http://www.motorcycle.com/gallery/gallery.php/d/191747-3/2009_Literbike_Challenge_IMG_0321.jpg

It's been nearly 12 years since I began working as a full-time motojournalist, and I get wistful for those simpler days. Back then, the literbikes (CBR900RR, ZX-9R, GSX-R1100 and YZF1000) were separated by nearly 100 pounds of weight and huge power disparities, and ergonomics ranged from racetrack refugee to something we now call sport-tour-y. Even a neophyte motojourno could pick a clear winner.

But today, we're stuck in a world of finely honed and fully featured literbikes whose level of diversity is amazingly insignificant. They all haul ass around a racetrack, chassis geometry distinctions are measured in fractions, and peak horsepower differs only by about 5%. Unless you're a nationally ranked Superbike racer, each of these bikes is way better than you are, and saying one is significantly better than another is mere hair-splitting.

If a person could ride a bike blindfolded (maybe next shootout…), they'd be hard-pressed to discern which literbike they were on. Jumping from one model to another at the racetrack, it was astounding to be fully comfortable running quick laps immediately on another brand's bike, as they all have remarkably high performance envelopes yet are amazingly user-friendly for what are essentially road-bound missiles.

More: 2009 Literbike Shootout (http://www.motorcycle.com/shoot-outs/2009-literbike-shootout-88218.html) on Motorcycle.com

New Yamaha 09 R1 finishes dead last? Oh gawd thats funneeeee. :lol

The boys over at the R1 Forum must be really :crying

Bahaha. R1 Rtehsux

Seemed like the story ended when they were done with talking about the duc, what about the rest of the bikes?

It was a purely biased event with no pure winner based on performance, if it had been performance based either the R1 or GSXR would have won. I consider them to be incompetent at reporting after watching there horrible lines around Willow, I am a very competent racer at that track and they looked way off form.
scott

Shit who cares

It was a purely biased event with no pure winner based on performance, if it had been performance based either the R1 or GSXR would have won.scott


+1 dude I find it hard to believe that the ZX beat the gixxer

nearly every mag in europe has the zx10r 3rd or last and the honda at number one with the gsxr and the R1 fighting for second place,,,??????

LOL these ass clowns are gettin paid by honduh, gotta be the answer look at the other yrs winner its always a honduh with these guys.

Yeah only thing I pay attention to American Journalist is Numbers, and for any major things they come up with.

I wonder if any of them had tried to take a Honda CBR apart (at least the 07 model), what a cluster *$(#.

Europeans are the only ones who give true un biased reports on the bikes.

appearance? WTF!?!?! how can they put that into a comparo? and then give it to Honda??? thats a very opinion based catergory, and in my opinion Suzuki and Kawasaki's bikes look the best...

Agreed. That shouldn't be part of it. FWIW, I don't care for the look of the Honda at all.

+1 dude I find it hard to believe that the ZX beat the gixxer

Hard to believe?

RoadRacing World just released their 2009 Shootout Results

1. Honda (not great at anything, but good at everything)
2. Kawasaki (voted best engine, most HP, and set fastest lap time)
3. Suzuki (not as impressive as last years model, not much good to say)
4. Yamaha R1 (Fat, Heavy, and NO top end)

3 Last place finishes in a row for 09 R1 in the below shootouts.

Masterbike
Motorcycle.com
RoadRacing World

I'm just the messenger.

Remember, when shootouts don't go your way, just ignore them as irrelevant as that is what everyone else does, or claim that the journalists doing them must have been paid off by the winner. Works for me.

C@S

Remember, when shootouts don't go your way, just ignore them as irrelevant as that is what everyone else does, or claim that the journalists doing them must have been paid off by the winner. Works for me.
C@S

That was exactly my point, that's why I said "hard to believe." But to your point I should have said "I don't believe"

magazine reviews are always biased in one way or another. if you want a real review, go out and ride the bikes yourself. :cheers

nearly every mag in europe has the zx10r 3rd or last and the honda at number one with the gsxr and the R1 fighting for second place,,,??????

