Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

FLAT OUT FOURS

Suzuki GSX-R400 v Kawasaki ZXR400 v Honda CBR400 There's only one way to ride a supersport 400, and that's FLAT OUT

"Curse!" cried Bill after his first stint. "Ooh, I don't like it, I want to go home" he kept mumbling into the face of the icy storm. The GSX-R easily takes the honours in the torture section of the test because, whereas the others feel small to ride, the Suzuki is positively minuscule. It's like you're straddling a large mini-moto rather than a small superbike. Like the Kawasaki and Honda it's low and short, but unlike the opposition it's slim as well - thanks to the old-fashioned 750 and 1100 type GSX-R cradle frame. To be honest I felt a bit of a twat on the GSX-R, sprawled all over it like blancmange on a fish knife and this in spite of an enduring love affair with Suzuki's. Before this job (and it's endless streams of new bikes) in that nightmarish period in my life when I actually had to buy my own bikes, I went through a succession of Suzuki's, culminating in the first of the water-cooled 750's, the WN. That was an affair I shall never forget, and if you squint
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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

hard enough this bike looks just like it. The same faired-in headlights, that same distinctive frame layout, it could be her.... Except it isn't, it's a scaled down version that has a character all of its own. Quite what that character is I'm not sure. It wants to be the badass of the bunch, it strives to be the nastiest, most single- minded scratcher, but it falls short. Not by much mind because it actually out-performs the Kwacker on the twisties even if it can't quite nail the Honda. It's got the legs on the Kawasaki thanks to suspension that hasn't travelled as far down the road to ruin. It retains a lot more of its original performance, and like most sporting Suzuki's, is a fine tool for the bends. There's still plenty of useable damping from the forks, so lobbing the GSXR in to a turn isn't the blind leap of faith it is on the ZXR. At the back end it's business as usual, and there was none of the sogginess I'd expected after parking nearly fifteen stone of leather- wrapped cholesterol on the poor dear. The bike handled both myself and the Derbyshire roads without too much stress, certainly well enough to run rings round the floundering Kawasaki, which over the same roads was bucking and weaving while the Suzuki tracked straight and true. Pretty much good news all round, except for the irritating handlebar position which angles the bars too far in, bringing the inside clip- on too close for comfort when cornering. Given that the handling was a minor revelation, it came as a big disappointment to find the motor so, well...tedious really. It never seems to get going, no matter how hard you beast it. Check the speedo and you'll notice that you do eventually reach the same sort of speeds as the opposition, even if you've no idea how you came to be travelling that fast. You see, the GSX-R's motor is the most characterless powerplant I think I've ever tested, and seems to provide the same level of thrust no matter what combination of gears or revs are used. I had 'er showin' just under 17,000rpm for a bit, and I still couldn't find the limiter. The weird thing is even spinning that fast the engine sounds the same as it does at 7,000rpm - like a tuned fork lift truck. One of those 'lecky ones, and probably not that much quicker either. Never mind, at least it's smooth, and it's erm...quiet... Forget it, I can't think of anything really positive to say about it.
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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

The bottom line is, the length of time between twisting the throttle and actually getting anywhere is so depressingly vast that you need Prozac just to give you the motivation to hook the next gear. It has to be said that this is a shame because the transmission is pure Suzuki, flicking between ratios with a finesse that only they seem to be able to re-create so reliably every time. A light clutch and smooth, positive change mean the inevitable frenzied cog-swapping action isn't as much of a chore as it is with the competition. Consequently it is a genuine pity the engine is so criminally flat because the slightest hint of a powerband would make working the gearbox a pleasure rather than a duty. Ah well, it's nearly there, certainly more so than the Kawasaki, even taking into account the dodgy motor. Surprisingly for a Suzuki it's wearing its age well. Normally suspect areas like fork legs, calipers and wheels all seem to be holding up better then the ZXR's items. It looks dated next to the Honda and Kwacker, but it's from an era I can identify with, so I like the link with its larger stable-mates. Those were bikes that had a deserved reputation as hooligan's tools. Hard men rode GSX-R's, and that's the role this bike is trying to continue in the 400 class. Nearly there, but not with that tame little motor inside.

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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

