2009 Literbike Comparison Test: It's The Little Things

There's no doubt that the K9 is seriously strong up top, with a smooth upper-rpm rush that eats up ground quicker than Mikolas at a Mexican restaurant. The new monoblock radial-mount Tokico calipers are a vast improvement over the previous brakes, offering much better response, progression and feel at street speeds, and the OEM-fitment Bridgestone BT-016 tires offer outstanding steering and grip characteristics. And the same well-designed ergos made instant friends with the entire SR testing staff, offering the best compromise between track duty and street riding, along with the highest-rated cockpit of the bunch.

Our testers ended up being a bit underwhelmed, however, with the new GSX-R overall on the street: "It seems like Suzuki is suffering from a bit of 'Honda Syndrome'-it does everything well, but doesn't stand out in any way," said Siahaan, while Olsen remarked that, "It wasn't that the bike was bad...but in this group, the Suzuki is just like vanilla." While stronger on top, the Suzuki's more oversquare engine has lost a good portion of the monster midrange that was its strong point for years; there's less of the midrange hit that used to make the GSX-R so much fun to ride on the street. Suspension damping and spring rates are more track-focused, which kills off much of the compromise that allowed the Suzuki to excel on both street and track, and while other literbikes have become more agile as generations have progressed, the GSX-R still requires a good bit of steering effort to flick into a corner.

"[Unfortunately] you need to open the throttle sooner and for longer, because the engine is gutless," complained Siahaan. Although the R1 accelerates well as you dial on the throttle, there's no hiding the lack of outright horsepower in this group of bikes once you twist it wide open. Trailing by up to 15 horsepower to the competition is a glaring deficiency in this class, and it's one that can be difficult to overcome in the narrow confines of public pavement. The suspension compression damping rates are biased toward track use, and combined with the stiff ride of the OEM Dunlops, makes riding rough roads a chore. The ultra-tall first gear-while helping in tighter canyon work-can also be an annoyance when riding in traffic, and be prepared to get your thighs toasted from the underseat exhaust on hotter days. The Yamaha also consistently achieved the worst fuel mileage numbers, and we had a small issue with coolant spilling from the overflow tank after shutdown on normal (not hot) days.