It was Suzuki who started the whole ‘ hypersports ’ genre , making the first racereplica . In one fell swoop , Suzuki advanced motorcycling and motorcycle racing with its seminal GSX-R750 back in 1985 . Today , the landscape has changed . Sales of race-replicas are at an all time low from their 90s and 00s heyday . So ... the likes of Suzuki are now making sports bikes for the street , rather than the racetrack . Like this one , the GSX-8R . With sales of screaming four-cylinder racereplicas dropping through the floor , bikes such as GSX-8R are not racing homologation-based machines of GSX-R models past , sold to allow them to be raced , they ’ re bikes designed and built for the road . Shall we call them Road Sports ? Ok , good . This the third bike Suzuki has released based around its all-new 800cc parallel twin which debuted last year in the V-Strom 800DE adventure bike . This was followed shortly afterwards by the naked GSX-8S , which I rode last year ( read that test in the link above ) and it ’ s now in the more sporty , fairing clad GSX-8R .
ENGINE Nestled behind the new , sharply-designed fairing panels is Suzuki ’ s 785cc , paralleltwin , 270-degree crank motor , which was developed to replace Suzuki ’ s loved , but ageing , 650cc V-twin and get through more stringent European emissions regulations which are on the way . The 270-degree crank gives an irregular firing order that replicates the feel and sound of a V-twin , but weighs less , costs less and is easier to build an engine around . Keeping vibes at bay ( which are inherent in an engine with kind of uneven firing order ), is a dual balancer system that also acts as a crossbalancer , where the rearward balancer is moved downward from the back of the engine to under the crank , reducing additional vibration with the benefit of making the engine shorter front to back . Suzuki says the engine in the GSX-8R is identical to that in the GSX-8S , making 62kW ( 83hp ) of power and 78Nm of torque . Peak power is at 8500rpm and torque maxes out at 6800rpm .
CHASSIS Being almost identical to the naked 8S version from the steering stem backwards , the 8R shares the same frame , engine , wheels etc .
38 KIWI RIDER