Road Test: GSX-R 750 vs. Crescent GSX-R 750

Holy cow it was cold. Winter had appeared overnight and I was woefully unprepared in one-piece leathers and a paddock jacket. I was so chilled I was passing through the portal into the murky limbo existence of the truly frozen. You know, the one where you're so cold crashing seems preferable to carrying on because at least the ensuing tumbling, friction and impact may inject a little heat into your frozen (albeit smashed) limbs. Unfortunately, I couldn't crash just yet because I was still 100 miles from Donington, Niall Mac, the Crescent GSX-R and our photo shoot, and I was late already.

A blurred glance at the stock GSX-R's speedo (I was shivering that much) showed I was doing 70mph. I needed to go faster, so I pushed up to a ton but all that did was double the wind chill and soon I was browbeaten back to 70. It didn't matter how comfortable I was - lovely seat and riding position for a sportsbike these GSX-Rs - or how easy the midrange made my progress, or even how good the bike sounded despite the standard end can - I really couldn't have given a toss. At this point I would gladly have traded the thing in for a ten year-old Fiat Panda.

Then a sign for services appeared and I vowed not to turn off. I would be strong and continue - like I said, I was late. 30 seconds later I'd dived across three lanes of traffic and could smell my imminent Little Chef breakfast on the chill air already.

Ten minutes later and I was spilling lukewarm coffee down my leathers as my hands continued to shake uncontrollably while the rest of the place stared at me in pity when they thought I wasn't looking. I was stuffed - halfway between Donington and home, too cold to go back and too cold to continue. Rats. And then I remembered Cobby was vanning the Crescent bike to the track, that his house was one junction behind where I was at on the M1, and that he never gets up on time. A quick call revealed he was just leaving and he had space in the van for another bike - I was saved.

Seeing the Crescent GSX-R nestled in the back of the van as Cobby loaded the stock bike in alongside it was almost enough to warm me up again. I'd been expecting something good but this was stunning. It looked as if they'd rolled John Crawford's BSB bike off the track, cleaned it to within an inch of its life, bolted on a numberplate and lights, and err, then given it to us. Everything reeked of quality from head to toe. The original headlight and clocks sat there up front like they'd never left, exquisite carbon/Kevlar bodywork wrapped everything up sweeter than a Harrods hamper, and everywhere I looked I saw expense and exclusivity - factory swingarm (can't buy those), factory forks and shock (same), yokes with "JC #1" painted on the top (those'll be John Crawford's from this season then...), and the list goes on.

"Thirty grand they reckon that bike owes them," said Cobby casually as he flicked to radio two, turned up the heat, set the GPS on the dashboard and pulled into the fast lane all at once, adding, "that's a rough figure obviously because you can't put a price on all that factory kit can you?" Nope, you sure can't.

And so we made it to Donington warm as toast and all set for a day's malarky with the best 750cc sports bike on the market (that'll be the GSX-R750 for anyone not paying attention), and the ultimate GSX-R750 special all in the interest of discovering just how good this already rather good motorcycle can be made. Let battle commence...

GSX-R750

For all its quirks and foibles, I absolutely bloody love these bikes. I've ridden 'em on gawd knows how many road and track tests, ran one for 15,000 miles as a longtermer last year too, and it's fair to say I'd buy one. If push came to shove and I had to go out tomorrow and put my money where my mouth is and part with cash to own a motorcycle I'd buy one of these straight away. Obviously this will never happen but you get my drift.

One of the best things about the GSX-R is it has things wrong with it. Obviously not things fundamentally or disastrously wrong with it, more a case of parts in its makeup that are slightly flawed and these give it character and life compared to the larger four-cylinder sports competition.

