Articles in the Suzuki Category
Suzuki has divorced the name “Bandit” for the GSX1250FA, much as it has the GSX650F, untying the bike from what has become a lineage of bland visual design and daily commuter associations. Then the Japanese brand went a step further and gave the FA a GSX-R fairing treatment and headlight, so the response at first glance from those at a recent group ride was, “I thought you were bringing the Bandit.”
In his counter point to the Arctic Challenge, Joe Lloyd argues that in our rush to embrace the bigger is better marketing message, many riders are too quick to overlook the lighter cheaper bikes that hooked us on adventure riding in the first place. Case in point, the Suzuki DR650.
Why? Why did I forsake the litre-bike? Why did I wait so long to begrudgingly throw a leg over the 2009 GSX-R 1000? True, I thought I’d grown up making litre-bike immaturity a thing of my past, and that I’d moved on to more upright and relaxed rides. Then the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 proved me utterly and completely wrong.
If you were in the market for a sword, what would you be after? A finicky, finesse-centric epee? A saber? Which is just a long skinny hassle? Anything long and you’d forever be inadvertently skewering people in lineups and crowds. No you want something short, manageable and without airs – you’d want a Gladius.
Third gear, 180kph, mid-sweeper, dead stable, planted to the point of over confidence, and engine still pulling – these are the pertinent facts of the 2008 Suzuki B-King, a 181hp, 108 lb-ft of torque sci-fi …
Grunt. Shove. Push. Usable Power. Keep your horsepower high-output statistics, because what the new Suzuki Bandit 1250S has in spades is torque. A maximum 79 lb.ft of it achieved at a mere …
Suzuki M109R LEIn Oliver, BC., at a local sportbike rally it’s incongruous that the motorcycle drawing the most attention is not amongst the flocks of GSX-Rs, fleets of CBRs and flights …
In third gear I roll on the throttle of Suzuki’s 2007 GSX-R 1000. Within seconds my riding companions are reduced to pinpoint headlights in the rearviews by fearsome acceleration. This is not so …
Riding into Princeton the smell of fresh cut hay from roadside ranches wafts through my helmet’s vents. It is hot for June, after a sodden spring the sun is pushing the temperature to 34°C and …
At 4500 RPM I whack the throttle of Suzuki’s new power cruiser offering, the M109R, and the result is a melodious baritone trumpet. It’s the type of sound a dinosaur might make in its death …
It’s the sound of plastic scraping hollowly across blacktop that scares the hell out of me. Have I lost the bike? No, it’s my knee-puck giving notice that the 2006 Suzuki GSX-R 750 is on …
The 2006 Suzuki GSX-R 600’s engine howls like a horde of banshees in the throws of heat as we blow by the parked “unmarked” police cruiser. I’m pushing my luck this third time past the …
Last time we saw a visage such as this it was likely being chased by villagers brandishing pitchforks and torches. Yes, the V-Strom 1000 is an ugly Frankenstein’s creation of components, but it’s powerful, surprisingly …
Kicked back in the chair of a Whistler coffee shop with its trademarked mermaid logo, she and I look on across the parking lot at the 2005 Suzuki Boulevard C90T. The bike handily filling a …
“Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.” – Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 – 1963)
It’s clear now Suzuki could have saved a lot of weight on the 2005 GSX-R 1000. At 203kp/h …
This is special in an odd way nostalgic; the Suzuki Bandit 650 S ABS has guided me down memory lane like reminiscences with old friends. Every one has a first bike, and then a real …
The engine is thrumming, the throttle is pegged, and I’m in the best areo-tuck 6’2” 200lbs of editorial content can manage. The windscreen begins to vibe a bit. I bump the rev limiter in the …
It’s 6AM and I’m foot down through pre-rush hour traffic in Victoria, B.C., which is to say that I’m alone save for the occasional police cruiser and public transit. It’s the kind of day that …
