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As I’ve matured as a motorcycle rider, I’ve become more appreciative of a bike that handles well rather than one that has big power.

In my youth, my thirst for power was voracious. Even after buying the fastest bike available in the early ’80s, a Suzuki GS1100E, I started modifying it to produce more HP. I learned two things: First, the venerable GS was over built and had a lot of room for expansion. And secondly, it’s really easy to make modifications that ruin the drivability of the bike for everyday use. While aftermarket exhausts, more displacement and higher compression ratio typically make an all around more powerful machine, things like bigger carbs and high-performance cams move that power up the RPM range making the power delivery virtually unusable for the street.

Ever since I bought my first year, ‘98 Yamaha R1, I can honestly say I don’t need anymore power. I found that on the street I couldn’t hold it a full throttle for more than a few seconds without endangering my physical well-being or my driving record. So once I ran out of reasons to continue my quest for power, I started discovering the benefits of good handling.

Actually my first taste of good handling came from the saddle of a Suzuki RG500 Gamma (if you know what that bike is and why it’s cool, give yourself extra credit!). It only made about 80 HP but weighed about 350 lbs with a full take of fuel. That’s when the concept of power to weight ratio first dawned on me. But even beyond that, the Gamma was a great handling package. It had that just right “balance” that made it easy to turn, hold it’s line, give plenty of traction feedback, absorb bumps without kicking you out of the seat or wallowing all over the road. In short, it was easy to ride fast!

Now I finally come to the reason for this little diatribe; I was reading my latest edition of Roadracing World magazine (Nov 2008). One of my favorite contributors is Sam Fleming. Sam does many of the rag’s new and unusual bike testing. In addition to being one of the founding members of Army of Darkness, a very successful WERA endurance racing team, Sam’s no nonsense writing style calls crap, crap, and he’s got the experience to back it up.

In his latest review titled : Roehr Your Own, he samples the Roehr 1250, a true sportbike based around a Harley V-Rod engine. The bike looked promising, with all the necessary components to produce a great motorcycle (Ohlins, Brembo, Marchesini, Acropovic and a supercharger!) But as Sam discovered on his first track outing, fancy components don’t make a well sorted motorcycle. Apparently the handling was somewhere between unusual and un-rideable. It musta been real bad, because it took Sam the entire article to get around to making any compliments related to the rest of the motorcycle, further underscoring the importance of good handling.

But there was one line in Sam’s review that I thought quite profound. In an effort to have a point of comparison, Sam said, “A suggestion to anyone working on building a new bike. Bring a box-stock GSX-R750 straight from the showroom floor and use that as your control instance to which everything should be compared.” If that’s not a resounding and unequivocal endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Best Handling Bike Ever?

And since I own a 2005 version of that bike I can only agree with him. No other bike I’ve ever owned (and I’ve owned 23 motorcycles in the last 30 years) has the balance, suppleness, precision and over all confidence inspiring handling of my GSXR. If you want to experience how a bike should handle, take a ride on any newer GSXR! Way to go Suzuki!

Rhino