Suzuki's GSX-R has long been synonymous with top-tier, street-legal race bikes, and the new-for-2019 GSX-R1000X looks to continue and improve on that reputation. This new “Gixxer” is built around Suzuki's design trinity that's succinctly broken down as “run, stop, and turn” to give the “X” more of what most folks look for in a sportbike. A new powerplant rides in an equally new frame to make the GSX-R1000X a unique machine that follows the natural progression of design from the GSX-R1000 model it replaces.

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Design

The GSX-R1000X may be a new model, but it still looks like a Gixxer to mine eyes. A compact cyclops LED headlight leads the way from its recess at the tip of the nose, and the emitter rides between a pair of ram-air ports that increase the engine's overall volumetric efficiency. That's a nice trick that takes advantage of the pressure wave in front of the bike for an inexpensive boost to performance. Unfortunately, the power curve is rather flat until somewhere around the 100 mph mark, so for the most part, it's not going to help the rank-and-file street riders very much. Still, it makes a good conversation piece if nothing else, and the ducts kinda look cool, so there's that.

Up top, a compact bubblescreen punches a hole in the wind for the pilot, but you'll have to tuck in all the way to get any benefits from it. That's okay, 'cause the clip-on bars and jockey-mount pegs combine with the saddle to define an aggressive rider's triangle that encourages a tucked-in riding posture.

Below the light, the fairing opens up in the typical sportbike cowl-scoop that forces cooling air through the radiator and vents it out the backside to reintegrate with the slipstream while keeping drag low. The cowl extends all the way down to the chin and forms a belly pan that carries all the way back to the swingarm and leaves us with just a glimpse of the powerplant tucked away inside.

A 4.2-gallon fuel tank defines the middle of the flyline with a fairly flat deck that slopes down to the narrow waist leaving plenty of room for some enthusiastic body English, and it's lowered a total of 21 mm to leave more room to tuck in. An upswept subframe section gives it a bit of a nose-down/tail-up attitude and lofts the pillion in the typical fashion with fold-up footpegs, but no J.C. handles for the remaining points of contact. If sharing the fun ain't your thing, you can strike the p-pad in favor of an aerodynamic tail cover for race days.

An LED taillight maximizes your visibility to rearward traffic, and the rear blinkers and plateholder are clustered with the mudguard, no doubt for easy removal ahead of track days. Overall, the new design seems to be a skosh more compact than the outgoing model, but with much the same panache.

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Chassis

Racing DNA makes itself apparent in the bones of the beast. An aluminum twin-spar frame provides the main structure for the GSX-R100X, and the design changes dropped 10-percent of its former weight and rolled the engine back six degrees and pull the forks in 20 mm. Also, the superbike-style swingarm was extended by 40 mm in a bid to improve stability and handling, and it rocks race-worthy linkages that help the Showa Remote Reservoir Shock Absorber deliver stable, balanced support. The rear shock goes beyond the basic trinity with adjustable preload and rebound damping alongside both high- and low-speed compression damping.

Up front, Showa reprises its role with its Big Piston Forks that use flexible shims to control the flow of damping oil within – slow flow for gentle bumps and faster flow for more severe ones – to deliver a superior ride in addition to the compression/rebound damping adjustments on the fork cap. The high-tech wizardry continues into the anchors with radial-mount Brembo calipers and T-drive brake rotors. Dual, 320 mm discs and four-pot calipers take care of business up front with a 240 mm disc and single-piston Nissin caliper out back with ABS protection as part of the standard equipment package. In addition to the ABS, an IMU reads vehicle movement and feeds the system data that lets it act as an anti rear-wheel-lift feature, as well.

Cast, 17-inch, six-spoke rims round out the rolling chassis and keep unsprung weight low, as do the Bridgestone Racing Street RS11 hoops that rock ZR-rated rubber in a 120/70 up front opposite a 190/55. In addition to being light in weight, the tires are cast with a tread pattern made specifically for race-style cornering, so go ahead and throw what ya' got at it, the 1000X can handle it.