Ay up, I told you he wouldn't like it," grunted Bill, his voice faint, carried away on yet another gust of icy Peak District air. I uncurled from the frozen foetal position I'd adopted on the path by the roundabout, propped myself up on one elbow and cast a glance at the XR400. Alex was cruising round on it, one hand steering, the other firing off a variety of internationally understood hand gestures for... well... this bike is not a good as expected. Which to be fair, it wasn't. The Kawasaki had a Michelin Hi-Sport on the front, and a badly squared-off Macadam on the rear. I'd had a brief go on the bike on the way to the first photo location, which was enough to make me determined not to do any cornering on it. Aha, at last I'd found some tangible benefit from becoming Road Test Editor. I practised my delegation skills immediately and sent Bill out to get some serious lean angle for the camera. This should have been a great recipe for laughs. You see Bill is still a drag racer at heart but he professes to have found a new love for corners, and after getting the pegs down on an R1 recently there's no holding him back. Off he went, freezing gale blowing and with ice-cold, mismatched tyres, I could barely stifle a giggling fit as he tip-toed around, getting used to the bike's unwillingness to hold a line. Luckily he couldn't get up much speed, so he wasn't going to get too hurt when he eventually went down. "It's too cold to crash," was his excuse for remaining upright when he returned, five minutes later. I was surprised he didn't bin it because this particular ZXR400 was an awkward beast which fought off all efforts to get it turned. When she did 'give in' and decided to go for it, the front and back seemed to want to fall in at different speeds. Bloody horrible really. Having said that Bill had cranked the ZXR well over, so it couldn't have been that bad. No, it was, it's just that it felt least crap when it was completely cranked. Anything inbetween reed over and upright and it was too scary. Gimp a bong and I'd have another go, otherwise that was it for me. Judging by Alex's body language, he was feeling much the same way. The ZXR's odd selection of rubber must have been the main problem, but a quick groping and fumbling from the Frog (of the bike not me) showed there was another culprit, a rear shock that was well past its sell-by date. Way too much static sag on the spring and bugger -all damping meant any serious cornering was a matter of trusting to luck, not judgement.
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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

The front was in slightly better shape and could be relied on to keep the nose pointing in the right direction. In perfect fettle this would have been the best front end in the test, as the 400 possesses the same legendary capabilities as its bigger 750 stable-mate. As it was, even in this semi rundown state it was still the equal of the other two bikes. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said of the brakes which were under par. Having ridden a few newer ZXRs I know that stopping should be one of the bike's strongest features, but this example had little enough power and next to no feel - not ideal partners when the rider can no longer feel any of his fingers, and needs as much help as possible to get the thing stopped. A change of pads and some new brake fluid would doubtless return much of its former glory. Even so the whole front end is so good to start with that even in this neglected state, it could still hang with the other two when the speeds got a bit daft. The same could be said of the motor. So I will. It was like much of the rest of the bike, fairly tired yet still surprisingly capable with it. It made a nastier sound than either of the other bikes, even at tickover, hunting slightly like most Kawasaki's are prone to do. It's a sensation that continues as speed builds. The airbox burble develops into a more guttural scream and with 9,000rpm come and gone she's finally off. It's not a big surge in power or anything, just a crisping-up of carburation and a touch more willingness to respond to the throttle. In this respect it's no different to either of the other parallel fours, but unfortunately it falls far short of them in terms of transmission. The gearbox seems in danger of imminent self-destruction each time you go for another cog, grating and banging horrendously, no matter how perfectly timed your attempt. It's a sin that unfortunately cannot be overlooked on a bike that has to change gears more frequently than it turns its wheels. It was a sad sight really - the ZXR remaining unloved and always the last to be ridden - especially since it could well have nabbed victory were it in good shape. You'd need to get a hell of a discount to get someone interested in it, but if you knew what you were doing you could easily whip 'er into shape. Service the shocks and motor, add an end can and a bit of dyno work and she'd be a bargain. Not so sure about the transmission, though.

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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

Sprinting. You wouldn't think any of us were capable of it but when the need is great enough even wheezing old farts like Bill and myself can get a shift-on - and the need was indeed great. The CBR is simply light-years ahead of the opposition in terms of comfort and ease of use and as the weather conditions were becoming ever more severe, my delegatory powers were being resisted (helped no doubt by the onset of hypothermia). The reward for reaching the baby Fireblade ahead of the opposition was worth the asthma attack, not just because compared with the alternatives it had the ergonomics of a four poster bed, but also because the satisfaction of beating Blunter and Alex "The Frog" Hearn was as good as a shot of lung-clearing Ventolin. The Honda might not look any bigger than the Suzuki and Kawasaki but it definitely feels more like a normally proportioned superbike. Weight is distributed between your three main load-bearing areas much more evenly than the Kawasaki (which punishes knees) or the Suzuki (which wants to snap your wrists). Not having one part of your body constantly screaming for a rest helps develop a bond with a bike, and I quickly (and obviously shallowly) formed a warm attachment to the CBR for these reasons. "It isn't just the comfiness, it's the way everything else works so... so," Bill's eyes clouded momentarily as he searched for the definitive description, "Nicely." Mmm, not sure about the terminology but I think I know what he means though. All the controls from clutch to gear-lever, brakes to indicator switch, ooze quality and operate with a reassuring solidity. Most of this is surely down to the CBR's youth (relative to the
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ZXR and GSX-R) but this being a Honda I think it's fair to say it would probably still be in a different league if it was as elderly as the Suzuki. What does remain in the same league, unfortunately, is the motor. Even the magical might of Honda can't stop 400cc feeling anything other than too small. Once again we have an incredibly buzzy unit that revs forever without actually ever seeming to get into its stride. It is better than the other two, if for no other reason than the delivery is crisper and more predictable. At least there is a more pronounced urgency about the rev needle's rise once past the 10,000rpm mark, but it's not so marked a step that it could really be seen as a powerband. It's still vitally important that you keep chasing the redline though, 'cos that's where you have to be to keep the pace up. The CBR400 is one of those rare bikes - a Honda with a sorted gearbox. It's so good that I reckon the H-men have had one of Suzuki's GSX-R gearboxes in bits on a bench in one of the labs. There's none of the usual Honda clunkiness associated with changes, and it can be hustled up and down the box without fear of missing gears or crunching cogs from down below. Braking is more than up to the job too, making the Kawasaki's stoppers feel prehistoric by comparison. Where you need to use four fingers and the grip of a dying man to stop the ZXR, the CBR just requires two fingers and a gentle squeeze. In return for this minimal effort you get a level of stopping power that the other two bikes just can't match. There is a downside though, and that's what all this stopping power does to the front forks. They just can't cope and tend to make an exaggerated dive for cover whenever you stroke the front lever. There's plenty of adjustment on the forks, but an investigatory twiddle didn't produce any tangible improvement. The springs, which have been developed for a seven stone Japanese jockey, rather than your average bloated European carcass, are simply too soft. Unless you're a girl, in which case (surprise) they're perfect. Still, it's not something that would worry you unduly on the road (where the softness is often welcome insulation from the next pothole) but get on a trackday and you'd run into problems. The rear coped well enough, and I suspect that there's enough adjustment in the Showa monoshock unit for you to tailor the performance to suit
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your needs, whatever they may be. The CBR was the only one of the trio that didn't need to be upgraded in some way. There again it cost so much more that you'd be bloody upset if you did have to spend owt extra. Shows that you do get what you pay for though. Bill's wisdom knows no bounds, but he's right: the Honda was the best bike by far, but then it had the advantage of being practically new, while the others sadly weren't.

