Suzuki GSX-S750 ABS
The old GSR600 was getting long in the tooth, so Suzuki rolled up their sleeves, got to modifying it and came up with this...
But that’s not all...
No indeed, Suzuki have fiddled and fettled the GSR power plant nicely. With Euro 4 curbing the engine’s verve, they swapped the fuel-injectors from eight, to ten-hole long nosed items and added cylinder ventilation holes to reduce pumping losses.
A new airbox sporting two extra sub-inlets is also in evidence, letting the engine breathe better. The exhaust is Euro 4 specification but a new exhaust-valve system optimises power delivery at all revs. They’ve also added a tooth to the rear sprocket for more whizz, but sixth-gear still allows the same top-speed figure as before. The old GSR’s own engine base was the 2005 GSX-R750’s, modified for a naked slant, so the GSX-S has more than a bit of GSX-R DNA inside it and with the modifications Suzuki have made, it now feels more like its original iteration than ever before. An extra 8bhp takes the total just shy of a claimed 113bhp. Torque is up by a single Nm over the GSR, but any extra is a bonus.
Traction-control is new, with three settings plus an ‘off’ option. This complements the ‘Easy Start System’ and ‘Low Rpm Assist’ which have appeared on other Suzukis in recent times. The TC is adjusted via new switchgear and the dash from the GSX-S1000.
On the chassis side of things, the fourpiston Nissin calipers and matching 310mm ‘petal’ brake discs are brand new. The front fork has been modified internally including new springs, and the rear shock also benefits from an internal fiddling including new shims and spring. The settings for both have been extensively tested and adjusted, though both ends remain essentially adjustment free bar preload which, if we're honest, could be viewed as a bit of a miss. Interestingly, though, the bike rolls on bespoke Bridgestone S21 tyres. Now, the aftermarket S21 is a terrific all-uses hoop so a GSX-S tailored example should pay dividends. Better yet for Suzuki, is that many of its rivals run on the older S20 or inferior tyres from other brands – and this in itself could be a big plus point in the GSX-S750’s favour.
Apex predator, or something
Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of this launch was Suzuki’s main promotional push for the GSX, basically tagging it as an ‘apex predator’. It’s a little odd they’ve used this for a mid-naked, rather than a sportsbike, but they were convinced we’d be blown away with the handling so were confident enough to say it with a straight face!
What Suzuki needed to prove they weren’t just throwing eye-catching slogans out willy-nilly was good launch roads and excellent weather so we could really put it through it paces and see exactly what their new slogan meant for the GSX-S, and whether it pulled it off, or not. Well, they got one of those things, sort of...
The rain in Spain falls… Yes, sadly for both Suzuki and us poor sods, the weather was utter pony in Alicante. The day before we arrived it snowed, a lot, and French journos had to abandon the launch route. Jokes about the French capitulating easily notwithstanding, that meant the following morning all the fallen snow melted and to make things worse, it bucketed down.
Quite soon into our journey, just as we and the Suzuki were becoming friends, we were presented with blocked roads as landslides threw huge boulders and slews of mud across what would have been incredible ribbons of tarmac. If it wasn’t mud or boulders, it was trees or other detritus including small lakes of diesel dropped by gawd knows what. Additionally, the route Suzuki wanted to take us on was still hidden under half a metre of snow higher up the mountains. So it wasn’t really the introduction any of us wanted, but despite that, the Suzuki shone.
That’s what the riding position said once aboard, with a comfy seating position and an easy reach to the bars, with everything at finger or thumb’s disposal. Even the new levers deliver a huge range of adjustment and sometimes it’s the little things that endear a bike to you. Some machines don’t have enough range for me to feel truly comfy, the GSX-S does. I asked shorter pilots for their opinion on the riding position and they also lauded it, so it’s well thought out for any height of rider which simply serves to open up the GSX-S to more potential owners.
The assist systems, well, I’m not sure if they worked, but then I’m in my third decade of releasing clutches. Was it easy to pull away on? Yes, but most bikes are. I think this is a system that is lost on me, but is obviously beneficial to newer riders.
Once on the move however, the GSX-S displayed wonderful balance. It belied its wet weight figure, somehow feeling far lighter. Manoeuvring at slow to medium speeds, even in a hurry, was a cinch and undertaken with very little thought or physical input. At this point in our ride, and even in the wet, the bike’s remarkable usability meant the ensemble blended into the background. At sedate speeds, that was a real compliment. Front to back, it was already impressing.
Open wide and say ‘Rrrrrrr!’
