TESTING, TESTING…

Perfection takes time, effort and willingness (as Boothy often says when he’s applying his make-up). In motorcycling parlance, perfection often costs a fair fortune too, demanding the use of innovative materials, construction techniques and whole troops of masterminds to iron out the issues and deliver to the showroom a motorcycle that’s fit for purpose… and then someone like me comes along and smashes that finely crafted specimen right out of the park. This project, transforming a perfectly capable and respectable production bike into a race-ready renegade, has probably seen many an engineer wince into their pint pot, and I don’t blame them. Suzuki’s latest GSX-R1000 took years in the making, demanding countless tough decisions and enough overtime to fuel a local council. But as good as it was, it still could have been made better, faster, lighter and, well, sexier. That’s been the ethos of this build, to take a bike from its firm foundations and better it in every conceivable way. It’s been a long journey, but one which has seen the bike’s mass reduce by 29 kilos, its power hiked up by a good wad of ponies (not to mention the added torque) and its cornering capabilities taken to new levels. Or at least that was the hope. But as they say about puddings, the proof is in the eating. And while I’m not suggesting that this bike