Take the motor for instance. With 749ccs and 122bhp at the back wheel it's an absolute ripper, especially for its size. Running in the same ballpark as the current FireBlade (next year's should have more power) it's hardly lacking in power. What it does lack though is the ultra-easy flexibility of any of the 900cc-plus weapons. Where you can hop on a GSX-R1000, plop into third gear and leave it there pretty much indefinitely should you fancy, rolling on and off the throttle like a dozing minicab driver on autopilot and still getting from A to B as quickly as your mates, the 750 demands you pay it some attention and put some effort into your riding if you want to start making serious ground.

If you want to go proper fast on a GSX-R750 you'd better be prepared to work for it. You can dawdle about in the midrange like you would on a bigger bike, and this'll get you along more than briskly, but to really hang your balls on the line requires added attention to detail.

Which is a good thing because in this age of sportsbikes that do it all for you, having to really ride one is a very welcome change. And the harder you try with the GSX-R, the better the rewards.

For starters the fuel injection is smooth and sweet and the motor will pull happily from the bottom of the tacho, although forward motion will be a little pedestrian. From 4,000rpm to 8,000rpm lies a useful midrange (useful for tooling about on those days when you're not really all there that is), but from 8,000rpm all bloody hell breaks loose as you're catapulted forwards ferociously while the whine from the airbox mates with the bark from the exhaust and the two scream upwards like a pair of high-class hookers reaching a simultaneous orgasm. If you hadn't already guessed, this top-end is stunning, both aurally and in terms of the kick-ass shove it delivers to the bike.

Hauling out of Coppice onto the back straight at Donington was a sensual experience as the bike, already in its top-end on a steady throttle could be wound right up from apex to exit and pinned through third, fourth and then fifth all the way down the straight towards the Esses, the front wheel rising pleasingly off the gentle crest under the Dunlop Bridge with around 135mph on the clock. Beautiful.

The GSX-R's handling is another part of the bike with character-building imperfections, the biggest coming in the shape of the standard steering damper. It is truly awful, making the bike steer with all the poise and certainty of a beached whale anywhere below 50mph, and contributing to a feeling of understeer above this. Through the flip-flop Esses at Donington this was a pain as the bike was heavy and slow to respond, needing a real haul from one side to the other, while wobbling through central London traffic the damper was just plain annoying. Take it off however and the bike is transformed - the steering becomes light and all is well with the world. Oh, and in 15,000 road and track miles without the damper on my longtermer last year, the bike never got unduly out of shape at any speed.

From an ownership point of view this is very satisfying - for a small spot of DiY and no cash outlay you can make your GSX-R750 better.

As for the handling beyond these steering damper hiccups, it is very sweet, reassuring and simply excellent on the road. Here the suspension provides a nice compromise between comfort and feedback and means the only real limits to how fast you can ultimately go are your bottle, surrounding traffic and how many points you're prepared to risk on your licence. And perhaps the brakes, but we'll come to those in a bit.

And to look at the bike's sharp lines and spec sheet (less weight than an R6, 20-odd bhp more) you would assume you were in the presence of an utter track demon. However, this isn't entirely the case. Admittedly we're splitting hairs here and the GSX-R is a good track bike in the greater scheme of things, trouble is it feels like it could be better.

The suspension that works so well on the road can become flustered at the track when you really start pushing with the front end running out of travel hard on the brakes and the back tending to squat too much hard on the gas and making the bike want to run wide on the exit. But, the whole package is fully adjustable, and a little fine tuning goes a long way. And if you want to go further, a bit of gentle rebuild work (stronger spring at the back, fork air gap increased and yokes dropped 10mm down the forks) goes even further for dedicated trackheads.

So just as the motor demands your full attention to make the most of it, so does the chassis, but take the time to play about and experiment with it and the results only get better.

One area that is lacking and does nothing to benefit the bike in any shape or form however is the brakes - they ain't good enough and that's that. To quote Niall's notes: "standard brakes are shit," and that pretty much sums 'em up. They bite well enough and you can feel plenty through the lever, but all you can feel is that beyond a point you aren't stopping any harder no matter how much you squeeze. Although where the front brakes are devoid of real power and only ever average even on the road, the back brake is a gem with loads of compliance, power and feel all at once.

