'97 Gixxer, great for going fast, crap for comfort.............sold it a couple months after I got it, that was my 4th bike, waiting for spring, then I'll pick up the 5th, a CBR.
That's a nice lookin' bike. I used to ride a lot... car's have made me way to lazy. Curiousity question.. how much does that weigh?? When I got away from bikes, mountain bikes were really on their way in and graphite was the lightest you could find. BIG BUX.
The way I have mine spec'ed out its around 18 pounds, not super light but I dont have any whiz bang parts other than my fork.
I upgraded the fork to an even lighter carbon fiber model than the original and the seat stays are carbon fiber, the rest is aluminum
really, the way bikes are being made right now theres little difference in weight comparing top end aluminum, c.f., and titanium
Id actually say that most of the bikes the pros are riding are aluminum or carbon fiber
Its basically pretty easy to put together a bike these days that hits the uci weight limit of 6.8kg using off the shelf parts which is I think around 16 pounds
There haven't been any real huge developments in materials just more application of c.f. for various parts like crank arms etc.