Weapons of Class Destruction

It's interesting to note in the thrust graph (above right) that once past first gear (the first set of lines on the top left), the Suzuki (yellow lines) pretty much towers over the others as speed increases. Even more interesting is the amount of overlap between gears on the Kawasaki (green lines) and Suzuki; the ZX-10R's thrust lines are the smoothest, with a fair amount of overlap, but in the higher gears the Suzuki's overlap is even more. That means you can shift early or late and still have almost the same thrust available.

The R1's midrange dip is easily apparent, but it quickly picks up as speed increases, nearly matching the Suzuki up top. However, the Yamaha's thrust drops off dramatically at the end, meeting the next gear quite early and steeply. That signifies you must shift the Yamaha precisely to maintain maximum acceleration.

A notable thought is that even though the Suzuki has the longest stroke, it has a redline nearly as high as the R1's (which has the shortest stroke). This allows it to have the midrange torque of a long-stroke engine with the strong top-end of a motor like the Yamaha's. The GSX-R's titanium valves surely help its high-rpm capability.