Much ado has been made in the media about several of this years crop of sport bikes. The CBR929, Yamaha's R-1 and the RC51, the latter of which debuted hotter than the Silicon Valley housing market. Not one to be out done, Suzuki recently let its new generation thoroughbred out of the gates, hitting your dealers floor this past May, and if you blinked you missed your chance to own what is somewhat of a sleeper hero in the upper ranks of sportbike tackle.
The GSX-R750 is totally in its element on the racetrack, sure, but fear not the open road. In an effort to get to know the 2000 GSX-R 750, I cleared my schedule and immediately knocked off a 350 mile stint hence I can attest to the competence of the GSX-R, with a relatively cushy ride on everything from the Bay Area slabs-o-concrete to the mountain backroads surrounding Yosemite, surprisingly so. Right up until the last 50 miles, which is where it started to turn into an endurance relationship, but that would likely have occurred no matter the mount.

Although I have never personally owned a GSX-R, the rider-motorcycle relationship immediately felt right and most sportbike riders will enjoy a sweet saddle that feels like home. While just tooling around the smiles continue, with the aurally evocative intake sounds produced by the updated SRAD system sort of taunt your right wrist. As I approach the Sierra Nevada range I expected the GSX-R to handle well, and this 2000 incarnation is no disappointment. Suzuki stayed with the same trail figure as last year but went to a 51.4 front wheel weight bias from what was 50/50 and reduced the rear wheel width back down to 5.5 inches. This GSX-R feels so light, turns in so easy, carving through canyons and running ridges you would swear you are not on a 750.

Find some faster sweepers and downhill grades and no nervousness comes on-line. In fact, it remains calm and poised no matter the hijinks inflicted, along with an amazing ability to rise to the occasion, as the harder you push the more this GSX-R hangs tough, the chassis helped out in no small way by the lighter weight and the magic dusted into the engine and electronics. Being able to ride from sea level to 8,000 ft. elevations on this Suzuki with the throttle response steady all the while - that's a nice little bonus.

Riding in and around San Francisco on the GSX-R revealed a machine with more urban savvy than I expected. The bright yellow appearance is a visual eye-catcher, its always nice to be clearly seen by the 'cagers when overtaking and splitting lanes. Strangely enough, Yellow Cab drivers in particular seemed more inclined to yield. In fact, for me the GSX-R proved ideal for commuter duty. With more stopping power available with a couple fingers that you will ever need, and instant power and response on tap for the requisite evasive maneuvers that occur daily, as a rider you feel like you are walking into a knife fight carrying a Smith & Wesson.

The Suzuki sports a digital clock, two trip meters, and you will never fumble around looking for the petcock to switch over to reserve--the nicely done instrument panel keeping a handle on things. This GSX-R is surprisingly comfortable for most any sort of commute distance and I was seeing miles-per-gallon numbers in the 41 to 44 zone, which gives the Suzuki a range of over 200 miles: not too common among sportbikes and much appreciated.

Most fuel-injected bikes have a light, sensitive throttle and your right hand quickly learns to be smooth. Nothing plays havoc with a smooth throttle hand like the nasty potholes and pavement ripples found all around the San Francisco area. I learn to keep the outer third of my right palm off of the throttle tube and on the bar end weight when on bumpy streets as this allows my weight to be shifted onto the bar end and leaves my thumb and forefinger free to rotate the throttle without also being weight bearing. Works for me.

Motorcycles are well represented on Bay Area roads with the climate, the traffic and the scenic highways all paying dividends to those on two wheels of any variety. There are perhaps a larger percentage of Italian motorcycles to be seen here than elsewhere, its been that way for years, and even those riders give me and the Suzuki a nod of approval, its quite a striking design. GSX-Rs have also been quite popular here, since their inception, and old GSX-Rs never die: they are everywhere. Though hardly recognizable sans anything resembling bodywork, San Fran motorcycle dispatch riders seem to appreciate what 10 year old GSX-Rs offer. In addition I think the early edition GSX-Rs have just become eligible for vintage class racing. Go figure. It seems like yesterday, watching Doug Polen out at Sears Point in 1986 on his Kosar Suzuki GSX-R750 doing battle with Bubba Shoberts' VFR, along with the sight of Scott Grays' formidable profile slamming his GSXR around like only a 200 + pound racer can.

For fifteen years Suzuki has been a flag-bearer for sportbikers and club racers everywhere and when this 2000 edition hit the local dealers floors they were snapped up post haste.

I have had the pleasure of riding many variations of the GSX-R. The early 18 inch wheeled 750/1100s that started it all and set the bar for all others back in 1986; the relative misfire with the short stroke slingshot GSX-R750 of 1988; the horsepower happy but heavy 1990 GSX-R1100. By the time I rode the 1998 GSXR 600 and injected GSX-R750, huge leaps forward in chassis integrity and balance were quite evident, and it seemed Suzuki would be hard pressed to improve that package. But improve it they did, in a big way. That somewhat tired cliche of a 750cc machine that handles like a 600 but has the power of a literbike? It's here and it's yours for the asking.

Remember that computer you had 3 years ago? What seemed at the time like blazing processing speed is now somewhat of a chump chip, to put it politely. Similar things are happening on the silicon side of this Suzuki. Processing speed of the CPU in the Electrical Control Module has doubled and memory capacity has increased 300 over the previous system. The ignition for the first time is fully transistorized. The payoff of all this is the ability to process information from the sensors quicker, work off of more sophisticated mapping and deliver more accurate injection control. Ignition timing maps and fuel injection maps are plotted with more variations and detail. Useable power is increased throughout and the improvements to a more seamless and linear throttle response make riding this fuel-injected bike something to look forward to rather than something to cope with. Details like forged pistons, shot-peened rods and 4mm valve stem diameters give not so subtle hints of the commitment made. Add in an increase of four horsepower available over the 1999 machine along with the 28 pound weight savings and we can begin to see how this little ol' 750 has been stepping on the toes of the latest open class sport bikes offered up by the competition.

The 2000 GSX-R is impressive in the speed at which it builds revs, and gets increasingly snappy as they climb. Up in the 10,000 to 14,000 rpm zone, this Suzuki simply takes no prisoners. Racetrack or backroads, no matter the context, there is an definite element of fox-in-the-henhouse, with the GSX-R being so very capable of wrecking havoc, at any given moment and in any company. Please form mental picture of a grinning Aaron Yates. And on that general subject, given Yoshimura's experience with making Superbike winning machinery out of garden variety GSX-Rs you can take it to the bank that Yoshimuras kitchen is a cookin'. It will be interesting to see if Suzuki decides to homologate a 2001 SP level GSX-R with race specific throttle bodies and the like.

Given that we have a major sub-plot in the current sportbike market being the engineering wars between V-twin and in-line four cylinder design, it is heartening to sample the level of refinement that Suzuki brings to one side of the table and a affirmation to all of us that grew up addicted to the wail of an in-line four on song.

The 2000 GSX-R750 provides a basis for which to extrapolate what just might lie on the horizon via siblings in literbike and 600cc incarnations. I officially suggest tinted visors, as Suzuki's future looks that bright.