So the GSX-R750 has a stunning screamer of a motor, suspension that works perfectly on the road but needs attention for the track and shonky stoppers, but what else?

Well, all the above are true but the GSX-R package is much more than this and a big part of this comes from the styling. I mean look at it - how beautiful? Frankly it could handle like a fifteen year-old CX500 and I'd still love it. Best-looking Japanese bike on the market and no doubts about it. Then there's the slinky seat hump (you do get a pillion pad too, but it doesn't look anywhere near as cool) with stacks of space underneath for locks and stuff, the clock, mirrors that really work and top quality headlight - it's practical enough to live with too. Just change the brakes, there's a good chap and you should be happy for evermore.

CRESCENT GSX-R750 SPECIAL

This is a truly stunning bike to behold and it really looks like JC's race bike until you look a little closer and clock the tax disc and numberplate. In fact, it's so much like the race bike in both looks and feel that when we'd finished at the track and were leaving to get a few road miles in I felt very strange indeed. I couldn't work out why to start with, but then I realised it was the Crescent bike that was to blame - I felt like I'd just nicked a superbike from the circuit and was heading out for a crafty illegal road thrash. If it had mirrors I'd have been looking in them every two seconds expecting the blues and twos ready to pull me over. This all makes the point though - this is a track bike first with everything else coming very much in second place.

The main reason for that is the motor. Up to 7,000rpm it really isn't happy at all, especially on anything less than a wide-open throttle. It's lumpy, jerky and pretty uncivilized - the total opposite of the road bike. Then when you get to 7,000rpm there's a major flat spot that doesn't clear until a thousand revs later. Having ridden the original race versions of this bike I know this can be tuned out with different engine mapping as they never had this problem, but perhaps this lump hasn't had quite as much work done to it. It did start life as a standard road motor though, not a built-from-the-ground-up factory race affair so that probably explains it.

With a rather more tuned throttle hand than is needed on the standard bike you can potter about below 7,000rpm but the odd jerk and stutter here and there is unavoidable. Whatever, the performance of both motors in this range is pretty much identical, but where life changes very dramatically is from 8,000rpm to the redline.

Sure the stock bike has a killer top end kick, but with all the work that's gone on inside giving it another 20bhp, the Crescent bike makes the stocker feel like a soft pussycat of a thing and really doesn't feel far off the full-on superbike I raced at Knockhill. Very nice indeed.

Once past the eight grand flat spot, you could do what you liked with the throttle because the response was sublime, making the standard bike feel crude by comparison which, for one of the best current fuel injection systems on any road bike, is impressive.

Then there are the looks. I know the standard bike's very pretty and all that but the Crescent bike is something else. Where race bikes look great from a distance but can look a bit secondhand up close, especially as the season goes on, this just looks mint everywhere. It's like a work of art and the quality of the finished package looks fully factory-finished. Which coming from Crescent I suppose it is in a way.

One thing I didn't particularly get on with was the riding position. Obviously it's more extreme than the standard bike but where that bike strikes a lovely balance between sportiness and comfort the Crescent bike felt a little unwieldy to me. The pegs were too high and too far back so I couldn't get enough leverage over the thing through my legs to really haul it about. The pegs can be adjusted so it was a shame we didn't have the tools with us to do it because slightly forward and down and they'd have been perfect. Oh, and while I'm moaning I'll have a pop at the rear brake master cylinder too - it's on the outside of the heel plate and I kept catching my boot on it while climbing about the bike. On a bike as well-finished as this, a little niggle like this one stands out a mile.

