SUZUKI GSX-S750
THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… ”Adding lightness.”
Anyone familiar with the Scottish climate will understand that August often signals the start of the wet season. August this year hasn’t broken this rule, so I decided it was time to replace the now worn OE Bridgestone S21s with tyres better suited to the changeable road conditions encountered during a Scottish ‘summer’. Metzeler’s Roadtec Z8 Interact replacement, the Roadtec 01, fits this remit perfectly. It easily outperforms the Suzuki’s chassis in the dry yet offers sublime grip and confidence in the wet. As well as firing on a nice new set of boots, the GSX-S has been treated to a Scorpion Titanium Serket Cone end can. The can itself is very well finished and despite being several kilos lighter than the stock end can, it feels substantially made.
There’s no question that the Scorpion has improved the bike’s appearance, but the only thing that I would say is that the short stainless steel link pipe that is supplied with the Serket could do with a nicer finish. I’m tempted to polish it up, but a titanium link pipe would match the end can and would look so much better. The biggest improvement from the Scorpion has been the way the bike sounds though – the GSX-S has always had an outstanding induction howl, but the standard exhaust was whisper quiet.
Even with the Serket’s removable DB-eater in place the Suzuki is appreciably louder. Handily, the exhaust is still road legal like this, but now the bike sounds like it’s powered by an inline-four rather than a turbine or an electric motor. Even with the DB-eater removed, the GSX-S isn’t excessively noisy, fruity maybe, but not offensive. Fingers crossed, I’ll get a chance to run the bike on the dyno’ this month. Hopefully the original quiet end can was holding the GSX-S back a little and now the freer flowing Scorpion has liberated extra power along with the extra noise.
Not only will the pissing rain give me the chance to test some newMetzler tyres, but also some new cleaning products from Liqui-Moly. Like most naked bikes, the GSX-S possesses more visible nooks and crannies than a fully faired sports or even touring bike. So making the bike look properly clean needs more than a blast with a hose and wipe over with a damp rag. I’ve always been loath to blast away at a piece of complex machinery like a motorbike with a pressure washer.
I prefer to use a good detergent to lift dirt rather than blast it off and risk lifting transfers and water-logging bearings. The Suzuki has also been treated to a sexy lightweight Haijiu lithium-ion battery. The bike’s original YTX12 BS battery worked perfectly, but it weighs almost 4kg. Approximately the same heft as a house brick. Amazingly, the lithium battery tips the scales at only half a kilo – a full seven times less than the original lead-acid battery! So far the new battery has started the bike faultlessly, but a few doubts seem to surround these batteries. So expect to see lithium batteries put under the Bull Busters microscope next month!