GSXR 1000 story

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Suzuki GSXR 1000 Z K4 Limited Edition

'The Story'

After the surprise sale of my 7/11 I was left with £6500 cash in my hand. I did have the beginnings of a 1340cc big block GSXR 'monster motor' that I was building up to install in the 7/11, but with no carbs, pipe or more importantly – rolling chassis, it was obvious that this wasn’t going to get me to my annual pilgrimage to the TT races on the Isle of man, in less than 3 moths time.

Now, lets make it clear – I'm not a rich man by any means, and I've never had anything like this amount of cash in my hand before. In the past, I'd always bought a bike for around a grand or less, then done it up over a period of time – saving money to buy bits as I go, or doing deals with stuff and on eBay etc to raise the cash for the build of the bike. So I was in a very nice, but unfamiliar, situation. Nearly all of my mates expected me to go out and buy a spondon frame kit and shove the bog block GSXR engine in that, as to me, it's the ultimate base for a streetfighter, and those around me knew that I'd always wanted a Spondon. I was also considering buying a brand new bike. I'd never been in the position to be able to walk into a new bike showroom – glance around, point to a bike I fancied the look of, and tell the salesman "I'll have that one!" –, which quite appealed to me.

After much chin rubbing, I decided to buy a new bike – after all, I'd built streetfighters in the past, and I could build one again in the future – I may never again have the opportunity to buy a brand spanking new bike, so I may as well go for it. If I don’t like it, I could always sell it and buy that spondon frame kit I'd always lusted after….

So, what to buy? Well, it's no secret that I'm a Suzuki man at heart – the only 2 new bikes that appealed to me were either the Hayabusa or the Gixxer Thou'. I was lucky enough to know mates who owned these bikes, and took the opportunity for test rides on both.

The Hayabusa had awesome acceleration and was a lot more nimble than I was expecting, now this was the bike for me – or so I thought. From the moment I slung my leg over the gixxer thou', all my perceptions had changed. It is amazing fast, and agile. It feels so light and easy to turn on the move – I hardly even had to 'think' about riding it. It is such a huge step away from what I'm used to, that I had to alter my riding style considerably. Most of all it was fun!

With my mind made up, and a list price of £ 8800, I was resigned to buying a late, but used GSXR 1000 K4. I scoured the dealers and the bike papers to try and get the best deal. During my search I discovered the 'all black' model. It turns out that for 2004 Suzuki had produced a run of 1000 limited edition GSXR's, dubbed the 1000 Z , with only 400 being officially imported into the UK. The only difference to the K4 is the all black paint with no graphics, the chrome effect logo's and gold coloured wheels, oh – and a small 'Limited' badge on the top yoke. It looked the business, and was definitely my favourite!

At the time (February '05), stocks of the K4 were being cleared to make way for the new K5 version. Folk had stopped buying the K4 in anticipation of the latest incarnation of the GSXR 1000 series, so there were bargains to be had. Except that there were no 'Z' Limited Edition models anywhere! , If I'd wanted a yellow one – I could have had a new Uk spec K4 for just £ 6300! , Other colour scheme's could be had for around £6600, with the popular blue and white ones going as cheap as £6800. So it seems I could afford to buy a brand new one after all. I still really fancied the black one though, and after fruitless searching I rang Suzuki GB, they told me where they'd sent the last batch of Z K4's back in November, a phone call later and I'd found one of the last Uk spec, band new, Z K4's in the country.

With an official list price of £9200 ( a £400 premium over the std version ), I felt I'd done well to buy it for just £7000 on the road.

Not a bad deal in the end then, £500 and my old 1989 gsxr750 – for a brand new GSXR1000!

GSXR 1000 Z

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