Motorcycle of the year- Mehdi Asghari

Motorcycle of the Year
Suzuki GSX-R1000
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Photography: Kevin Wing


You've heard it from your Mom, your guidance counselor, your significant other and your Sunday-school teacher: Can't have everything. Step away from the Krispy Kremes. Finish your cauliflower. Go wax the minivan. Evidently, nobody told any of this to the brain trust responsible for Suzuki's 2003 GSX-R1000. For the sportbike aficionado with sufficient skills and cranial composure, the price of having it all is currently $10,499, plus tax, license and dealer prep.

Check this: The latest GSX-R1000's 444-pound wet weight is exactly one pound less than a CBR600RR. While you're letting that sink in, consider that the 152 rear-wheel horses thundering forth at 11,000 rpm outnumber the output of all but Suzuki's 162-horse Hayabusa and Kawasaki's 161-horsepower ZX-12R, both of which outweigh the GSX-R by more than 100 pounds. Still, the big-picture implications are bigger than the 2.9 pounds of GSX-R pushed by each one of those horses.

The previous-generation GSX-R1000 was also a beast. It was a little rough around the edges, too. A raft of subtle and major changes makes its heir more formidable and much easier to live with. Handling from the revamped aluminum chassis is predictably agile. Suspension is more compliant at both ends. Radial-mount four-pad calipers make the brakes as good at eliminating speed as the engine is at creating it. Massaged engine internals cut friction and pumping losses to let the 998cc four spin up faster than anything breathing through 16 valves. Whiners will find little to whine about here.