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Riding my 1999 GSXR600 for 23,000 over the last 8 years and being extremely happy with it was the main influence on my decision to go for another Gixxer as against any of the other bikes in its class. When I first read on the official Suzuki G.B. website that an Isle of Man TT Century Limited Edition run of 150 1000`s, 200 750`s, and 150 600`s were going to be available I opened the websites gallery page and saw that where as all three variants were in unique colours the Thou stood out as representing the Island even more so as its colours of Red and Silver reflected the colours of the Islands Flag. Only three photos were posted at the time, and apart from details on what the additional decals…….
and the Limited Edition top yoke plate looked like……..
and that Yoshimuras GP Evo II Titanium Silencers……..
and a double bubble screen……..
were fitted, no further information was available. A call to Suzuki came back with “Contact your local dealer, they will have information”. Actually the dealers had no information at all only what they had seen for themselves on the very same website. In order to get hold of any of the bikes dealers had to agree to take one of each of the three capacities, so, in trepidation I asked my local dealer, The Motorcycle Mart (Kidderminster) Ltd, if there allocation of one only GSXR1000 was already taken which it wasn’t, so on 26th April I said I`ll have one then! It`s a very strange feeling knowing something is on order when you havn’t actually seen one in the flesh, it`s not quite the same as items in a catalogue when your spending 9949 Pounds! Well, apparently, all the 600`s and 750`s were built in one batch and bulk shipped, where as the 1000`s were put down the line in much smaller batches and shipped out consolidating the normal loads so were coming through in dribs and drabs. I found out that Streetbike (Halesowen) put theirs on the road on 1st May and thought well I wont have long to wait now. My birthday on 11th May past, and no big present to myself, and still no news, Whitsun Holidays loomed and I dreamt of running it in during my week off work, but, I was wrong again, I actually got to see it out of the crate on the 12th of June and at that stage she still sported the standard silencers and standard screen and didn’t look too impressive
tucked into the corner of the workshop. She was on the road on the 16th, at that stage the stickers and top yoke plate were not available and were to be fitted later BUT now that those Yoshimura GP Evo II silencers and Double bubble screen had been fitted she did look to me something special.Theoretically at 1000 Pounds above the price of a standard K7 its not overpriced for a Limited Edition when the Yoshi`s cost 1450 Pounds! And the standard silencers are yours to keep, as is the standard screen.
Well now I move on to my first impressions, I must say I was surprised at the weight, the stock silencers weighed 6KG and the Titanium Yoshi’s only 1KG, so I believe that the Thou weighs the same as the 1999 600, in practice just lift either off the side stand and the Thou FEELS a lot heavier, so I guess that its a matter of weight distribution as the Thou feels ALOT taller on the road even though the seat heights are the same. I’ve read other reports about the need to build up your upper body strength on the GSXR750 K7 and I agree as the same is the case with the Thou. Reports say that the K5 and K6 were the best handling when putting them into a bend BUT the K7 is harder to get into the same bend BUT once in its a more positive feel. Well, I have carried out the suspension adjustments as recommended by the Relentless by TAS IOM Team and have found that NOW she does go easier into turns and also rides the bumps easier, I cannot give a direct comparison to the K5 and K6 as I’ve not tried either of them.
Running in within (Roughly) the prescribed limits became a bind (I say roughly as I believe a little extra revs when not under load is better than fixing the rev counter at the prescribed limit) If you recall what happened to our Summer in Mid June you will appreciate it was almost impossible to get any miles on the clock when trying to keep her in pristine condition, it was only a 340mile round trip from Kidderminster to the Ipswich area that got enough miles on the clock required at the first service interval (780 in my case). Following the service it was a single trip from Kidderminster to South of Cheltenham that saw the magical 1000miles on the clock and then the gentle a little few more and then a little few more than that revs climb up the Rev counter over the next say 500 miles, until the thought of having to keep the Revs down were put to one side. Well I have never been one for ‘Moving all over the bike’ to get round the bends and the same goes for the Thou, at 52 I’m not quite agile enough for those antics,and possibly almost at the `Old Git Stage` so I cannot comment at the handling when she’s pushed to the limit. I have owned large capacity bikes in the past (CB750KZ and CB900FA) but had forgotten how useful Torque can be, that is compared to my 1999 GSXR600, the punch is such, that, ALL the roads I use now feel totally different when ‘The blue touch paper is lit’ I though I was concentrating on the 600 but on the Thou I have had to up that level of concentration as what used to be a long straight is no longer so long and lots of straights have become just another bend, and the slight bends rush up on you and are alot more acute, there are bends out there that simply didn’t exist before!
If you have not read elsewhere, the K7 introduced a MODE switch on the right hand switchgear above the starter button, which Suzuki carry forward onto the new Hayabusa. In ‘C’ mode performance is limited to approx. that of a 600 that is until 9000 revs when no more power is available. In ‘B’ mode the same can be said until 9000 revs when full power becomes available. In ‘A’ mode full power is on tap all of the time.My interpretation is :-
‘C’ Mode …..Fast
‘B’ Mode …..Faster
‘A’ Mode …..”Good morning Judge!”Sunday, 200+ mile run out with mates, when only ‘The odd qiuck blast’ is flavour of the day result in 52-58 MPG as the ‘C’ mode is adequate when travelling at “sensible speeds”
I am not going to go into detail about “What She Does” on this public site, if I could find a private road to explore speeds through the gears and what the Max speed possible actually is, point me to the location and I will gladly give it a go AND put those figures on this site.(PLEASE NOTE I don’t trust myself to GIVE IT A GO at a track day)
Having said that though, in preparation for someone giving me a location of a private road, I have ordered a Power Commander III USB and TRE.
