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Quicker Than a Very Quick Thing in a Hurry
By PeteG
Suzuki GSXR 750 SRAD
Okay, I'll admit it and you've
probably guessed, I am no longer a teenager. Adolescence has past me by
and I will never be thirty anymore. As age goes you could say I have lots
of it, nearer the end than the beginning readying myself to brush off my
mortal coil, almost done ........ wait a minute. Old maybe, ready to race
the Grim Reaper, er not quite yet. But I guess you get the picture, I have
been around long enough to remember British Bikes when they still held
some of the real market and new (old) models were still being produced.
Some of my first bikes had names like Commando, Thunderbird and Lightning,
when the best tyre you could buy was a TT100 and upside down forks were
what you saw stuck in comedians arses.
This maybe slightly confusing as my
first proper bike was a Suzuki GT 250, fast as sound down a hill and a
mobile smoke machine up one, but I had that old bike for quite some time
until the Stupid Fairy came for tea and I signed on the dotted line for a
two year old Norton Commando. After that many bikes came and went and so
did an age, until one day I woke up and looked into the magic time mirror
and saw some old git looking slightly bemused back at me. Determined to
relive some of my youth I decided to try something different and went
trawling the small ads for the most severe bike that a thrash monkey could
find. Then I saw it. It was a '96 Suzuki GSXR 750, the one with the gold
paint and the weird graphics, tweaked and prodded to produce 142 horse
power which could by local legend propel the machine up to 175 mph. Gulp,
that's .... well that's quicker than ...... a politicians excuse.Now I have to tell you that up until
that time I had not ridden anything so radical, not since I stuck some
clip-ons to the front of my C15 but what the hell, you only live twice, or
for the rest of you just once. I put my old bike up for sale I stuffed a
wad of hard earned money into my leathers and went with the girlfriend to
pick up the beastie. It looked the part, as good as in the pictures and
sounded great. I sat on it, and then handed over the wad. Armed with the
legends of this bike, the paperwork and keys I set off to ride back the
200 miles home.Hells teeth, the riding position was
cobblers. I felt like I was diving head first down the toilet, it was like
being on the Luge but more weird. Sexy Debby the Flexy Girl may be able to
get comfy on the thing but there was more chance of me being comfortable
at a 'French Homosexual Dog Lovers Against Fat Old Bikers' rally. And
guess what, I got lost. Down ever busier city streets in mind numbingly
slow queues my arms began to feel like I was carrying the elephants that
support the pillars of wisdom at the four corners of the world. "What a
poxy bike" I kept swearing into my helmet and could think of nothing else
than "How quick can I get rid of this and get a proper bike." I managed to
finally get out of the city streets and crawl through the crappy roadworks
and on to the A38, at least I could make good time on there and get back
so I could get off the damn bike. Then something weird happened.
Sometimes in your life something comes
to you, something you were not quite ready for but it changes your whole
perception of your world. Well, you know on the right hand side of the
handlebars there is a thingy on the end, I think it's called a 'twist
grip', anyway, until then I always thought that the thingy on the end was
sort of to make the bike go faster...... eventually. Mmm, on this bike it
was different, it was kind of like the intro scene to Star Trek where just
for a second the twinkling stars in the background stand still and then
the whole fabric of the ship transforms into a streak of light. By the
time I had said "Shit" and realised I should be changing up a gear I
looked down at the speedo and laughed. It said 130 mph. Hang on I only
just twisted this a bit and ...wow. It did it again.Another glance down and that faulty
speedo was lying through it's teeth stating the best part of 140 mph. !45,
150. "Hang on, if I was really going that fast everything would be a bl
........... ahh, everything is a blur." 155, 160. At this point I
thought back at what the previous owner had said and I let the throttle
go, after all I'm sure the local traffic officer would take a dim view of
a mentalist doing 175 mph and screaming a muffled 'Yaaaaaaheeeeeee" and
the bike certain seemed as if it knew it could go that fast. Back
down to a steady 110, I pondered the situation, and what the hell was the
pain in my cheeks? Oh that'll be the big grin then. Okay, time to let it
go again and before I had the time to say 'Warp factor 7' I was back up to
155 mph. I could see blurred images flying by, that was probably another
county, I didn't care. Then I realised that I had to slow down to read the
signs as I wasn't sure any more where I was.What had started out as potential for
the worst bike I had ever owned was becoming 'Max Grin Factor 7' and I was
hooked. Yeah yeah, some of you are saying "Pha, my bike does twice that
and when I put the front wheel down I can go even faster." You got to
remember it was a while ago and I had not ridden anything quite so 'racer'
as the Gixer, but more was to come. When I finally got home I found there
were new surprises to be found, like handling. I had ridden some great
bikes up till then but the GSXR 750 excelled further, so much so I hadn't
the skills at the time to extract them. It's Achilles Heel came when it
was two-up. It's not made for two up really but Suzuki provided the bike
with a removable seat faring so that you could perch your favourite hobbit
or hamster on the back and take him for a spin, anyone larger would crush
your spine under heavy braking and change the characteristics of the bike
so profoundly that I glued the faring permanently in place and took off
the rear pegs. "No mate, no pillion on these."
There's not much more to tell, the
bike has few faults, you just have to remember that even though it has a
sparkling performance, it's a 750 and if you are over 16 stone and you are
dating Fat Sally the Pie Eating Queen of Barnstable it will drastically
alter the way it moves. It is a bit tall for shorter riders but hey, buy a
step ladder and have a go.I never did try out the fanciful claim
of over 175 mph but the chap I eventually sold it to seemed to think it
was possible with all the tweaks it had. The older GSXR's probably pale at
most newer bikes today and the Ducati I own at the moment outperforms it's
handling qualities but if I had to pick out the best ten bikes of all time
the 750 Gixer SRAD would certainly be in it and probably quite near the top.Original Images and Text Copyright of
the author. © 2007 Tricky Imp Productions
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