It won’t be straight away as there’s no point in buying a bike in the middle of winter, but I’m thinking about what’s going to be my steed for the summer! With the mighty gixxer thou’ unceremoniously taken from my possession by societies true scum recently, I’m left thinking about what I’d like next.
The thou was incredible, and customised nearly to the point where I wanted it. It wouldn’t have been far off BSB spec by the summer, though if it had a weakness, it was it’s size. Whilst small for a thou, it was still a big bike, and I’ve had a 400, 600 and two 750’s before. I remember exactly how easy it was to throw around the road and track, bringing big grins and longer tyre life.
I’m thinking about one of three bikes for the new ride.
Suzuki GSX-R 750 K8
I’ve got a great love for this marque. Great discounts on these due to recession and pre-reg outgoing model. I know it’s going to handle like a dream and be a dead cert. Downside is I’ll probably end up customising it a lot like my last Suzuki’s to get it to how I want it. Still a lot cheaper than other options at about £7k.
I’ve owned two before (2000 & 2004 models) and loved every minute I’ve spent on them. You can scream the tits off them and they go like stink. If I red-lined my thou for more than a blink of an eye, I was in prison-sentence territory.
Yamaha R1 2009
Cross-plane firing order engine - aka Rossi MotoGP style. Hubba hubba! It sounds amazing and Yamaha won’t have made such a change unless they were absolutely sure they could retain their race-winning results in BSB/WSB, so you know it’s going to be golden. Downside - looks are a little funny, but who cares how it looks when your eyes are pinned to the next apex? Same issue with customising parts though. Cost is going to be about £10k.
Aprilia RSV-4
Too god-damned sexy. Aprilia’s take on a MotoGP bike for winning WSB races. V-Four 1000cc engine, full race quality components. Looks incredible, sounds even better. Totally new bike so untested and performance not assured. Biaggi who’s racing it in WSB has said the engine needs work. It comes with all the trick bits you could want, apart from a full-system race exhaust to let the engine sing. Will cost about £14-15k. V4 engine format is what I started out on with my Honda VFR400 and I loved that. Would be nice to change from an inline-four engine IF it went well. The bike will handle like a dream, this much is given, but the engine? First generation, in-house design. Not so sure, would hate to end up with 750 type performance when spending that sort of money.
I’ve discounted a new GSX-R 1000 K9. Whilst it looks okay, Suzuki have brought absolutely nothing new to the table technically and I’m dissapointed they haven’t had the balls to update the bike to meet market demand, considering Yamaha, Ducati and Aprilia are shaking things up. I’ve discounted the Ducati 1198 as well as I’ve ridden 1098’s before and whilst they’re awesome, the V-Twin engine just isn’t for me. I need more scream and revs.
So what one would you go for?
At this point, the 750 looks the best bet as it’s half the price of the Aprilia, a third less than the R1 and would ultimately give the same buzz as the others, it’s just that with new engine formats from Yamaha and Aprilia, they look bloody interesting 
