Suzuki GSX-R600 2000

It was beautiful to watch, like an artist expertly brushing an image of innate beauty over his canvas - although such a peaceful metaphor fails to convey the adrenalin-charged action of the scene which was being played out before me...

I had just exited the flat-out and flowing right-hand sweeper at the end of the back straight of America's Road Atlanta circuit, where once again I was to come face-to-face with a downhill slope ending in a tight left-right chicane.

I was still taking in the many nuances of the challenging and varied circuit, and on this particular patch of track I was busying myself with braking later than ever before - hopefully without overshooting the corner and embarrassing myself on an international scale, given the American, Canadian and Japanese journos in attendance.

'Not too bad,' I thought to myself as the screaming motorcycle beneath me pulled up abruptly, tyres squirming under the load and uncharacteristically hot autumn conditions.

But then a yellow blur flashed past my right shoulder at a phaarkin'ell kind of a pace, before peeling into the flip-flop, rocketing from full lean to full lean with the grace of an Olympic gymnast.

I'd just been mugged by Yoshimura Suzuki ace Aaron Yates - who'd grabbed third in this year's AMA Superbike Championship - who like me was getting to grips with the latest evolutionary offering from the marque in its Supersport category. He was obviously enjoying the fruits of the company's labours.

If I was seeing around 145mph (232kmh) on the clock before throwing out the anchors, I would have loved to have known what speed Aaron had been doing, not that he would have been dilly-dallying like me enough to glance down to the instruments.

It's gonna be good
After the noon-time introductory presentation was made by American Suzuki, Aaron confirmed the smile on his dial was for good reason. "I felt it was a little stronger than the bike I raced this year," he said in his soft, Georgian drawl. "I'm confident this thing's gonna be good, real good," he added.

The 600's history is the shortest in the GSX-R range, the smallest of the trio only having been in existence since 1997, as opposed to 1985 and 1986 for the GSX-R750 and GSX-R1100 respectively. In those four years the bike earned itself a solid reputation on the racetrack, achieving considerable success in both regional and international championships.

On the streets, the 600cc Supersport category was more hotly contested than ever before, with Honda's CBR600 and Kawasaki's ZX-6R providing the main competition, with Yamaha's YZF-R6 causing a sensation in itself with its introduction in 1999. Suzuki was not going to be able to rest on its laurels.

Ground up update
So now, in 2000, we have our first peek at the machine's 2001-spec successor - a bike Suzuki hopes will go on to dominate its class, just as it hopes its new GSX-R1000 will rocket to the pointy end of the litre-class field when it's released next year.

Key points to the GSX-R600's revision are the addition of electronic fuel injection (dispensing with the bank of four Mikuni 36mm carbs on this year's model), a redesigned chassis and engine/airbox resulting in a claimed shaving of 11kg and 4.5 percent more power over this year's model, plus restyled bodywork and decals to give the 2001 model a fresh new look.

After a day where the tracktime was limited purely by how much you could take, I can surely say the above-mentioned points have made quite an impact - I was having a ball piloting this machine around the 4km circuit, a track unlike anything you'll find in Australia due to the extreme elevations over which its hotmix has been laid.

Road Atlanta is one of the more popular rounds among riders of the AMA Superbike and Supersport series, and I can easily understand why. Lined with tall deciduous trees (which were turning many spectacular shades of gold, red, orange and brown with the northern hemisphere's fall), this picturesque track features various chicanes, blind corners, straights, fast sweepers and slow corners. It'd be a top layout even if it was dead flat, but following the 'over hill and under dale' undulations as it does, it's just pure magic.

Free spinning
The track throws a bit of everything at rider and machine, and the light and agile GSX-R was lapping it up with fervour.

The testbike was feeling decidedly strong, but we're really going to have to wait until we can throw a 600 on the dyno to really separate the fact from fiction, and see whether that claim of extra oomph holds water.

The 599cc, liquid-cooled in-line four powerplant spins up freely and easily from around 3000rpm (where its usable power comes in), right up to its stratospheric 14,500rpm redline - and believe me, that tacho needle sweeping rapidly through its arc towards a date with the upper echelons of the rev range is a sight you get used to very quickly!

Suzuki is remaining tight-lipped when it comes to actual maximum horsepower and torque figures for the new machine, but based on Suzuki's 4.5 percent and the 2000-spec machine figures, this would give maximums of 110ps at 12,000rpm, and 6.7kg-m at 10,000rpm.

Perhaps more impressive again is the new GSX-R's power delivery, with the advantage of its new electronic fuel injection system allowing a power curve to be mapped out which has seen your typical Supersport powerband largely dispensed with.

I was expecting to be revving the ring off the thing to keep it on the boil, but quickly found the Suzi adapted well to a lazy approach on the throttle and gearbox, fortunate given my somewhat compromised bodily systems.

The power is put down in a remarkably linear fashion, with the predominant characteristic simply being that the higher the revs rise, the stronger the bike feels. The power tails off a little in the last couple of thousand, but certainly not significantly.

The efi gives the Suzuki a wonderfully crisp throttle response, virtually instantaneous without the need to devote all your concentration to keeping proceedings smooth.

Around the track, the bike was generally feeling its best in the five-figure rev range, where it was spending most of its time around the tighter sections of the course, but should you drop below this you'll find you're not punished for the lapse in concentration - a fact yours very crookly was enjoying immensely.

