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00:00What's up everybody?
00:17I'm Barry Henning and I want to introduce you to the new champ of the 1000cc class,
00:22the new 2005 GSX-R 1000.
00:28This motorcycle dyno is more horsepower than any leader bike in the class, and if you've
00:32got the nerve to hold the throttle open, you're going to know what I'm talking about.
00:37This bike has a brand new chassis for 2005, so it handles like a 600, but with like three
00:42times the horsepower.
00:45Suzuki has absolutely raised the roof on sport bike performance with the 2005 GSX-R 1000,
00:51so bring your R1s, bring your Ninjas, this bike will flatten them all.
00:58Perhaps, once upon a time, this GSX-R was the pinnacle of sport bike performance, but
01:07clearly those days are long gone.
01:10Now we have superbikes with 200 horsepower, wheelie control, traction control, launch
01:15control, wings.
01:16There are materials and technology that didn't even exist in 2005.
01:20We have machines such as Ducati's Panigale V4.
01:24And I'm not really sold on all of this technology.
01:28I mean, it's cool, it's certainly impressive, but I'm not convinced that any of it really
01:32makes a motorcycle better.
01:34I mean, there's no way that that's not more advanced and better than this is.
01:40It's a point we're going to have to prove, I guess.
01:44You're going to have to put your bike together before we prove anything.
01:45Yeah, there's a little bit of work, but a constant state of improvement over there.
01:49Not that the K5 Gixxer can actually be improved upon.
01:51We're going to try and settle this debate once and for all.
01:53We hope with Aerie's lovely example of a K5 Gixxer 1000 and that 2020 Ducati Panigale
02:01V4 S.
02:02We have a road trip planned.
02:04We have a racetrack rented.
02:06We're going to use all of that to see what difference 15 years of progress has made in
02:10superbike performance.
02:22As a refresher for everyone, the Panigale V4 is an 1100 cc engine, makes claimed 214
02:31horsepower.
02:32It weighs a claimed 430 pounds and it costs $28,000.
02:38For impact, maybe Aerie can present the specs of his motorcycle right now.
02:42Well, when it was new, Suzuki was claiming about 170 horsepower and it weighed in at
02:46about 440 pounds and in 2005 it cost less than 11,000 bucks.
02:51However, I got this gem for three grand.
02:55Well, sort of.
02:57What can you tell everyone about the brake systems and some of the bearings and the clutch
03:03and the seat and the tires and the clip ons?
03:05I can tell you that it's all new as well as some other stuff because the motorcycle's
03:08got 55,000 miles on it, enough miles to go around the planet twice.
03:12I was just kind of restoring it to its former glory.
03:15It sounds like cheater talk to me.
03:17Do you actually think it's going to compete with this mamma jamma?
03:22I sure hope so.
03:28You can't even hear mine over it.
03:30The thing's stealing out of the thunder already.
03:33Woo!
03:42Our final destination was Buttonwillow Raceway, a few hours north of Los Angeles.
03:47But since we wanted to compare these sporting machines as daily riders, we planned to spend
03:52a couple of days getting there, hitting a mix of canyon twisties, city streets, and
03:57of course, unavoidable stretches of highway.
04:01I did just realize that my speedometer does not work.
04:04At all.
04:06This motorcycle might have a lot more than 55,000 miles on it.
04:10So you're just reading zero miles an hour right now?
04:12I'm currently going zero miles an hour in sixth gear at 7,000 RPM.
04:17No, sorry, that's five.
04:32Yeah!
04:33Well, the axle hasn't fallen out and a brake line hasn't ruptured, so I call that a win
04:39considering all the work that went on.
04:41Congratulations, by the way.
04:43I am enjoying riding this motorcycle.
04:45It still works remarkably well, like feels planted, feels nimble, suspension feels good,
04:51engine feels super strong, revs easily.
04:53And even if it's old and janky looking, it's not all like rattly and clapped out feeling,
04:57you know?
04:58Does it feel like, I don't know, someone rebuilt all of the pivots and contact points with
05:02the bike?
05:03Something like that?