Once off more populated routes we were able to open the gasser harder. The mechanical grip via the chassis, and S21 tyres, still hadn’t seen the new TC system intervene. It was on the middle setting, so I turned it down to the lowest of ‘1’ but it was only when we came across mud slicks or similar, that it chimed in.
What was obvious was that the trademark GSX-R howl remains. You can hear it on the bike when you get northwards of 7,000rpm, a guttural, deep bellow. Even the bike in front of me sounded terrific! In the brief moments where the roads were straight enough to really pin it, its extra speed over the old GSR was more than obvious although the extra tooth on the rear sprocket would account for some of this.
As we sluiced into the hills the weather let off for a spell, but the roads were becoming worse. Luckily where Suzuki set us up for some photography had clean roads, but they were still wet and in Spain when they’re wet, they’re lethal.
However, after we’d wobbled about getting pretty (but pretty naff) photos we headed for lunch. Thankfully, this was across a brand new road, one where the surface hadn’t been worn smooth over decades so it actually allowed some semblance of grip. What this meant, of course, was that the dangerous riding competition began in earnest.
That may as well have been what the GSX said as I pushed my luck on it for the umpteenth time. It’s true that one rides to a measured degree in the wet and even if you push personal boundaries, which I did, you’ll never put full force through a bike in these conditions – you’d crash way before you applied dry levels of load. Yet I still made myself uncomfy chasing Suzuki’s stupidly talented test rider. Me that is, not the bike, as even if it twitched and shimmied gently now and then, nothing untoward happened.
The new suspension setup is partly responsible for that. How it reacts in the dry I am unable to report, but the way it behaved when loaded by the excellent brakes, in tandem with the S21 tyres, offered nothing but confidence. Speaking of the brakes, they allow strong and progressive stopping power without being overwhelming. Better yet the ABS refused to cut in at inappropriate times, like when panic braking into a sodden Spanish hairpin. It’s a real bone of contention for me on ‘cheaper’ bikes, the general lack of ABS sophistication, but in absolutely awful conditions it didn’t disappoint.
Speaking of poor conditions, an obscene amount of intense concentration was required to keep up with the mad pace of the ride, but the bike helped out immensely, it was brilliant.
The decent rear grip also meant hearty drive out of turns was possible; you had to seriously over-ham your throttle action to get the TC to kick in. Given the deluge level conditions, it was impressive stuff. You had to be in the right gear though, as what would normally be a second-gear turn on some bikes saw the GSX pull dutifully out without much fuss before really getting into its stride. In one of very few grievances I had, unless you were pinning it high up the rev range all the time, often it took a while to pull from low down. It does pull, it just isn’t urgent and frankly I blame Euro 4. Yet, banging down a gear extra cures this, and raises excitement levels too – win-win!
Sadly, the TC let itself down a bit whenever I tried to do a wheelie though. Even on the lowest setting it just won’t play ball and has to be switched off to allow fun time to commence. Later on we found a short stretch of dry road and it will wheelie okay in first, but needs a helping hand to get there in second. Once you’re up though she’s good to go, aided by a far better throttle response than her larger brother possesses.
Anyway, eventually Suzuki had to call the day quits when yet another route was shut down due to being submerged under mud and rock. And thus the last gasp of riding dangerously began in the desperate run back to the hotel following on behind a German madman. Rivers were splashed through at lean, rocks and mud slides dodged, the front was loaded up into turns with puddles on the apexes that may as well have been lakes – you name it, we were daft enough to try it. Yet the Suzuki took it all in its stride and, now I look back on that lunacy, even the bits which had me puckering didn’t faze the bike. Not one bit.
I Am Legion
Really, given the base bike and the age of its components, the Suzuki shouldn’t be as good or impressive as it was in Spain. I found it is far more than the sum of its many parts. Every individual aspect works perfectly in tandem with its corresponding or associated colleagues (brakes and forks, for example), they complement each other. Every separate department appears to work in synch with every other at least well enough to create something more, to add something extra.
So why do I feel it’s still missing a little something, then? Annoyingly for me, and you, I can’t quite put my finger on it, either. It’s true that we need to see how it fares in the dry, but honestly not a single person there wasn’t impressed with Suzuki’s work. The price also makes it very competitive and worth serious consideration. There’s nothing wrong with it, in looks or action, but despite it being very good, competent and often exciting on the evidence I found, I’ll need to spend some more time on it before I can figure out what’s bothering me, what’s missing. Is it that it’s an inline four? Does it lack an emotional connection? Is it just me? I just don’t know! But for now, well done Suzuki, I honestly didn’t expect it to be as good as it is – bravo...