But, rear master cylinder aside, the brakes were awesome and the greatest leap forward this bike makes over the standard one. That said the standard GSX-R stoppers are that average that bettering them isn't hard. But to better them to this degree takes some special kit which is exactly what Paul Denning and the Crescent boys have gone for (see 'Tech Head' over the page for more details). Not only did the full AP set up look gorgeous, it worked excellently too. They were everything I could ask for really - loads of feel, an awful lot of power and utterly consistent too with no fading no matter how many laps I put in on them. All in all they were everything the standard bike's weren't.

Apart from the back brake that was which really seemed like more of an afterthought. Fine for racing maybe where you don't use it that often and when you do don't need loads of power either, but on the road - and let's not forget, this is a fully road legal bike - it's a bit lacking.

The quickshifter is another part of the Crescent bike that works far better at the track than on the road. Thing is, it cuts the ignition perfectly to handle flat-out 14,000rpm changes when you're right on the money, but at lower revs the gap is just that touch too long and so makes the whole experience clunky and jerky. Still, with a handy on/off switch tucked away under the top yoke you could just turn it off on the road, and then back on again for the track.

As for the handling, it was a significant improvement over the standard bike, especially on the faster flowing sections of the track like Craner curves where it needed fingertip inputs to flip from one lean to the other where the stocker needed a lot more work in comparison.

It still understeered a bit too because the rear ride height was a bit low. It was definitely running the right spring and shock so just needed a bit more set up time than we had, but on the faster, tighter corners it would run wide slightly.

On the brakes the front forks felt soft, like there was a lack of compression damping. It was just a little too eager to dive, especially when turning in on the brakes then they never quite settled after that, always seeming to be gently on the move right the way through the corner. But having raced with these forks before I know the adjustment and perfect set up are in there. It's the same deal with the shock really, it's just a question of having time to find it.

But overall this is a very, very impressive bike that can happily run around the stocker wherever it pleases on the track. And for what it is, it's still surprisingly usable on the road which means that the odd summer ride outs to show it off are well on the cards - after all, what's the point in owning a bike like this and not letting anyone see it?

But to own this bike and really make the most of it you'd want to spend as much time at the track as possible, preferably with some slicks too. Now there's a thought...

BLUE ON BLUE - TECH HEAD

The specs boxes on the two bikes here really don't begin to scratch the surface of what's going on with the Crescent bike. A quick scan down the list for both machines and, frankly, they don't look that different. Do not be fooled. What Crescent have done is to take a brand spankers GSX-R750 and throw it all away. Then they remembered they needed the frame and the motor, rescued them from the bin and set to work.

Being the BSB Suzuki team, their access to the finest one-off factory parts in the world is a little better than yours or mine. So, they got hold of factory Showa forks and a shock (you couldn't buy these no matter how much cash you had in your sky rocket - they ain't for sale) to take care of suspension at both ends, and threw in a one-off factory swingarm at the back just for good measure. To make sure the front end didn't feel left out in the trickness stakes, factory triple clamps and adjustable steering head inserts were brought in to hold the forks in place, with a £190 …hlins steering damper bolted on to help out if things became too flighty.

As well they might, because not only is power up (we'll come to that in a minute) weight, and especially unsprung weight is well down. Unsprung weight falls thanks to the Marchesini GP magnesium wheels (£1,300 per pair), and AP calipers and discs (£1,116 for the front set-up, £150 for the rear). They're trick, light, stop like hitting a brick wall and come to this bike straight off the 2001 BSB grid.

But the brake set-up doesn't stop (ha ha) there, because there's the AP dual bore master cylinder and multi-adjustable lever for the front brakes to consider too - these'll set you back £590 or so, but the feel is sublime and they're works of art all on their own. At the back there's a very dinky, but far more ordinary single-piston AP caliper taking care of business.

Now to the heart of this beast. All you'll need to do is take one fresh and run-in GSX-R750 lump, add top-spec Yoshimura race cams and close ratio gearbox (a shade over £2,600 for these) and a BMC race filter, remap the ECU (providing you know how that is...), bolt on a Yoshimura Tri-Oval system to let the whole lot breathe more easily (£1,700 to you, sir) and that's it. Well almost. Obviously you'll need all the internals lightening, balancing, polishing and the head gasflowing to the same spec as the Crescent British Superbikes to ramp the compression ratio up to a sky-high 14.2:1 amongst other things, and you'll be there.