05:04Yeah, it does.
05:05But it's not just because I replaced it and serviced it.
05:07The fact of the matter is, this bike is built on really good bones.
05:09This is a legendary model, the K5.
05:12Suzuki had just figured it out.
05:13It's got stompin' mid-range and top end, it has a good chassis, it had good brakes.
05:17So it's the perfect sport bike, then?
05:18It is, actually.
05:19It was and it still is.
05:21I do think it's interesting that it basically hasn't evolved since 2005 or 2006, right?
05:32I mean, it's the same basic design, yeah?
05:35Why fix it if it ain't broken, man?
05:37Well, on the flip side of things, Ducati has been the poster child of technological advancement
05:43and design advancement, right?
05:44I mean, if you think about the contemporary Ducati to the K5 Gixxer, that was a 1000 cc
05:50V-twin in a steel trellis frame.
05:53Ducati has had at least three seismic reiterations of their flagship superbike.
05:58They didn't have a frame for a while, now it's got four cylinders.
06:01It's totally, totally different, which is maybe one of the reasons that it's at or near
06:05the top of the superbike heap in 2020.
06:08They've also sort of broken the mold with Ducati superbike folklore, I think, because
06:12typically all those bikes were difficult to ride.
06:15They were kind of snatchy and harsh, and the ergonomics were just kind of torturous.
06:20And this bike's just pretty conventional, really.
06:23It's compact, and it pops and snorts and makes all sorts of weird noises, but it's actually
06:28really smooth and easy to ride.
06:30The fueling is good, and the clutch feel is good, and the transmission's excellent, and
06:33the dash is excellent.
06:34All the stuff that should be premium is premium.
06:37Well, it's a good thing if you're going to pay $28,000 for a motorcycle.
06:41Yeah, that's fair.
06:42Meanwhile, for $3,000 plus a couple of grand in repair parts, I'm pretty pleased.
06:49Even without my ABS or my quick shifter or my electronic suspension or my electronic
06:54anything except fuel injection and ignition, this bike works really well.
07:03The GSX-R did work really well.
07:07For a little while, anyway.
07:12The K5 GSX-R is known for its reliability, however, this one does have a lot of miles
07:18on it, 55,000, at least when the odometer stopped working.
07:23And now it's making kind of an unpleasant noise, so I'm going to check the one thing
07:27that I can easily check, which is cam chain, because it has a manual cam chain tensioner.
07:32And hopefully, that makes the noise go away.
07:33Otherwise, we might be in trouble.
07:43It's quieter.
07:45Or louder.
07:47It's not actually the noise I was hearing, but it's good to get one noise to go away.
07:54We got a little bit of cam chain noise to go away, but I don't think that was our problem.
07:58There's still the kind of rhythmic rattling coming from the lower forward portion of the engine.
08:09That's the noise.
08:11Did you hear that?
08:16That was not there when we bought it.
08:22I don't know, man.
08:24Doesn't sound healthy.
08:26We got an episode to make.
08:28We got a YouTube audience.
08:30Jonesing to know which one's better, a 15-year-old superbike or a new superbike.
08:35And this, unfortunately, would answer the question pretty soundly.
08:41As soon as I saw the toolbox come out, I couldn't resist going downstairs.
08:46I had to watch this train wreck unfold in person.
08:50So, yeah, the noise.
08:52I mean, we didn't notice it when we bought the bike.
08:54And we didn't notice it when we were riding it.
08:56But when you came to a stop, I mean, you even asked me, you're like, what is that noise?
08:59That is what I said.
09:00That is what you said.
09:01I had earplugs in, so it wasn't very prominent.
09:03But when we pulled in tonight, I gave it a listen, and it's not sounding good.
09:09Airy never actually needs help working on a motorcycle.
09:12So, I contributed by pointing out the obvious.
09:16Of the two machines, the one that is making weird noises from the engine is, shockingly, the one with 55,000 miles on it.
09:23Basically, ghost noise.
09:25Look at that.
09:27Oh, my God.
09:29So lucky.
09:30It couldn't be any juicier than that.