Light and Responsive
The clutch - like all the controls on the bike - was light and responsive, with bugger-all pressure needed on the lever and the power being fed to the back wheel in a progressive manner, this year's bike featuring different compound clutch plates and different clutch springs.

The six-speed gearbox found in the bike is the same semi-cassette type unit found in the 2000 bike, and is truly one of the best.

Typical Suzuki, the 'box's action is slick and accurate, necessitating the clutch as simply a device to get the whole plot rolling from a standstill - it's that good.

The brakes were truly first-rate, and proved themselves over the testing circuit time and time again, giving me the confidence to tackle braking later and later as each lap passed under the wheels.

The front brakes are four-piston Tokicos, just like those found on this year's bike, but the caliper pistons are now constructed from aluminum alloy instead of steel, reducing the total front caliper weight by 216g.

Furthering Suzuki's commitment to shaving weight off the bike wherever possible, 14g has been taken from each front disc, by adding a groove on each disc's outside surface.

Under the microscope
The chassis is one thing which certainly went under the microscope when it came to the development of the 2001 model, and the new machine now sports a host of weight savings and new dimensions.

Out on the track, the GSX-R immediately impressed in the handling stakes, due not insignificantly to its low weight. Suzuki is claiming a dry weight of 163kg for the new GSX-R, and the ease with which the thing can be flicked from side to side is truly incredible - a fact borne out by Road Atlanta's various chicanes.

The whole plot feels rigid and stiff, the chassis providing the perfect environment from which the 45mm Showa front forks and rear shock can do their thing. Both the forks and the shock have been updated, each now packing a variety of changes aimed at delivering a better ride, with around 500g of weight saved on both units.

Great package
The suspension tops off a great all-round chassis package on the new GSX-R, delivering a compliant ride which soaked up Road Atlanta's many bumps well, and after a few tweaks here and there by awaiting American Suzuki staff, extremely well.

The stability of the bike is what you would expect of a what is essentially an agile racebike with lights - adequate but lively. I experienced a few shakes of the head here and there while at speed over some of the more dimpled sections of track, but in each case the bike would settle itself down of its own accord, never causing more than a slightly raised eyebrow.

Rake and trail remain unchanged from the 2000-spec machine, but it will have to wait until we can sample both the 2000 and 2001 machines at the same time to see if that longer wheelbase on the new bike has made much of an impact.

What impressed me the most about the bike's handling was how well it steered - it's wonderfully neutral, and just a slight push of a clip-on would see the bike scythe off in the direction you wished, going on to track through the corner beautifully.

The steering is that quick on the bike, that when combined with its trim weight, for the first few laps out on the machine several times I actually had to catch myself for turning in too aggressively. I found I had to catch it and partially stand the bike back up to assume the line I was after.

Sticky rings
The 13 machines present at the Oceanic launch of the new GSX-R were all shod with Dunlop D207GP 'Stars', with the production machines no doubt to be fitted with a standard OEM D207GP compound.

The one-off tyres the test GSX-R600s wore were constructed specifically to tackle the wide range of conditions that were to be dealt out by the Georgian weather at this time of year, namely cool mornings (around 7 degrees C) warming to a toasty mid-afternoon temperature hovering in the low 30s - a tough brief, for sure.

But the hoops seemed to be surviving admirably - both on my bike and those of the harder chargers present. As things hotted up the bikes did start to move around, but never in anything less than a predictable manner.

It's this high level of performance coupled with decent tyre wear rates (along with all other 'consumables', such as brake pads, chain, sprockets etc) which first attracted me to the 600cc market - if the 13 journos present had all been atop litre-class machinery, the tyre bill would have been significantly higher. A blast on a budget, if you like.

Sharp looker
Styling-wise, the GSX-R600 has copped its first major facelift since it first appeared, with lines now distinctly reminiscent of its bigger brothers, the GSX-R750 and the not-yet-released GSX-R1000.

The GSX-R dietician didn't ignore the bike's clothes either, with the bodywork being trimmed down to tip the scales at 600g les. This has been done by the panel thickness being reduced from 2.5mm to 2.0mm.

As with the 750, the front of the bike has been designed specifically to take advantage of the insights gained from the aerodynamic work carried out on the GSX1300R Hayabusa.

The air intakes have therefore been relocated and reshaped, the change said to increase the volume and velocity of the air entering the airbox itself.

Instrumentation too is also all-new for 2001, with the old clocks replaced by a more modern needle and clock style tacho complemented by an LCD speedo.

Only the pearl yellow/black and pearl blue/white versions were available at Road Atlanta, but a candy blue/black version also exists, with all three to be made available in Australia.

Worthy successor
When it's all said and done, Suzuki has built a worthy successor to carry on the relatively new GSX-R Supersport name. With its efi, drastically low weight and numerous small improvements, the 2001 GSX-R will ensure Suzuki remains right up there in the thick of it in amidst the hot competition this burgeoning market niche enjoys.

Whether it will emerge triumphant over the offerings from the remainder of the Big Four will require a major comparison test - it's the only way a pecking order will be arrived at in this tight sector.

As for how long we're going to have to wait for that, well, the new Suzuki GSX-R600 will be hitting showroom floors in Oz sometime in December (price still to be confirmed, and dependent on the plummeting Aussie dollar, but expect it to be around the R6's $13,175).

The marketing slogan which accompanies the blurb associated with the new GSX-R is 'Own the racetrack'. Whether you do or not remains to be seen, but one thing's certain - you'll be on a top-quality machine with a damn good shot at the title...