Thanks for a great insight into the K7 TT special. Keep us updated TT07!
I have added this review to the “Great Posts” link
https://bikemeet.net/forums/topic/great-posts-pics-across-the-site-part-2/
Thanks for the reply Radar. As the Forums Newest Member [:o)] and additionally taking my first tentative steps into ANY kind of Forum group other than posting the odd Photo, I thank you for the comments left[
].Fantastic TT07!!
Gixxers are just in a league of their own, I have ridden plenty of other bikes but I just couldnt imagine being happy with anything else.have recently bought a k7 750 and its awesome!
Had a go on a k6 1000 the other day and couldn’t stop giggling but it would not be on my shopping list if I could only have one bike! Am hoping to get one to replace my Triumph soon tho, just need some money! LOL
Happy riding mate and get some miles done
23000 in 8yrs! Shocking!!!! Me 18month old Speedtriple has that already :oWell as Radar said ‘Keep us updated’ so here goes………….
I’d previously heard tales of 800-1000 miles for a set of tyres for those early Sunday morning blasts into Mid or North Wales, with that in mind you will realise that I DO ride sedately as the rear tyre lasted for 3500 miles and got changed for yet another Bridgestone BT015, the fronts still got stacks left on it, that tells me one thing, I sure aint pushing this baby hard into and out of the corners as this amount of BHP deserves some respect. Straight line stuff, well that’s something else, if the coast appears to be clear, she cries out to be let loose, but only for very short blasts of course.
A few extra BHP is always welcome and with this in mind I toyed with the idea of fitting a Power Commander, Timing Reduction Eliminator (TRE) and 02 eliminator, trawling the internet I found the cheapest option to be an import through Ebay at less than 180 notes for the three including delivery.
Fitting all three bits of kit was easy, and performance is increased, tick-over was some-what erratic as standard, that has been eliminated, and so has the minor flat spots in the lower gear acceleration, also the over-run when shutting off has been banished. Downside though, even when cruising she sure does drink more fuel, probably in the region of 8-10 MPG less. There is one thing I have yet to try out and that is if I program in the base map or even no map into the Power Commander for those cruising only runs will the 50+ MPG’s return? I said that the minor flat spots in the lower gear acceleration have gone, this may be helped with the fitting of the TRE. This fitment gets rid of the retarded ignition in the first four gears and is supposed to get rid of the 186MPH restrictor, which of course I have not tried to beat. Downside to fitting the TRE (which isn’t mentioned prior to buying one) is the gear position indicator only shows ‘0’ for neutral and ‘5’ for all of the gears.
A few other items have been added/exchanged over the last few months:
A Tail Tidy
that incorporates the standard reflector/ No. plate light, as it IS illegal to not have a reflector, and I’ve only seen this make that keeps the reflector.
Also a Show Plate
(partial view only) with Isle Of Man Logo, but doubt its going to have much use this year, as things are pretty hot out there unfortunately.
A tank mounted camera/sat nav fixing bracket.
A ‘Cat Eliminator’,
which saves many pounds of weight…….
but having said that me losing weight would have a bigger advantage on performance! I had seen the odd one for sale but was unsure of the amount of noise being put out, then, by chance I bumped into another TT Limited Edition that had one fitted and that didn’t sound over the top, but there again he is still taking it steady running it in. One was quickly ordered for 112 Pounds inc, fitting it was a little awkward, the exhaust note, which was fine and quite subdued before, now has that raw edge. If the bike isn’t any quicker I could not say, but it sure SOUNDS quicker.
I look forward to meeting up with some of you on 11th May at this years ride out, it will be good to put some faces to those “names”.
Just to finish off, one of those out on your own,to be remembered moments……..130 miles to go, late summer, and only great roads lie ahead to get back home ………
For all our sakes lets hope we get a Good Summer this year.
How are you enjoying the summer on the beast TT? That drop in mpg seems surprisingly large with the power commander. The tail tidy looks great
quote:
Originally posted by RadarHow are you enjoying the summer on the beast TT? That drop in mpg seems surprisingly large with the power commander. The tail tidy looks great
Well road tests show 39MPG ave and I was getting nowhere near as low as that figure, lets say no lower than 47mpg, BUT this season I’ve got accustomed to using the power so its no wonder the MPG has dropped as I’m pushing things harder (1st rear did 3500, this one will be lucky to do 2250 so that says a lot). Sensible 2 up stuff even with the Power Commander still shows a recent 50MPG.
quote:
Originally posted by imperialdataReally is a great looking bike that
Strange how people look at things, only last weekend at Craven Arms Shropshire a group were looking at it and even though there is a Silver S on the tank they couldnt really decide what it was and summised it was a Yamaha R1, must be the colour scheme that foxed them, as even Radar thinks it looks good as its Red, again like a R1! As I have reported elseware this colourway is common in other Countries, I have seen photos from France, Spain, Greece and Australia where it is standard. I know of only one other in my locality, and have got to know the owner well, and for the first time, over the last weekend, I saw him travelling in the other direction, I didn’t recognise the bike at all,and wondered what it was! It was only his and his Wifes riding gear that I recognised. So much for a limited edition being noticed….even I didn’t.
quote:
Originally posted by RadarHow are you enjoying the summer on the beast TT? That drop in mpg seems surprisingly large with the power commander. The tail tidy looks great
Yes tail tidy (with legal! reflector) fitted, snow shovel look-a-like guard removed.
And yet another slight mod courtesy of trawling ebay, this time a varient related seat cover which I’ve affixed OVER the original. 100 staples later ……
From this
Via this
To this
Or yet again this
Resulting in this
].
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