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Drivetrain

Power for the GSX-R1000X comes from an inline four-banger that delivers smooth power pulses due to the even firing order. Up top, dual over-head cams time the 16-valve head with lightweight finger-followers that are borrowed from the factory racing program in a bid to reduce the reciprocating mass and combat harmonic float at high rpm. Additionally, the Suzuki Racing Variable Valve Timing feature rotates the intake cam relative to the drive sprocket to deepen the torque well without sacrificing top-end power. Also, the balance tubes in the exhaust system use a set of valves that deliver variable backpressure to further tweak the power delivery.

What kind of power are we talking about? Well, since the “X” is still on hold for its release, I haven't exactly had a chance to put one on a dyno, but the tentative numbers at this time indicate something on the order of 199 ponies and 87 pounds o' grunt. The factory refined the engine water jacket and radiator to reduce the amount of coolant needed to get the job done, and it gets backup from a second radiator that cools and protects the oil, as well. A 76 mm bore and 55.1 mm stroke give the mill its 999.8 cc displacement and sizzlin' hot 13.2-to-1 compression ratio, so yeah, nothing but the finest pump champagne will do for this lump.

The electronics suite is fairly robust, and it starts out with a ride-by-wire throttle control that sends its signal to the ECM, which in turn, controls the throttle bodies. Suzuki's Idle Speed Control smooths out cold starts and low-rpm operation alongside the Low RPM Assist System with the Drive Mode Selector that lets you dial in power delivery to suit the conditions. Finally, the traction control reads data from the IMU to deliver 10 levels of intervention to allow varying levels of rear-wheel slip.

Power flows through a slip-and-assist clutch to a six-speed transmixxer, and the shorter first gear makes it more decisive coming out of the hole. The factory borrowed its Quick-Shift feature from its “R” models to let you shift both up and down the range sans clutch action.

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Pricing

Price is still TBA at the time of this writing. However, the model it replaces rolled for $14,699, and I expect the MY2019 GSX-R1000X to fall maybe a grand or so north of that mark.

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Competitors

At the top end, the literbike segment is a game of ounces and inches, and so any competitor I pick will be very close in capability and design. That said, I decided to grab another of the Japanese Big Four, and went with Yamaha's YZF-R1S for my head-to-head with the GSX-R1000X.

Like the Gixxer, the “R1S” has windtunnel-tested fairings, and the front fairing opens up into a ram-air intake for the same kind of boost at the top end that the “X” delivers. One thing Yamaha got right was it integrated the front blinkers with the mirrors, and I like that since it A: reduces drag and B: makes it easy to strike both ahead of track days.

KYB suspension supports the Yammy with the full spectrum of adjustments to more or less break even, and the brakes are top-shelf, as well, with ABS and pressure-sharing technology to boot. In the engine compartment, Yamaha delivers smooth power from its Crossplane Crankshaft similar to Suzuki's Even-Fire system, and the R1S comes equipped with a solid electronics suite, as well. Traction control, slide control, wheelie control, and launch control help steady the R1S for a slight edge over the Suzuki.

He Said

“The Gixxer holds a special place in my heart as the first bike to ever allow me to scare the crap out of myself, and the newest iteration looks to be cut from the same cloth. I understand the need for speed, truly I do, but if you think you'll do this machine justice on public roads, you're either fooling yourself, or certifiably crazy. Again I'd point out that the ram-air doesn't do much until you're way past the point where the folks down at the police station get involved, so keep that in mind if you aren't planning to actually hit a closed circuit.”

She Said

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, “I don't know much about the new GSX-R1000X yet, only that it's lighter, more compact, and more powerful than the R1000 it replaced in the lineup. That suggests to me more nimble handling and ample eagerness in the corners. It has a nice electronics suite. This could make your ride to work an absolute blast.”

2019 Suzuki GSX-R1000X Specifications

Further Reading

Yamaha YZF-R1S

See our review of the Yamaha YZF-R1S.

Suzuki

Read more Suzuki.