Suzuki GSX-R1000 Comeback: Strong, Accessible, Surprisingly Modern

The Suzuki GSX-R1000 had unfortunately been missing from our showrooms for quite some time. But now Suzuki is sending the GSX-R1000 back into the fight. They've managed to hit Euro 5 plus compliance and on top of that they've given us a few extra updates. Let's take a look at what those are and what they can do. The GSX-R1000 is back and it's a proper legend returning. I remember from my early days in the industry this bike was essentially the benchmark. In the super bike and super stock classes and the production-based racing categories for us it was a massive deal. Suzuki had an absolutely incredible portfolio with the entire GSX-R range, the 600, the 750 and the 1000. It's a shame that the whole lot disappeared. That was unfortunately all down to Euro 5 and now they're back with some updates. I'm genuinely delighted to have a legend like this back in our European market. It was still on sale in America throughout. Of course they were able to keep selling it there but for us here in Europe where the emission screws have been tightened so hard it had unfortunately vanished. Now we've got it back so let's take a look at what's new. Let's start with the engine. That's obviously the heart of any motorcycle and it's the critical piece for achieving Euro 5 compliance. There have been several changes here. New pistons, revised crankshaft geometry, modified valve train. You can see they've done a lot of work to clear that hurdle without any major power losses. It's always fairly easy to meet Euro 5 or emissions standards in general if you're willing to sacrifice performance. That wasn't something they were prepared to accept here so a number of modifications were made. The basic engine architecture hasn't changed dramatically. The entire block, gearbox and so on are as you'd recognize from the old GSX-R1000 and through these refinements they've managed to extract 195 horsepower and 110 newton meters of torque. We still have a very torque-oriented engine in this bike and they've paired that with a completely redesigned exhaust system. If you remember the previous GSX-R1000 always had a massive end silencer bolted on the back and that wasn't exactly a looker. The new silencer suits the bike much better in my opinion. They've enlarged the core and brought it forward closer to the engine. This means it runs hotter and is therefore more efficient for exhaust after treatment. It also doubles as a pre-silencer keeping noise levels well under control all to clear that Euro 5 plus hurdle. The only thing is it's got a bit longer but I have to say when you consider that the whole tail section does stick out a bit further I think they've done it really well. It's very slim. We have two exhaust pipes that are switched back and forth by a valve mechanism at certain rev ranges. That's how they manage the balancing act between power delivery and noise control. What else happened? Simultaneously with the new piston design the compression ratio has also gone up. Instead of 13.2 we now have 13.8 to 1. That's partly thanks to the new manufacturing processes Suzuki have introduced. They've significantly upgraded their production machinery and tightened the tolerance variance considerably. That allows them to run a much tighter squish clearance to push the compression ratio up without risking piston to head contact. On the inlet camshaft we've also got variable valve timing now operated by a centrifugal system. This enables a switch to different valve timing in the mid-rev range. The result is an extra bit of punch at the top end without any compromise in that mid-range area. Also new on the engine side is a larger throttle body diameter increased by two millimeters to improve cylinder filling even further. The injectors have also been upgraded to guarantee better atomization all helping to meet those extreme Euro 5 plus requirements. On top of that there's a revised lubrication system running slightly higher oil pressure ensuring long engine life and making sure that with the power levels we have here you're never going to run into engine trouble. That's also why it was great today that we could ride for a relative long time and get a feel for the reliability of all these systems. We were out on track for six hours straight in shifts which gave us a solid impression. Now let's move on to the next big area where the most has changed the electronics. Other than the dashboard which we already know from the previous model nothing else has been left as it was. They've now fitted a six-axis IMU to the bike and that naturally feeds a huge amount of data into the motorcycle's rider aid calculations. On the old bike you might remember that things like wheelie control were a bit rough and ready. That was partly because the data available simply wasn't as comprehensive as what we now have thanks to this six-axis sensor package which can measure the motorcycle's movement in very fine detail. That's allowed them to refine all the control systems across the board. We have traction control, wheelie control, slide control. There are a lot of interconnected systems at work here. However you can only adjust them as a combined package. There's no option to set them individually. You can only choose an overall intervention level between 1 and 10 to suit your riding style. Also included is a quick shifter up and down and it works well here. It can even be set in two different modes road mode and track