MOTORCYCLES
52 FIRSTRIDE:
ONTHE COVER
2007 SUZUKI GSX-R1000
Traction control comes to streetbikes, sort of.
And from what Aaron Frank says, not a
moment too soon.
ON THECOVER
102 ROAD TEST:
2007 HYOSUNG GT65DR
COMET AND GV650 AVITAR
Korean bikes aren't just coming; they're here.
Are you ready? And should you care?
FEATURES
64 THE GS PAPERS
ONTHE COVER
How Suzuki got from the G51000 to the
GSX-R1000.
ONTHECOVER
80 LIVE WITHOUT A NET
Hot laps on Yoshimura's championship-
winning Superstock racer.
ONTHECOVER
86 TAKIN IT TO THE STREET
KWS Motorsports' street-legal, 200-horse-
power GSX-R1143.
92 THE COP HUNTER
ON THE COVER
A troubled teen turns his life around—with
the help of a reborn race team.
113 WHO S WHO?
When the Asian Invasion begins, these will
be the companies to watch.
118 CHINA SYNDROME
Send in the clones. Or the Chang Jiang 750.
Whatever.
120 RIDING THE
ON THE COVER
HO CHI MINH TRAIL
Not to be confused with Ho Chi Minh's
Mini-Trail.
DEPARTMENTS
9 CAT TALES
The Ultimate Builder.
10 LEAN ANGLE
Over My Head.
16 MEGAPHONE
Crash Test Dummy.
18 WHO KNEW?
I Fought the Law.
48 BACKFIRES
Feedback from the Dirt Issue.
132 GEARBOX
Foolish products for foolish peeps.
146 MARKETPLACE
170 HARD NUMBERS
Chief engineer Itoh-san
does a fine job of explain-
ing the concept during the
technical briefing, but it's still
not finding traction in my sim-
ple squid-brain. Let me get this
straight: You push a button
with your thumb and it decreases
power output? Detunes on
demand? Why would you ever
want to do that?
Later in the day, after a few
dozen laps around Australia's
Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit
on the all-new 2007 Suzuki
GSX-R1000,1 could almost
understand the inclination to
soften the power output. With
a freer-breathing head and
more aggressive cams that give
the newest Alpha Gixxer an
utterly ferocious high-rpm
blast, this is the nastiest GSX-R
ever built. Intimidating, even,
especially in Phillip Island's Turn
12 where, once you finally dis-
lodgefydur testicles from your
stomach and find the courage
to stay in the throttle all the
way through, you will basically
liquefy the rear Bridgestone
Battlax for the duration of third
gear. So tell me again, which
button do you push to slow this
sucker down?
After two decades exciting us
with ever-increasing horsepower
numbers, this latest GSX-R asks
us instead to embrace the con-
cept of less power on demand
using something the acronym-
happy Japanese have dubbed
S-DMS, or Suzuki Drive Mode
Selector. The key to getting
your head around this idea is
not to think of it as something
that makes the bike slower,
but to think of it as
something that
makes the bike
easier to ride
faster. S-DMS is...
And much more!
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