering to give the rider the tools and confidence to go fast. A sweet handling, grippy bike doesn’t need big bhp or silicone implants.

That old GSX-R1100 might look antiquated, is 50bhp down and revs-up slower than the shiny new model, but it’s around 15kg lighter and devoid of any road flab, it’s crisper and easier to feel the tyres through suspension that doesn’t have to be soft and comfortable. There’s no traction control to bail you out or anti-wheelie, but it doesn’t have excessive power to need it in the first place. Brakes are more tactile, powerful and consistent without modern brake-by-wire and intrusive ABS.

And then there’s the tyres. Racing slicks beat treaded trackday rubber – just looking at the lean angle of the pictures tells you everything you need to know about the faster bike.  

Of course the rider’s mentality has a lot to do with it. When I raced the GSX-R1100 I was trying to win and accepted the red mist risk that I might crash. I trailed the brakes for longer into the corners, leaned over further and hit the throttle harder.

You can all the on-track training in the world, but nothing makes you fast like racing.

Testing the GSX-R1000R riding anywhere near falling off is totally out of the question when there’s a stack of empty pages to fill that night to keep a nervous production editor happy and printing press ready and waiting.

So despite the cutting-edge Suzuki making more power it’s a road bike, ridden with a trackday mentality. Convert it to a racer and switch the rider’s brain back into race mode and it would eat the GSX-R1100 alive.

Verdict

Our comparison proves that while you need a lot of power to lap quickly around a circuit, you don’t need that much of it. More important having a bike with as little flab as possible, pinsharp handling, light steering, lots of grip and a rider with the right mindset.