mode. The track setting produces more pronounced blips when downshifting at higher revs on circuit to make the whole thing a bit smoother. I'll come back to how that works in a moment. What the six-axis IMU also brings into the equation is this. The power delivery. We have three power modes to choose from A, B or C depending on how aggressively you want the throttle to respond. It has been mapped through the IMU so that power output is also modified depending on lean angle. In other words at the same throttle opening you get less power released when the bike is leaned over than when it's upright. That helps to optimize grip even further because traction control by its nature can only react. It waits until grip is exceeded then reduces power. This system doesn't just react initially. It anticipates by ensuring that at high lean angles it's not sending as much power to the tire in the first place. That's why it feels so much smoother and is considerably more refined in its intervention compared to before. The braking system benefits from this flood of data too. Of course the ABS is now lean angle sensitive as well which gives us considerably better intervention here. Today on track we ran the standard ABS settings. There's no way to vary it at the moment. It would be nice if for track use you had the option to deactivate the rear ABS as we see on many other bikes. That would optimize braking distances a bit further and for motorsport use it's very handy to have that option. It's not straightforward here but the intervention compared to the previous model has improved noticeably and braking distances are somewhat shorter. On to the chassis. Quite a lot has been carried over from the previous bike. Similar fork hardware. The Showa Balance free fork up front. Showa rear shock as well. Both are fully adjustable. Rebound and compression damping plus preload. The frame and swingarm are unchanged. Those parts were taken directly from the predecessor with the tank shape tweaked slightly. On the bodywork the most obvious change are winglets have been added. On the Suzuki they're quite discreet which I personally like because it keeps the bike looking a little more elegant rather than having these massive wings stuck on. The electronically controlled steering damper is also worth mentioning. It helps keep the bike stable in a variety of situations. Total weight is 203 kilograms very much in line with the previous model despite several new systems having been added. The exhaust after treatment has become more complex but they've shed weight in lots of other areas and ended up at virtually the same figure. Geometry wise everything remains very similar. Seat height moving on to ergonomics is 825 millimeters. Smaller riders will be just fine on this. If I hop on briefly to demonstrate I'm not exactly short. Quite long legs at 1.80 meters. You can see it gives me quite a tight knee angle. A slightly higher seating position would suit me better personally. Towards the bars though the riding position is reasonably comfortable. Not too aggressive which is a good compromise for road use. For road and comfortable riding I'd personally like a touch more knee angle but that's very much down to the individual. If you're shorter it won't be an issue at all. As mentioned as the geometry is very similar we have 95 millimeters of trail providing a reasonable balance between agility and straight line stability under acceleration. New on the braking side 320 millimeter Brembo discs up front. What is new though is the disc to carrier mounting. We've got not just floating elements but also the T-drive system from Brembo. They've combined the two a float and a T-drive connection. That gives a small amount of flex without going too soft or starting to chatter. On track you often see very softly floated systems that work well on circuit but are slightly detrimental on the road. Now let's get to the real reason we're here today. How does it ride? What's it actually like? I have to say the Suzuki is exactly as I remember it incredibly accessible. The engine is still a very potent unit. It's still slightly old school in character and I don't mean that negatively. You get a lot of power available from low in the rev range. Modern superbike engines are typically designed to be very peaky squeezing maximum top end power. This one still has that older philosophy ensuring there's plenty of punch throughout the rev range and 195 horsepower is no small thing as we'd say in Austria. So it pushes forward with real authority but it's an excellent combination. All that power available from the bottom for road use especially. This engine is ideally suited on track. It still has plenty of grunt too. The refinement, the smoothness of the engine is genuinely impressive. It's a very smooth silky unit which is a pleasure both on track and on the road. The gearbox works well too. The quick shifter is of course included in mode two. We could switch between one and two and it worked nicely on track. This was primarily a track test after all and the format today was very exciting. They'd simulated a kind of six-hour race here with a Le Mans start and everything that goes with it. That gave us a huge amount of riding time of four stints of 30 minutes each and that gives you a really solid impression. It was a great atmosphere too. Everyone behaved themselves. Nobody was going around with a chip on their shoulder so it was a lot of fun and gave a really good sense of what the bike