CONCLUSION
All three of these bikes were a shock to me. Over the years I've tested quite a few 400s (albeit some time ago) but I don't remember them being so, well... so damn slow. They may have two-thirds of the capacity of 600s but there's no way they come even close to offering up the same proportion of power. They can't even match the delivery of an Aprilia RS250 and yet they carry considerably more weight. There's so little excitement to be had from the motors that you rely on the handling, particularly conservation of momentum going into corners, to get your jollies. Because speed is so hard to gain in the first place, you find yourself pushing the limits of safe riding further and further just so you don't have to touch the brakes, however gently. 'I can make that gap.' 'I will nip between these two trucks.' 'Why should I slow down for this roundabout when there's bound to be a gap in the traffic?' It's a lethal game, but it is the only way to ride these babies - flat out, everywhere. So which bike is best at playing the game? Well that's easy, the Honda doesn't just blow the other two into the weeds, it blows them right through and out the other side. Then again, so it should because it is newer and frankly, it's also bloody expensive. Which one would I choose myself? Ah, that's a completely different question, and brings my Yorkshire background in to the equation. I have a healthy dose of the stingy gene in my make-up and there's no way I could conceive of paying so much for so little performance, no matter how well it handles or how pretty it looks. Bye-bye Honda. So what of the Suzuki? Well it's certainly a bargain, and the handling is still up for it, but it has got that ridiculous engine and ludicrous riding position, so that's out of contention too. I'd have the ZXR, and wouldn't have to think twice about it. I reckon a bit of bargaining would see it down to around the 3,200 mark. A moderate amount of extra wedge and plenty of elbow-grease to get it back to full fitness would leave you with a sorted example of the breed, which I'm
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Superbike Magazine 400cc Grey Import Test January 2000

convinced would be a match for the Honda. At substantially less than the CBR (even after it's been tidied up) the ZXR has got to be the bargain of the bunch. Didn't expect that, eh?

SPECIFICATIONS
SPECS
OTR Price ENGINE Type Displacement Bore x Stroke Carburation Gearbox Max Power Max Torque Cycle Parts Chassis Suspension Twin spar aluminium Front: Telescopic forks, adjustable preload Rear: Monoshock Front: 4-piston calipers, twin discs Rear: 220mm disc Front: 120/60 17 Rear: 150/60 17 1,375mm 14.4 litres 163kg Twin spar aluminium Front: Telescopic forks, adjustable preload Rear: Monoshock Front: 4-piston calipers, twin discs Rear: 220mm disc Front: 120/60 17 Rear: 160/60 17 1,380mm 14 litres 168kg Twin spar aluminium Front: Telescopic forks, adjustable preload Rear: Monoshock Front: 4-piston calipers, twin discs Rear: 220mm disc Front: 120/60 17 Rear: 160/60 17 1,375mm 16 litres 167kg Liquid cooled 16-valve DOHC parallel four 399cc 55x42mm 4 x CV carbs 6-speed constant mesh 50bhp @ 11,500rpm 24ft-lb @ 9,200rpm Liquid cooled 16-valve DOHC parallel four 398cc 57x39mm 4 x CV carbs 6-speed constant mesh 54bhp @ 12,000rpm 24.9ft-lb @ 9,200rpm Liquid cooled 16-valve DOHC parallel four 398cc 56x40.4mm 4 x CV carbs 6-speed constant mesh 52bhp @ 12,000rpm 25.8ft-lb @ 10,200rpm

HONDA CBR400
4,793

KAWASAKI ZXR400
3,499

SUZUKI GSX-R400
2,899

Brakes

Tyres Wheelbase Fuel Capacity Weight

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