09:32Oh, my gosh.
09:33So, this is the mechanism that's responsible for the electricity, and it's supposed to be bolted tight, and it's loose, and that's the noise we heard.
09:40Hallelujah.
09:41There is a God.
09:42That is literally best-case scenario.
09:46Best-case scenario is these bolts are loose.
09:48Worst-case scenario is that bearing is loose, and then we are F'd.
09:52And you thought you were just going to get to rub it in my face that the old piece of shit isn't worth anything.
09:59I'm blown away, by the way.
10:01I mean, I guess we could take the stator cover off, and, like, maybe there'd be, like, a loose bolt in there.
10:07Like, I don't know.
10:08Who wants to go buy a lottery ticket?
10:10This guy does.
10:15All right, let's pack her up and go to bed.
10:17We've got more adventuring to do tomorrow.
10:22The next day, the GSX-R was back and better than ever.
10:26Zach seemed sad that he hadn't won by default, but it's hard to stay grumpy on a twisty road.
10:36Unfortunately, it didn't last.
10:38Ari insisted we stop for a ridiculous test in downtown Bakersfield.
10:43Tape an oven thermometer to the inside of each of our legs to see which bike gets hotter in traffic on a 100-degree day.
10:50More horsepower usually means more heat, so you can probably tell where this is going.
10:56Current temperature of my man meat is ambient, 100 degrees.
11:00My inner thigh is at 106.
11:04I set my temperature to 160 degrees, which is that for medium beef.
11:10Normally in California, we'd split lanes to avoid melting in traffic.
11:14But being your humble servants of motorcycle testing, we stayed behind the camera truck and waited for the mercury to rise.
11:22Jumping to 117 at this light.
11:24Pretty warm. I'm at 120.
11:26Oh, I bet you're going to be boiling water with that thing.
11:32I'm at 124. I am at 136 now.
11:37I'm at 145. I have reached rare beef.
11:41How much of this do you think you can endure?
11:43Because I'm actually, you know, my temperature is reading 131, but honestly, it's not really that hot for me.
11:48Well, yeah. All right. I'm at 151.
11:51I'm now beef medium, according to the side of the thermometer.
11:57It's really pretty warm. Starting to suffer here. My heart rate's going up a little bit.
12:01Oh, my God. We got to get this guy to some cold water.
12:03This is the price you pay for performance, Zach.
12:06And I am paying.
12:09Who knows how accurate $20 kitchen thermometers are?
12:12But Ari had made his point.
12:15214 horsepower, along with header pipes under your buns, is a recipe for overcooked thigh meat.
12:21The Panigale would have to prove its worth elsewhere.
12:41This is the test that matters.
12:43We are at a race track.
12:44This is where these bikes belong.
12:46And we're going to settle it with a lap time showdown.
12:482020 Panigale V4 S versus K5 Gixxer 1000.
12:52May the fastest bike win.
12:54I am very curious to find out if my veteran super bike here, with a few choice modifications,
13:00which now includes a fresh set of Pirelli slicks, can actually keep this brand new Panigale honest.
13:06It's just more cheating. Like, the list doesn't end.
13:09It's not cheating, man.
13:10If a set of tires is all that it takes for this bike to do a competitive lap versus that bike, I want to know.
13:16First things first, we're going to warm up, scrub in Ari's cheater tires, shake the rust off.
13:25Exciting, exciting.
13:27But agreed. We're taking it easy. We're just warming up here.
13:30Oh, definitely. You know me. I need a reminder to ease into things.
13:35Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to let these suckers eat.
13:39Oh, yeah.
13:45Oh, my God. This is so much fun.
13:51I'm missing that auto blip on the downshifts, that's for sure.
13:54Slipper clutch doesn't appear to be working.
14:01Oh, my God. You're disappearing.
14:04Ha, ha.
14:08Come on inside.
14:09Ha, ha, ha.
14:13Woo.
14:20Ah, f***ing shifter, man.
14:24I blew the corner. I screwed up my downshift.
14:28Ha, ha.
14:29I have evidently become quite complacent in these recent years of riding with modern technology.