Ina spanish test on a well known motorbikes magazine they took some journalist from Italy, Austria, Spain, Germany and US and lapped all japanese bikes and de ducati arround the Calafat circuit (know to be a circuit with slow corners) and many of the best times were made with the suzuki and the overall best time of all riders and bikes was made by the SUZUKI:punk

All the test made on the 09 model alone have something in common: It´s hard to say something bad about this bike.

Even without a crossplane crank suzuki f****** rules

Dont get upset at what a motojournalist picks as the best model or how they go about determining it. I never read anything without a grain or a couple grains of salt. Who cares, I'd rather read a compairision from a actual racer, then pick out how it translates to me and what Iam even using the bike for. By the way the Honda is the ugliest, hands down.

And remember the syling q's are coming from Motogp. One reason they are all losing the fairings and tails. I stopped buing bikes off looks along time ago!

the R1 had no top end? :scratch i think you mean bottom-end, cuz the Yammi's make their most power after 10k rpm. Looks are purely opinion based but i dunno how you can disagree that the Kawi is by far the ugliest of them all...oh well...it's not really about looks anywho...

i wouldn't pay attention to any of these reviews except for the numbers (like someone mentioned above)

you have to ride them all yourself and pick the one that fits you best...

anybody have pics of the K9 1k with aftermarket pipes???

I still haven't seen any reason to buy a new bike. My '06 gixxer thou still blows my mind with its lightweight, overall competence, handling and mind numbing power delivery. It still makes me feel all googly inside!!!

I still haven't seen any reason to buy a new bike. My '06 gixxer thou still blows my mind with its lightweight, overall competence, handling and mind numbing power delivery. It still makes me feel all googly inside!!!

And its probably paid for, or close to it. :cheers

I still haven't seen any reason to buy a new bike. My '06 gixxer thou still blows my mind with its lightweight, overall competence, handling and mind numbing power delivery. It still makes me feel all googly inside!!!


Yeah I have been disappointed with my K6 Midrange and was about to dump 2-3 grand in it to make some monster midrange.


Till I sat on a K9.. Now I have to have a K9. The only other bike I had to have was 98 CBR 900 (lost one in house fire, then bought another after a K1 and K3 1k due to looks and comfort) blk and red. Now I sat on the K9 and I am sold. For my build (short upper body) the seating is heaven.

The seat is nice and soft like the K1 was, and the reach to the bars feels similar to a K6 Busa.

I even like the Burgundy color.

It is really close to paid for so I got that going for me. I gotta say, the first time I say the '09 in person I was uninspired by the looks. Today, I was ogling a burgundy one at the dealer and got a little lustful. Just don't tell my '06!

Don't worry, pumpkin, you are safe in my garage...

GET AWAY FROM MY BURGUNDY, and all will be fine :bitchfight

Now that you say I can't get it, I am all over it like stink on a monkey, Jerry! My burgundy will be able to beat up your burgundy!

Burgendy is deffinatly the ugliest color of the bunch! That color, on bikes, just doesnt go imo. The only bike I can think of burgandy that was ok was the Kawasaki ZX750R in candy. Cant remember the year though. 95 I think?

Well I hate all black, and blue and white is just blah and tired of it (just like honda and all red)..


I always liked the odd ball color, and I wish Suzuki would give more then one option a year.

I too am a big fan of anything other than blue/white. Since my 01 750 in red/black, I have stuck with the red combo. Gotta say that the yellow 1000 in 05 was sweet, though.

I liked the orangish 1k in K8 and the yellow from K7. Still my favorite is the blk/slvr/yellow from 2001

Good article. One thing Im happy about is the gixxer didnt rank high on the poser list.:biggrin :lol

The article did seem a little biased to honda. But if I were to get a new litre bike. The CBR would probably be it.

