2011 Suzuki GSX-R750 | Doin' Time

Staffers’ Rides

Wrist: Aaron Frank
MSRP (2011): $11,999
Miles: 1690
MPG: 33
Mods: Yoshimura frame sliders, case savers, race stand stoppers, fender eliminator

The first mod I make to any fully faired sportbike is usually some form of crash protection. When a low-speed tip-over can destroy a grand's worth of plastic fairings—or even total the bike, if you're unlucky enough to ding the frame—a hundred-odd bucks for frame sliders is cheap insurance. Yoshimura chassis protectors ($109.95; _www.yoshimura-rd.com_) are simple and effective, consisting of sturdy, CNC-machined bases covered with a specially formulated plastic designed to keep hard parts off the pavement and slow the bike in the event of a slide. Installation on my long-term Suzuki GSX-R750 required cutting the fairing, but the included template showed me precisely where to drill.

At the same time I added Yoshimura’s case-saver kit ($195), which consists of a pair of black-anodized, 6061-T6 billet-aluminum guards that cover the right and left engine cases, sharply decreasing the odds of oil spewing if the bike slides on its side. These bolt over the factory engine covers without requiring you to drain oil or upset the gaskets, and could keep you from being “that guy” who turns a minor low-side into a major red-flag situation at a track day. We also bolted a set of Yosh billet race stand stoppers ($33.95) onto the swingarm to simplify maintenance. A neat feature is the stand spools rotate for smoother lifting action.

Vanity necessitated one final selection from the Yoshimura accessory catalog: a fender eliminator ($89.95) to tidy up the undertail area. We’ve seen a lot of crap-tastic, stamped-and-folded license-plate brackets lately, so it’s worth noting that not only is this piece one of the most affordable, it’s also one of the nicest looking. A laser-cut stainless steel bracket holds the plate and the trick, CNC-machined LED plate light. An anodized aluminum plate frame is clean and quality and the laser-etched Yoshimura logo on the light housing looks high-end, especially compared to the plastic and powdercoated garbage you sometimes find in other kits costing more than $100.

Since the GSX-R’s turnsignals are integrated into the tailsection, splicing the license-plate light leads is the only rewiring required to install the Yoshimura fender eliminator.