But there's more. There's the factory replica radiator (it's just under a grand so what a genuine one costs I dread to think), the bespoke carbon air intakes, the carbon/Kevlar fairings and endurance seat unit, the aluminium race tank, the quickshifter, the factory clip-ons, and the Yoshimura rearsets all to be added on. Finally you'd need to coat the whole lot in gallons of the deepest pearlescent blue and white paint. If you could make a GSX-R750 special in your dreams, have no doubts that this would be it. In fact, this would probably be better...

SPECS - STANDARD GSX-R750

TYPE - SUPERSPORTS

PRODUCTION DATE - 2002

PRICE NEW - £7849

ENGINE CAPACITY - 749cc

POWER - 122bhp@12,300rpm

TORQUE - 56ft.lbs@10,200rpm

WEIGHT - 166kg

SEAT HEIGHT - 810mm

FUEL CAPACITY - N/A

TOP SPEED - N/A

0-60 - n/a

TANK RANGE - N/A

SPECS - CRESCENT RACING GSX-R750 SPECIAL

TYPE - SUPERSPORTS

PRODUCTION DATE - 2002

PRICE NEW - £30,000

ENGINE CAPACITY - 749cc

POWER - 139bhp@12,600rpm

TORQUE - 60ft.lbs@10,300rpm

WEIGHT - 160kg

SEAT HEIGHT - 810mm

FUEL CAPACITY - N/A

TOP SPEED - N/A

0-60 - n/a

TANK RANGE - N/A

Holy cow it was cold. Winter had appeared overnight and I was woefully unprepared in one-piece leathers and a paddock jacket. I was so chilled I was passing through the portal into the murky limbo existence of the truly frozen. You know, the one where you're so cold crashing seems preferable to carrying on because at least the ensuing tumbling, friction and impact may inject a little heat into your frozen (albeit smashed) limbs. Unfortunately, I couldn't crash just yet because I was still 100 miles from Donington, Niall Mac, the Crescent GSX-R and our photo shoot, and I was late already.

A blurred glance at the stock GSX-R's speedo (I was shivering that much) showed I was doing 70mph. I needed to go faster, so I pushed up to a ton but all that did was double the wind chill and soon I was browbeaten back to 70. It didn't matter how comfortable I was - lovely seat and riding position for a sportsbike these GSX-Rs - or how easy the midrange made my progress, or even how good the bike sounded despite the standard end can - I really couldn't have given a toss. At this point I would gladly have traded the thing in for a ten year-old Fiat Panda.

Then a sign for services appeared and I vowed not to turn off. I would be strong and continue - like I said, I was late. 30 seconds later I'd dived across three lanes of traffic and could smell my imminent Little Chef breakfast on the chill air already.

Ten minutes later and I was spilling lukewarm coffee down my leathers as my hands continued to shake uncontrollably while the rest of the place stared at me in pity when they thought I wasn't looking. I was stuffed - halfway between Donington and home, too cold to go back and too cold to continue. Rats. And then I remembered Cobby was vanning the Crescent bike to the track, that his house was one junction behind where I was at on the M1, and that he never gets up on time. A quick call revealed he was just leaving and he had space in the van for another bike - I was saved.

Seeing the Crescent GSX-R nestled in the back of the van as Cobby loaded the stock bike in alongside it was almost enough to warm me up again. I'd been expecting something good but this was stunning. It looked as if they'd rolled John Crawford's BSB bike off the track, cleaned it to within an inch of its life, bolted on a numberplate and lights, and err, then given it to us. Everything reeked of quality from head to toe. The original headlight and clocks sat there up front like they'd never left, exquisite carbon/Kevlar bodywork wrapped everything up sweeter than a Harrods hamper, and everywhere I looked I saw expense and exclusivity - factory swingarm (can't buy those), factory forks and shock (same), yokes with "JC #1" painted on the top (those'll be John Crawford's from this season then...), and the list goes on.