is about. In terms of sound as we've said the exhaust is quite subdued. If you're planning on tracking it regularly you'll probably end up fitting an aftermarket system. That'll also unlock extra performance compared to the old model because the engine has been developed with world endurance racing in mind. It's not just about durability there. Power delivery matters too and a lot has happened in that area. Suzuki have had incredible success in the endurance world championship over recent years winning countless titles with the GSX-R1000 and in 2026 they're once again performing very strongly. But let's come back to the riding impressions. The electronics are entirely new. You really do feel the benefit. The intervention systems are good. I ran it with minimal traction control and it didn't feel restrictive at all which isn't always the case. Here it was quite pleasant. A subtle helping hand. What I would like to see though is separate adjustment for each individual system. We have traction control, wheelie control, torque control. Unfortunately all lumped together into a single combined setting. You can't adjust them independently as you can on many competitor bikes. That said, in the overall package the combined system works really well. I ran it at low settings and with everything switched off and you can see it functions well either way. The dashboard has everything you need. It would be nice if they'd moved up to a TFT display. Maybe that'll come in the next iteration. It's the same display we already know but everything necessary is shown clearly and legibly. The ABS is better too though when it comes to chasing lap times you do have to make a slight compromise. At high speed the ABS calibrates quite conservatively and gives away a few meters of braking distance. What's missing for me on this bike is the ability to deactivate the rear ABS. That would unlock a bit more performance. The brakes themselves work well. Good deceleration, good front end feel. We did battle with a slightly fading lever feel towards the end but considering it's a completely standard setup and we've been riding for six hours that's honestly faultless. Nothing to grumble about. The chassis is still very well sorted. It can feel a touch nervous and fidgety occasionally but the handling for a 1000 is absolutely fine. Just as you know from the previous bike very approachable. You can genuinely push it to the limit. We had the new Bridgestone RS12 on today. It works very well with the bike. Tire life was also pleasant. We were able to maintain a consistent pace over a lot of laps. The bike itself didn't let us down. It ran faultlessly and showed no significant weaknesses. One positive highlight was the suspension setup. We had the standard unmodified suspension throughout. I noticed that particularly at the rear the standard settings were a touch soft but still manageable. As the tire started to go off it produced quite a bit of movement. We got on top of that with a few adjustments. The suspension components responded well to changes which isn't always a given. That brought a clear improvement. For a standard suspension setup this bike performed really well on track and was genuinely good fun. Overall riding the GSX-R is almost like being back in your living room. You feel at home fairly quickly. It's a very accessible motorcycle. I think especially for riders who aren't at the professional end of the spectrum there's enormous enjoyment to be had here because it's so easy to get along with. It doesn't overwhelm you. The engine with its very broad power band delivers enormous performance from low revs. You can afford to be a bit lazy with the gearbox compared to other superbikes in the 1000 cubic centimeter class. That I think is a real asset on the road. This is where the new GSX-R is going to shine in road use. As we saw with the riding position it's not extreme. It's perfectly manageable on the road. Strong low rev power delivery, a smooth engine, almost no vibration. They're all points that are particularly advantageous on the road. Overall Suzuki have packaged this really well. They've updated a proven formula and you can feel that. You might not quite have the outright performance of the top superbikes here but what you do have is a very well-rounded cohesive package. Pricing is also very attractive. We're looking at around 20 500 euros in Germany. In Austria as usual roughly 3 000 euros more. That puts it meaningfully below the competition price-wise. So for more than a few people this will be a very compelling motorcycle. I have to say I'm delighted to have the GSX-R range back in our showrooms. Maybe the GSX-R 600 or 750 will come back too one day. The Japanese have seen it can be done. Euro 5 compliance is achievable. Maybe they'll extend that update to the smaller capacity classes as well. Color-wise we have the classic Suzuki blue and white as you'd know from the old days but it's also available in two other colors red and a yellow version. So you've got the choice. The bike will be available from July so there's still a little wait but then you can get your hands on one. And that's about it. I'm signing off from sunny Spain. Sunny now at least. We had rain this morning unfortunately but it's been beautiful as the day went on which means we were able to get some good footage for you. I'm looking forward to welcoming you back for the next test and signing off from the beautiful Circuito Monteblanco in Spain. Cheers and see you next time.