We’re not exactly on top of the high-fashion scene and prefer Dickies over D&G, which explains why we didn’t know what Citizens of Humanity was all about. Any extra cash that’s left in our grease-stained pockets usually goes towards exhausts, race fuel and the like—not expensive designer jeans. But it’s high-end clothing that allows the Citizens of Humanity company owner to build gorgeous beauties like this 2011 Suzuki GSX-R750.
The COH stable is home to all sorts of dream machines, including some supercars we only believed to exist in urban legends. Not a single car or bike of his has anything less than the best parts available so why would his most recent addition have anything less?
In his spare time the owner, Jerome Dahan, likes to twist the throttle at track days, confirming he’s not just a poser with deep pockets. Most fashion industry bigwigs seem to prefer cruising the strip with their Bentley’s top down, not hammering around the track on a highly modded sportbike. True, the GSX-R is a billboard for his clothing company, but at least it has some racebike flavor—and for good reason. The Rizla Suzuki MotoGP painter, Troy Lee Designs, is responsible for the spray job.
Dahan wasn’t ultimately responsible for the bike’s overall direction and assembly—a trusted tuner was. The path to its heightened status was planned from the start by California-based tuning shop MotoGP Werks. Already understanding the owner’s taste and appreciation for ultimate performance, shop owner Chris Redpath knew just what to do and started ordering the best of the best aftermarket parts.
Most of us would be as happy as a cat at the beach to have Suzuki’s new stock Brembo calipers, but those have been binned for more exotic (and expensive) nickel-plated binders from the same company. Redpath explained why: “The owner felt that the stock sand cast calipers looked cheap. Plain and simple. Some of his supercars have high-end Brembos so he wanted to upgrade the bike’s calipers to match.”
Marchesini’s top-of-the-line forged magnesium wheels set the foundation for what becomes a build that Yoshimura would be proud to display in its catalog. Nearly every piece and part from Yosh’s line has been bolted on the Suzuki, but for a better reason than the convenience of one-stop shopping—it’s simply some of the best stuff out there for a GSX-R. Some things just go together and it’s best not to disrupt the natural order. You wouldn’t substitute mayonnaise for peanut butter on a jelly sandwich, so why put anything other than Yosh bits on a Suzook?
The race theme stays clean throughout but has classy color-coordinated accents such as Driven grips, a patriotic rear sprocket and blue chain for tastes of flavor and customization without dipping into the kingdom of chrome (one of Redpath’s least favorite mods).
But those are as far from the performance theme as the GSX-R strays. There’s a clue attached to the left side Yoshimura rearset that suggests more speed upgrades under the hood. A quickshifter mechanism connects to a full Bazzaz electronics arrangement in the bike’s unseen area. A Z-Fi TC unit overrides the stock box to handle fueling, traction control and spark. A custom tune was then laid down to extract the maximum power available from the full Yoshimura exhaust and velocity stacks, BMC air filter and reflashed ECU.
The power and braking mods were complete, but those exposed some weaknesses in the stock suspension so it was shipped to RG3 for love. The forks were tuned with an Öhlins cartridge kit for more control through bumpy corners and during braking at the track. The gold and blue stamp replaced the stock shock as well, but not before RG3 revalved it for even more control. Another aesthetic upgrade (similar to the calipers) that resulted in performance enhancement was coating the forks. “The owner simply didn’t like the look of the chrome fork legs, so we sent them out for a titanium-nitride coating,” recalled Redpath.