"Thirty grand they reckon that bike owes them," said Cobby casually as he flicked to radio two, turned up the heat, set the GPS on the dashboard and pulled into the fast lane all at once, adding, "that's a rough figure obviously because you can't put a price on all that factory kit can you?" Nope, you sure can't.

And so we made it to Donington warm as toast and all set for a day's malarky with the best 750cc sports bike on the market (that'll be the GSX-R750 for anyone not paying attention), and the ultimate GSX-R750 special all in the interest of discovering just how good this already rather good motorcycle can be made.

BLUE ON BLUE - TECH HEAD

The specs boxes on the two bikes here really don't begin to scratch the surface of what's going on with the Crescent bike. A quick scan down the list for both machines and, frankly, they don't look that different. Do not be fooled. What Crescent have done is to take a brand spankers GSX-R750 and throw it all away. Then they remembered they needed the frame and the motor, rescued them from the bin and set to work.

Being the BSB Suzuki team, their access to the finest one-off factory parts in the world is a little better than yours or mine. So, they got hold of factory Showa forks and a shock (you couldn't buy these no matter how much cash you had in your sky rocket - they ain't for sale) to take care of suspension at both ends, and threw in a one-off factory swingarm at the back just for good measure. To make sure the front end didn't feel left out in the trickness stakes, factory triple clamps and adjustable steering head inserts were brought in to hold the forks in place, with a £190 Öhlins steering damper bolted on to help out if things became too flighty.

As well they might, because not only is power up (we'll come to that in a minute) weight, and especially unsprung weight is well down. Unsprung weight falls thanks to the Marchesini GP magnesium wheels (£1,300 per pair), and AP calipers and discs (£1,116 for the front set-up, £150 for the rear). They're trick, light, stop like hitting a brick wall and come to this bike straight off the 2001 BSB grid.

But the brake set-up doesn't stop (ha ha) there, because there's the AP dual bore master cylinder and multi-adjustable lever for the front brakes to consider too - these'll set you back £590 or so, but the feel is sublime and they're works of art all on their own. At the back there's a very dinky, but far more ordinary single-piston AP caliper taking care of business.

Now to the heart of this beast. All you'll need to do is take one fresh and run-in GSX-R750 lump, add top-spec Yoshimura race cams and close ratio gearbox (a shade over £2,600 for these) and a BMC race filter, remap the ECU (providing you know how that is...), bolt on a Yoshimura Tri-Oval system to let the whole lot breathe more easily (£1,700 to you, sir) and that's it. Well almost. Obviously you'll need all the internals lightening, balancing, polishing and the head gasflowing to the same spec as the Crescent British Superbikes to ramp the compression ratio up to a sky-high 14.2:1 amongst other things, and you'll be there.

But there's more. There's the factory replica radiator (it's just under a grand so what a genuine one costs I dread to think), the bespoke carbon air intakes, the carbon/Kevlar fairings and endurance seat unit, the aluminium race tank, the quickshifter, the factory clip-ons, and the Yoshimura rearsets all to be added on. Finally you'd need to coat the whole lot in gallons of the deepest pearlescent blue and white paint. If you could make a GSX-R750 special in your dreams, have no doubts that this would be it. In fact, this would probably be better...

GSX-R750

For all its quirks and foibles, I absolutely bloody love these bikes. I've ridden 'em on gawd knows how many road and track tests, ran one for 15,000 miles as a longtermer last year too, and it's fair to say I'd buy one. If push came to shove and I had to go out tomorrow and put my money where my mouth is and part with cash to own a motorcycle I'd buy one of these straight away. Obviously this will never happen but you get my drift.