Happy 20th b/day Gixer750

[stevie c]

Before the arrival of Suzuki's GSX-R750, there simply was no race replica class as we understand it today. Yet the factory's big idea was more than lobbing a race fairing at a conventional machine.
For its time, the Gixer was very fast - 144MPH - and the project progressed in remarkable time. First mooted in late 1983, the project was given the go-ahead under Etsuo Yokouchi the following January.
Drawing on the factory's F1 racers, by May the prototype began testing under Suzuki's chief GP test rider Mitsuo Itoh. In September, it was unveiled at the Cologne Show and the first production bike rolled off the line on January 25, 1985.
The designers aimed for 100BHP and a 20% weight reduction over a GS750E, while the engine was tortured on a test bed. Parts that survived were painted blue, parts that didn't red (take note Gixxerdale!). They modified and blew up engines until they had a bike that was all blue.
With novel oil-cooling and an aluminium frame, the bike weighed 179kg/388lb, light even for a 400, and 80lb less than the opposition.
Four-piston disc brakes and Suzuki's 'full floater' monoshoke rear end were standard, and a flat-side-equipped engine was a rev happy beauty. It was all revolutionary stuff!
The GSX-R won everything as Mick Grant took the British Superstock title and the production TT, and overseas the story was the same. Only Honda's full-on factory RVF750 could keep it at bay.
True, there were faults with fragile race gearboxes and twitchy handling from the short wheelbase, but this was sorted in 1986 with an inch longer swingarm and radial tyres. Then big brother arrived, the GSX-R1000, to wow even more power hungry punters. That won everything as well.
Yet over theyears, the Gixer began to lose its way. In 1988 an all-new 'Slingshot' GSX-R, the 750J, was unveiled. It was good, but was up against Honda's RC30, a thinly disguised, and twice as expensive, factory racer.
Liquid cooling was added for the 750WN of '92. But as the 750 became blander, fatter and less focused, Honda arrived on the scene with a featherweight Fireblade.
The first SRAD GSX-r, the short-stroke 750WT of '96, recaptured the old spirit with a dry weight identical to the original. Fuel injection followed in '98, and in 2000 further weight savings made the 750 as sharp as ever.
Today there is no serious racing class for 750cc machines, yet the Gixer screams on, living proof of life below 1000cc. Then theres big bro', the Gixer1000, not to mention just about every other supersports multi, only made possible because Mr Yokouchi and his team had that improbable and far reaching dream way back in '83.


-Words from MotorCycleNews.