I still haven't seen any reason to buy a new bike. My '06 gixxer thou still blows my mind with its lightweight, overall competence, handling and mind numbing power delivery. It still makes me feel all googly inside!!!

haha you should be in advertising dude! now im looking at 06's lol JK

Looks wise I like my blue and orang K6, but I can't get past the comfort of the K9...


Put an offer to a dealer yesterday.. Hopefully this will pan out..

haha you should be in advertising dude! now im looking at 06's lol JK


You sure can't go wrong with one unless it has had a hard life... It is freakin amazing.

Burgendy is deffinatly the ugliest color of the bunch! That color, on bikes, just doesnt go imo. The only bike I can think of burgandy that was ok was the Kawasaki ZX750R in candy. Cant remember the year though. 95 I think?

burgendy ftl.

I dont understand?? For the last couple months everyone said that the new r1 was gonna blow every other bike out the water, Thats all i ever heard, was how awesome this bike was going to be and it ended up dead last???? WTF??

In street trim maybe. Heck I figured the race would be between the GSXR and the R1 at tha track due to the improvements (GSXR longer swingarm and BPF, and R1s new firing order to help apex to hard exit).

But their street form has seemed to come up short. I was worried on the GSXR motor as they shortened stroke and increased Bore again going for top end as they have almost every new generation.


FWIW, color is all opinion. I have been shying away from the main stream colors for awhile now. I just have no intrest in Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black unless other unique colors offset it.

It was a purely biased event with no pure winner based on performance, if it had been performance based either the R1 or GSXR would have won. I consider them to be incompetent at reporting after watching there horrible lines around Willow, I am a very competent racer at that track and they looked way off form.
scott

you mean the video on the link for the review, yeh even to a decent street rider it looked a bit lame

well when I get a brand new bike, It would be a very very close choice between the zx10 and the gixxer 1k. I mean hell. my 93 handles well and is pretty good quality. Why SHOULDNT I buy a new 1000. The only bad thing is the location of the dealers. The nearest zuki dealer is bout 1 1/2 hours away and the kawasaki dealer is just down the road.

But I should just get a cruiser. Ive only had mine on the road ALMOST 2 months and im already getting myself into trouble.

i just picked up FastBikes, a mag from the UK. had the rankings as follows


4. zx-10r
3. gsxr 1000
2. r1
1. cbr 1000


its all in the riders preferance

damn i want that 1198s!

good for kawi.

Did I read it correctly, they did the comparison on OEM rubber! How can you evaluate handling on the junk OEM tires that come on the bikes.

You know what I don't understand?

Everything is a conspiracy. GTI wins in a comparo, VW is on the payroll. CBR1RR wins here, Honda paid them off.

Get the slowest POS 1000 in this test. 95% of the people in this forum cannot ride it to it's ability. Including me. :biggrin

Deal with it!

Get the bike YOU like and move on.

Yeah I have been disappointed with my K6 Midrange.


:wtf

Are you on crack? The K5/K6 has awesome midrange. :punk

Thanks man it makes more sense now and I think I can get closer to what I 'm looking for.:hammer
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:wtf

Are you on crack? The K5/K6 has awesome midrange. :punk

Ride a 2001 GSXR 1000 and tell me I am on crack... My K5-k6 never had the ballls between 4-7k RPM that my 2001 and 2003 GSXR 1ks had. Yeah it had great midrange compared to the other 4 MFGs. Hell Ride a CBR 06-07 aginst a K6 or K7 and I bet you'll be shocked at the midrange that bike has.



The 2001 was a Stroked 750 so it had less power up top but I'll bet it had 10+ hp more from 4-7k RPM

As you increase bore and shorten stroke the power keeps movin up the RPM range. You can make more power but it is all up top.

im from ireland and go to every road race and know a couple of racers and these boys kno their shit absolute flat out over small roads etc honda is number 1 in their eyes on a road or street as you call it and to be honest mate europe is home of the gp really and road racing in ireland so i think the knowledge make sence over here check out kells road racing or north west 200 on u tube for a real race

I love the way people try to justify what they ride NOT being #1


#1. UMM SOMEONE IS PAYING THEM OFF
#2. THERE IDIOTS THAT DON"T KNOW HOW TO RIDE
#3 I WOULD SPANK THEM AROUND THE TRACK ON MY GSXR!