14:42Wow. How was that for you?
14:44Well, it's certainly exciting, and I guess I'd feel like a total stud if I was in the B group of a public track day, but I'm not.
14:50I'm riding against you on a Panigale.
14:52I mean, the bike is old, but it is still a handful, and frankly, it's a little scary because I don't have any of the safety nets that I've come to perhaps rely on a little bit.
14:59I got nothing but myself to rely on.
15:01Yeah. I have lots of safety nets.
15:03Just all of the safety nets.
15:04I have all the safety nets, and I'm also nervous about trying to lay down a good lap time for what it's worth.
15:09Yeah.
15:10When you light the fuse on a bike like this, it is like a freaking sci-fi jump to hyperspace, man.
15:15It is so, so fast, and I'm...
15:17Well, they call them super bikes.
15:18A little nervous. They are super bikes.
15:20To the competition that we talked about, it is time for a lap time challenge.
15:24Final test.
15:25We said five laps.
15:27Five laps.
15:28Best lap time wins.
15:30No funny stuff, no shortcuts.
15:32I know how jigsaw bros are.
15:33Whatever, man.
15:34This is your test to lose, so why don't you go out there first and set that bar.
15:39Let's see what you got on your big, fancy 214 horsepower.
15:43I wasn't ready to admit it to Aerie, but the Panigale didn't handle perfectly in the warm-up.
15:49So, infinite electronic adjustments to the rescue.
15:52Or so I hoped.
16:00This is what it all boils down to, people.
16:02We got our super bike comparison.
16:03Is it worth it?
16:04How far have we come?
16:05Ultimately, this is what's going to determine it, right?
16:08Ultimately, this is what's going to determine it, right?
16:10This is why sport bikes exist.
16:11To go quick through corners and around racetracks.
16:17Okay, here we go.
16:18Got to try and put that Aerie Henning in his place.
16:38There it goes.
16:42Come on, the Ducati's going to be faster, right?
16:43It is so much more powerful.
16:46And it's got all the technology.
16:48If the GSX-R can get within a second and a half, I would definitely consider that a win.
16:57To anyone watching in Italy, I'm trying as hard as I can here.
17:08Come on, Penny.
17:09Right, I'm stretched to the line.
17:23All right.
17:25I don't know, I think that might be it.
17:27That might be all I've got.
17:33Woo!
17:34I'm a little bit tired.
17:35I'm a little bit tired.
17:36You look good out there man, how'd it feel?
17:40I mean, you gotta be focused, that's for sure, a lot going on, but yeah, I mean it felt pretty
17:48good, it's like first couple laps probably were the best and then the tires kind of fell
17:54off after that, but I don't know, I think that's the best I can do, I think you're up.
17:58Alright man, my turn.
18:01It was pretty intimidating to watch Zach fine-tune dozens of parameters on the Starship Bologna.
18:08My options were far more limited, but I made some small tweaks to my rusty adjusters and
18:13hoped for the best.
18:15Go time.
18:18Alright, there's a lot of pressure, a lot of responsibility honestly.
18:30You know what though?
18:31I'm going to treat this as a joyride with a little extra ambition.
18:40Wheelie off the line because I've got no wheelie control, slide the bike, okay.
19:00I'm a little bit nervous about this you guys.
19:06Slides out of the switch, means I'm going faster.
19:21Full throttle.
19:30Okay, wow, unadulterated performance and experience right there.
19:40I wouldn't give that up.
19:42Hell yeah.
19:46Alright here buddy, I don't care how fast I went, I wouldn't give that up for anything.
19:50That felt fun.
19:51So you're saying you feel more alive?
19:53Dude, so alive.
19:54I mean I was pretty scared, definitely pretty scared.
19:57So it didn't look like you were hauling.
19:59We can, I guess we can, I mean we don't have to check the times.
20:02We can just assume that the Ducati's faster.
20:04Dude sounds a little nervous.
20:05Nah, I mean it's like, it's progress.
20:08Well I'm curious.
20:09Let's go figure out what the times are.
