How ten weeks of torture turned the SRAD from menace to missile

When Suzuki test rider Roger Simmons left home to sign off the radical new ’96 GSX-R750 it was supposed to take 10 days. Ten weeks later he returned – with the perfect sportsbike.

ugust 1995: in Japan, Suzuki had just finished work on its replacement for the iconic but past-its-best double-cradle GSX-R750. It had sent four prototypes of the beam-frame, wasp-tailed new bike to Germany, seeking the feedback of the top test riders from each of the four biggest European markets. But it was really a rubber-stamp job – perhaps a chance to change the OE tyres, or tweak mirrors and footrest positions, but Hammamatsu was waiting for the signal to start production. One small problem.

“I’ve never experienced weave like it. It was horrifying. The bike just went completely bonkers at very high speed,” remembers Roger Simmons – chief UK tester of Suzukis from Bandit to Busa.  

“It would start at about 260kph [161mph]. We couldn’t get sustained high speeds like that on the track so we did it on autobahns and autoroutes. It was a weavy-tankslapping type thing. It was awful. Most people would never experience it, but we just couldn’t let the bikes go out like that. We tried different steering dampers, different shocks, different fork springs, different tyres, the combinations were endless.”

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Key design feature

The SRAD’s bulbous tail and dayglo acronym mark it out, but its frame is the key to the bike. Derived from the firm’s RGV500 GP racer it shared the same wheelbase and steering geometry. Not only was it  dramatically stiffer and lighter than its predecessor’s up-and-over jobbie, but it offered riders a direct link to GP racing experience.  

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And it had all started so well. 

“The size of it was the first thing that had struck me, and the weight. 506-odd pounds on the old bike down to 395 f***ing pounds! And the more you looked, everything about it was different. It was nimble, powerful, it braked better. It would pass the FireBlade on the straight easily. It was unbelievable. Revolutionary.” Up to 10mph off its top speed anyway.

So dogged were Roger and his fellow testers that even with costs mounting, the factory sat idle and “bosses going bonkers”, they insisted the testing must go on – “I didn’t care who I upset. I never compromised,” he says.

The ultra high-speed, public roads testing continued across Europe, running from the weather as summer turned to autumn. “We had Kayaba suspension guys there, tyre people there – about 15 people working on the testing all day – and then they would replicate each day’s tests in Japan overnight. It was a 24-hour effort.”

HOORAY! Chris Walker rode the wheels off his SRAD to chase Hodgson’s bigger 996 Ducati to the title wire. “My confidence was skyhigh on that bike. I could do anything on it,” he remembers.

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In southern Italy in October the solution was found – a combination of suspension and tyre spec tweaks. The process hadn’t been without attrition. “One week they sent a Japanese guy over – the lap record-holder at their Ryuyu test track – everyone was in awe of him, so on the ride back to base we gave it some and we got back a good five minutes earlier than him. When he got back he said “This is not road this is motocross track!” and by the next morning he was on his way back to Japan. An Italian tester who lobbed it stood up and brushed himself down and proclaimed ‘That’s it. I go and I never come back’ and he left the bike in the gravel and walked off. I never saw him again.”

BOO! Biking’s Gazza World Cup moment came thanks to the same SRAD, when Walker’s bike brought the most dramatic BSB season in memory to an end by blowing up at the final round.

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The programme finished with 80% of the testing having been carried out on road and 20% on track. And the bike ended up being “just what people wanted,” says Roger. “They were obsessed with lightness and it was lighter than most 600s. It made big power, very reliably. It looked the business. We sold more than half the first year’s allocation before anyone had ever sat on one!”

It remains one of Roger’s proudest achievements and favourite bikes. “To me it’s like a Katana – it may be years old but it can still hold its head up. It still looks good in the company of any sportsbikes. It’s a modern classic. And a 170mph motorbike! You’d have to be a very, very sharp rider to make a modern superbike go A to B any faster.”

PHWOAR! Scott Russell smoked his rivals to a Daytona 200 victory in 1996. The SRAD’s acres of plastic have always made it a great canvas. Is there anything better than the Lucky Strike scheme?

SRAD need-to-knows

‘My mates went touring on it’ “The riding position suited most people – it was lower than before – and it was an easy bike to ride, not aggressive, you could proper pin it,” says Roger. “You could wind on the power confidently. “Light, not intimidating, yet it was producing more power than the FireBlade. I had mates who went touring on the bloody thing!”

What goes wrong? Most of the problems that occur are caused by poor maintenance and careless owners. There was a perception that the engines suffered from poor lubrication to the top end and a number of firms produced a twin feed conversion to the top end, but they’re not necessary. Corrosion on the calipers and shock is a common issue.

Bang on for Britain “It was our job to put the European finishing touches to it – something they DIDN’T do with the TL1000S (they insisted it wasn’t necessary, it was perfect – but it was an absolute disaster)” says Roger, who went through dozens of suspension iterations to ensure the set-up was bombproof.

‘Everything before was wooden’ “This was the first GSX-R with six pot brakes – proper kit. Everything before was wooden,” says Roger. But Suzuki wanted to err on the conservative side. “They feared people would crash with really aggressive pads in them – in fact this happened with one tester.”

Keep it sharp  Refresh tired old suspension and suddenly you’ll discover a machine of dazzling handling quality. The forks are quite soft and heavier and faster riders will benefit from an extra 30cc of fork oil to firm them up a tad. The six-piston Tokico brakes are sensational, but will need braided hoses now.

‘You have to rev it a bit, of course’ Early SRADs were carb-fed (injection didn’t appear until 1998), which can cause carb-icing on cold, damp days. ”You have to rev it a bit, of course,” acknowledges Roger, which dovetails neatly with its track-focus, but can be an issue if you’d rather dawdle than thrash. Early cylinder head/piston clearance problems were sorted fast.

GSX-R750s for sale right now.