barrygrussell
Senior Member
Another night off for Bangkok’s traffic police, another blast into the darkness of the fast roads of the city’s outer limits by a group of superbike riding adrenaline junkies.
This time I joined the group on a 2007 Suzuki GSX-R600 belonging to Bangkok Bikes Rental. I had ridden the bike previously during a trip to Pranburi in late February with Beam Saranyoo and others which was filmed for the weekly Race Show on Motors TV. The bike was put through its paces for the show at Kaeng Krachan by MotoGP hopeful Michael Kongaubon (aka Mickey Walker) who also made some changes to the suspension to improve its braking, turning and mid-corner performance.
Whereas a 1000cc four-cylinder superbike gives the rider a feeling of awe tinged with fear (let’s be honest here), the 600 makes you want to jump straight on it and ride it hard. In urban traffic you can burble along at 4,000-6,000 rpm, but when the road opens up you get the biggest grins by keeping the motor spinning at above 9,000rpm, which is where the real madness begins. And it is not just about getting the best of the performance at the top end of the rev range. Even from this bike’s standard exhaust system, the wail from the underslung pipe is wickedly addictive. On one fast run I was enjoying the music so much that I revved it out it to the 16,000 redline in fifth before I remembered I had another cog in the box!
The high speed stability you need at when you're nudging 250 km/h was impeccable and the braking you need to slow it down fast was progressive and reassuring as the front tyre was squashed into the asphalt. Engine braking when you have the stoppers on really hard causes the back to snake slightly, but you never feel like it’s getting out of hand. Turning is fast and if you go into a bend too hot it gives you the extra degrees of lean you need without effort and without having to roll off the throttle. Of course all this you should expect from a modern sportsbike, but after five years a few creaks and groans could have crept in. There were none that this rider could find, which says much for the way the bike has been maintained and, perhaps, something about the benefits of having your bike fettled by a mechanically astute professional racer.
On my home in the early hours of the morning I stopped to meet some friends in Bangkok’s central Sukhumvit area. One of them took a photograph on their mobile phone and posted in on Facebook (the quality is too poor to publish here), but what followed was a whole screen full of comments about the huge grin I had on my face. That tells you everything you need to know about how much fun riding a 600cc sportsbike can be and should also make you stop and think about what you really want from a motorcycle before you shell out those extra thousands of dollars, baht or whatever, on one with a fashionably essential 1,000cc engine.
For me this screaming little Gixer is a triumph of fun over fashion.
This time I joined the group on a 2007 Suzuki GSX-R600 belonging to Bangkok Bikes Rental. I had ridden the bike previously during a trip to Pranburi in late February with Beam Saranyoo and others which was filmed for the weekly Race Show on Motors TV. The bike was put through its paces for the show at Kaeng Krachan by MotoGP hopeful Michael Kongaubon (aka Mickey Walker) who also made some changes to the suspension to improve its braking, turning and mid-corner performance.
Whereas a 1000cc four-cylinder superbike gives the rider a feeling of awe tinged with fear (let’s be honest here), the 600 makes you want to jump straight on it and ride it hard. In urban traffic you can burble along at 4,000-6,000 rpm, but when the road opens up you get the biggest grins by keeping the motor spinning at above 9,000rpm, which is where the real madness begins. And it is not just about getting the best of the performance at the top end of the rev range. Even from this bike’s standard exhaust system, the wail from the underslung pipe is wickedly addictive. On one fast run I was enjoying the music so much that I revved it out it to the 16,000 redline in fifth before I remembered I had another cog in the box!
The high speed stability you need at when you're nudging 250 km/h was impeccable and the braking you need to slow it down fast was progressive and reassuring as the front tyre was squashed into the asphalt. Engine braking when you have the stoppers on really hard causes the back to snake slightly, but you never feel like it’s getting out of hand. Turning is fast and if you go into a bend too hot it gives you the extra degrees of lean you need without effort and without having to roll off the throttle. Of course all this you should expect from a modern sportsbike, but after five years a few creaks and groans could have crept in. There were none that this rider could find, which says much for the way the bike has been maintained and, perhaps, something about the benefits of having your bike fettled by a mechanically astute professional racer.
On my home in the early hours of the morning I stopped to meet some friends in Bangkok’s central Sukhumvit area. One of them took a photograph on their mobile phone and posted in on Facebook (the quality is too poor to publish here), but what followed was a whole screen full of comments about the huge grin I had on my face. That tells you everything you need to know about how much fun riding a 600cc sportsbike can be and should also make you stop and think about what you really want from a motorcycle before you shell out those extra thousands of dollars, baht or whatever, on one with a fashionably essential 1,000cc engine.
For me this screaming little Gixer is a triumph of fun over fashion.
