well, i've owned every major motorcycle brand there is except yamaha. while i admit that they ALL make awesome bikes, both in style and performance, your claim of suzuki's inability to produce a reliable sportbike are absurd. i have owned a 90 gsxr 750, 91 gsxr 750, later turned that 91 into a carbon fiber shod 1216cc beast! yes, oil and air cooled 1216cc's with ported and polished head, mega cycle cam's, competition valve job, etc, etc, etc. 155 rwhp, 101 ft/lbs tourqe. this bike romped. and even with all those mods, running on high octane gas alone, (93 mixed with cam 2) the only problems i ever had with it was keeping batteries in it. eventually had to run two batteries at once. otherwise, no problems. i now own a 1999 hayabusa, bought new in april of 1999. yes, it has experienced not one, but two cam chain tensioner recalls. the second for a totally new design, hydraulic ratchet type adjuster. while this can be annoying, i have had no problem, nor heard of any with the actual FAILURE of a cam chain. i work for a local suzuki dealer, and have put my recall on hold to take care of customer's bike's first. i have no concern about the reliability of this bike. i am anxiously awaiting my gsxr 1000 in blk/silv livery. it is due next month. i expect no problems just as i've found in all my other suzuki's. but as a point, i had no problems in any of my other jap bikes. honda, kawasaki, or suzuki. ALL manufacturers have had recalls on their bikes for one thing or the other, yamaha with the clutch basket on the r-1's, honda with tranny problems on some cbr's, kawasaki with the zx-12's, etc. doesn't mean this is any more than a safety precaution for POSSIBLE problems. i look at it this way, better safe than sorry. hey, chevy, ford, etc, etc, goes through the same things. that's life. i just don't get it when r-1 owners start talking about, "that little difference in hp won't mean a thing" "the r-1 will still keep up with it" yada, yada, yada. wasn't it not that long ago when "future" r-1 owners were making the same kind of statements as the current crop of "future" gsxr 1000 owners are making now? so what the hell, enjoy what YOU like, period. if my dealership were a yamaha dealer, i'm sure i woulda owned an r-1 by now. awesome bike, gorgeous. but it's not, so i have suzuki's. just happens that THIS year, the gixxer 1000 will be the "king", the "best", whatever. don't we all want the best bike for ourselves? regardless of brand, displacement, style? hell, we have enough going against us a MOTORCYCLIST, much less arguing over what's the best. let's focus on the leaps and bounds that the motorcycling community and manufacturers have made in recent years and on legislation that affects us ALL in negative ways. well, i'm climbing down from my soap box now. lol
enjoy what you have
mike
p.s. whoever made the comment about the cbr 929 besting the new gsxr 1000, check your facts bud, the gsxr 750 out did the 929 in all the tests. add only 9 lbs, and 20+ rwhp on top of that. no contest. facts is facts. nuff said.
