New Bike
So I've got the first 100 miles or so on the new Suzuki - first impressions only at this stage.
It's an amazingly competent motorcycle, with huge performance and astonishing handling. It's festooned with toys of one sort or another - variable power settings, a lap timer, gear position indicator, "change up" lights - and probably the most gaudy and tacky looking rev counter on the planet - but that's not hugely important, it all does its job and does it well.
Where it absolutely blows me away is on the engine and handling side. The engine first. Apparently, it's around 160bhp at the crank. I believe this, it feels an order of magnitude faster than anything I've ever ridden before. The noise, even through the pig ugly standard exhausts, is exhilarating (with a huge chunk of induction roar to boot), the fuelling is immaculate and the gearbox a thing of beauty. Considering it's barely out of the crate, it already feels like it's smoothing out as it begins to run in and the actual performance is stellar. I gather it's good for 100 mph in first and it revs to 13750 rpm. For a large motor, even one as oversquare as this is, that's a lot of metal moving rather quickly. It doesn't have that turbine feel a 4-cylinder Honda gives you; it's clear there's an engine there and it produces a discreet and civilised high-frequency buzz through the grips to let you know there's stuff happening. It's jolly tractable and pulls perfectly happily from 1500rpm in top, making it easy to ride. The clutch is light and bites very easily (cable, not hydraulic) and changes up (and down) without it are neat and clean.
The handling is a revelation. Utterly neutral and straight tracking, beautifully damped both ends, no signs of any wildness yet. I've got the chicken strips down to around 5mm on both sides of the fat 190 back tyre and have begun to experiment with corner exit speeds; it carries a lot of speed through the corners and doesn't get all crossed up when you make a nonsense of the turn-in.
The looks are, I suppose, a matter of taste. I like the look (Valerie called it a "refugee from Starship Troopers") - it's a complex, almost fractal shape and the colour scheme (gloss black and semi-matt dark gunmetal) makes it look even more insectile. Disappointingly, there's a lot of plastic and I suspect that this will require far more keeping clean than an equivalent Honda if it's not to look shabby.
Tail tidy and a Yoshimura 4-1 on next week, which should start to simplify the look a bit. For now, though, wow. No, I mean it, fucking wow.
It's an amazingly competent motorcycle, with huge performance and astonishing handling. It's festooned with toys of one sort or another - variable power settings, a lap timer, gear position indicator, "change up" lights - and probably the most gaudy and tacky looking rev counter on the planet - but that's not hugely important, it all does its job and does it well.
Where it absolutely blows me away is on the engine and handling side. The engine first. Apparently, it's around 160bhp at the crank. I believe this, it feels an order of magnitude faster than anything I've ever ridden before. The noise, even through the pig ugly standard exhausts, is exhilarating (with a huge chunk of induction roar to boot), the fuelling is immaculate and the gearbox a thing of beauty. Considering it's barely out of the crate, it already feels like it's smoothing out as it begins to run in and the actual performance is stellar. I gather it's good for 100 mph in first and it revs to 13750 rpm. For a large motor, even one as oversquare as this is, that's a lot of metal moving rather quickly. It doesn't have that turbine feel a 4-cylinder Honda gives you; it's clear there's an engine there and it produces a discreet and civilised high-frequency buzz through the grips to let you know there's stuff happening. It's jolly tractable and pulls perfectly happily from 1500rpm in top, making it easy to ride. The clutch is light and bites very easily (cable, not hydraulic) and changes up (and down) without it are neat and clean.
The handling is a revelation. Utterly neutral and straight tracking, beautifully damped both ends, no signs of any wildness yet. I've got the chicken strips down to around 5mm on both sides of the fat 190 back tyre and have begun to experiment with corner exit speeds; it carries a lot of speed through the corners and doesn't get all crossed up when you make a nonsense of the turn-in.
The looks are, I suppose, a matter of taste. I like the look (Valerie called it a "refugee from Starship Troopers") - it's a complex, almost fractal shape and the colour scheme (gloss black and semi-matt dark gunmetal) makes it look even more insectile. Disappointingly, there's a lot of plastic and I suspect that this will require far more keeping clean than an equivalent Honda if it's not to look shabby.
Tail tidy and a Yoshimura 4-1 on next week, which should start to simplify the look a bit. For now, though, wow. No, I mean it, fucking wow.