Come on guys get over it, maybe they will do better in 2010! OHH SHIT thats right no GSXR's being sent to the US in 2010! :chucks

Ride a 2001 GSXR 1000 and tell me I am on crack... My K5-k6 never had the ballls between 4-7k RPM that my 2001 and 2003 GSXR 1ks had. Yeah it had great midrange compared to the other 4 MFGs. Hell Ride a CBR 06-07 aginst a K6 or K7 and I bet you'll be shocked at the midrange that bike has.



The 2001 was a Stroked 750 so it had less power up top but I'll bet it had 10+ hp more from 4-7k RPM

As you increase bore and shorten stroke the power keeps movin up the RPM range. You can make more power but it is all up top.

Owned both a K1, (and a K4) and still have my "old" K6... K1 was a beast but you will never hear me complain about lack of midrange.

K1 had a shorter swingarm and the K6 is Much more planted for forward motivation. K1=Whoolie king, K6=track star!:punk

If you would have dropped a tooth off that front sprocket, you would have saved yourself from buying a 09!

Ride a 2001 GSXR 1000 and tell me I am on crack... My K5-k6 never had the ballls between 4-7k RPM that my 2001 and 2003 GSXR 1ks had. Yeah it had great midrange compared to the other 4 MFGs. Hell Ride a CBR 06-07 aginst a K6 or K7 and I bet you'll be shocked at the midrange that bike has.



The 2001 was a Stroked 750 so it had less power up top but I'll bet it had 10+ hp more from 4-7k RPM

As you increase bore and shorten stroke the power keeps movin up the RPM range. You can make more power but it is all up top.

You must of had a crappy K5-6 because it is known for its Mid-Range

I rode my buddies 05 GSXR1000 a few times this past Summer, what a MONSTER engine. It felt stronger in some ways then my current CBR, but the Honda is just better in so many ways, but that is modern technology for ya. Honda's on top right now, but we all know how quickly that changes. I'm sure Suzook will be on top sooner then later, they always are! I miss my former 07-750 at times.. Whew, first post!

I love the way people try to justify what they ride NOT being #1


#1. UMM SOMEONE IS PAYING THEM OFF
#2. THERE IDIOTS THAT DON"T KNOW HOW TO RIDE
#3 I WOULD SPANK THEM AROUND THE TRACK ON MY GSXR!

Come on guys get over it, maybe they will do better in 2010! OHH SHIT thats right no GSXR's being sent to the US in 2010! :chucks


I havent heard no new gsxr's will be here in 2010? Where did you here that?

You must of had a crappy K5-6 because it is known for its Mid-Range


It was known for it's midrange over it's main competitors the ZX 10 and the R1 which were both all top end motors. But the only comparo I saw between 01 and 05 showed that what I was feeling was accurate.



Randy Trevitt's Old Vs. New Sportbikes article in Sport Rider.

"In a serious throwdown, the two new bikes handily outperform our modified old versions-there's little doubt of that. But step back from that abyss even slightly and the results change. The old GSX-R is peppier than the new in many real-world situations and, to some riders, more fun to ride. There's a lot to be said for the untamed rawness of the original thousand that turned the literbike world on its ear. "


Most of my observations are from riding around town not flat out at the track or in the twisties.


Although I did get to ride back to back same day my Dad's CBR 1k RR (pipe PC stock Gearing) and my Gix K6 (pipe PC) -1 +1 race bike and the CBR felt just as strong off the slower corners as my geared K6. I was actually running with in 2 seconds of my best time on that bike (trying to chase down a Adv/int rider who was in the Beginner group).

thats for the info.