20:10Okay.
20:11Heck yeah.
20:12That was super fun.
20:16This is normally when we would reveal the lap times, along with some flowery conclusion
20:21to our question about which bike is better.
20:25The problem is that when we saw the lap times, all we had were more questions.
20:31Questions that we're still trying to answer.
20:41Okay, well, here's what happened.
20:44Not the result I was expecting, I think it's safe to say.
20:47Not the result that Aerie was expecting.
20:49Probably not the result you were expecting either.
20:51Although maybe you are now.
20:52The GSX-R from 2005 went faster around the racetrack than the Ducati Panigale by more
20:57than one second.
20:58Yeah, our minds are blown a little bit.
21:01And at the time we were thinking probably the same thing you're thinking right now.
21:04No, no, no, no, no.
21:05No way.
21:06They screwed something up.
21:07What went wrong?
21:08I would have loved to have just stood on the podium and gloated over Zach in his brand
21:12new Ducati.
21:13I was hoping I'd be within a second and a half, but I didn't expect to go almost a
21:17second and a half faster than the brand new bike.
21:19But the truth of the matter is, I was confused and curious about what the hell happened.
21:23We both were.
21:24So we've spent the last two weeks turning over every stone we can think of trying to
21:27solve this lap time mystery.
21:29So we took it very seriously, did a bunch of research, even went to freaking Kinko's
21:33for crying out loud.
21:34There are a lot of factors, so buckle up kids.
21:36Here we go.
21:38The first thing we did after seeing the lap times was swap bikes to rule out riders as
21:42a variable.
21:43Lo and behold, Zach was faster on the Suzuki than he was in the Ducati.
21:47And I was slower on the Ducati than I had been on the Suzuki.
21:51We both agreed the Panigale was harder to ride and lacked the traction and stability
21:55of the GSX-R.
21:57What was the problem?
21:59I figured the only explanation were those cheater slicks Aerie had spooned on.
22:03So we put the GSX-R back on its street tires, the same top of the line Pirelli Supercorsa
22:08SPs that come stock on the Ducati.
22:11Aerie went out again, and what do you know?
22:13The Suzuki was still faster than the Ducati, even on identical tires.
22:19And while I had previously replaced the GSX-R's 55,000 mile suspension and brakes, none of
22:25those new components came close to the price or premium quality of the V4S hardware.
22:32All that left us with was an actual problem with the Panigale.
22:37Convinced that something was wrong, we took the bike to a Ducati dealership to have them
22:41do a systems check for issues.
22:43There were none.
22:45They suggested trying some different electronic settings, but we had experimented with this
22:49at the track, and nothing was off-base enough to explain how the bike was beaten by a competitor
22:54made in 2005.
22:56But Ducati also shared that the 2020 Panigale V4 had quietly been updated with softer spring
23:02rates to make the bike more comfortable on longer rides.
23:05According to our research and the suspension experts we spoke to, the new shock spring
23:09is way too soft for riders of our weight riding at our speed on a bike making that much power.
23:16It feels a little silly to say that something as simple as a $110 shock spring could undermine
23:21the performance of a $28,000 superbike, but truthfully, it's the best explanation we've
23:26got.
23:27And it's a vivid reminder of just how important proper setup is at the track, especially with
23:32such huge horsepower figures.
23:36It's also a friendly reminder that spec sheets don't tell the whole story, no matter
23:40what kind of bike you want.
23:42And maybe the Panigale underperformed a little bit.
23:45Then again, maybe the legend of the K5 Gixxer has some truth to it.
23:50Maybe, just maybe.
23:51Very high.
23:52Maybe the legend of the K5 Gixxer has some truth to it.
23:55Maybe, just maybe.
23:56Barry Henning was right all along.
24:02We need more superbike competition for that Gixxer.
24:05I'm all for it, man.
24:06I have affectionately come to know this motorcycle as Dave, and we're going to keep him around.
24:11And yeah, I mean, this has been a real surprise of an episode of GTXB, and we hope you enjoyed
24:16it.
24:17And we'll see you next time.
24:22Bye.