Icons: Suzuki TL1000S
Where did it come from?
It was a bold response to the popularity of Italy’s V-twins in the 90s. Suzuki reckoned it could do better — and it did, at least in terms of power. The chassis was also a bold move, with its novel rotary rear damper — but that was less successful.
What changed?
Suzuki eventually realised that what people liked about Ducatis and Aprilias wasn’t that they were V-twins, it was that they were Ducatis and Aprilias. Sadly, there wasn’t much of a market for the TL-S or its racier-looking TL-R stablemate.
Why do people like it?
That engine — it’s one of the truly great motors of all time, up there with the Vincent twin, the Kawasaki Z1 and H1, the Suzuki RG500 and first GSX-R100. In its original form it made over 120bhp at the back wheel (Ducati’s top of the range 996 SPS production racer made 117bhp), and all 120bhp was available from 8000rpm to the redline at 11k. That gave it huge punch out of corners, and made it just about the best wheelie engine on any road bike ever. Even now, 20 years on, the same engine in detuned form is in the current V-strom 1000.
Cult rating 3/5
It hasn’t really caught the imagination of collectors yet but it’s always a good one
to start a pub argument with.
The problem is...
The handling. If you’re charitable, you could call it interesting. If you weren’t, you could call it scary. As ever, the truth’s somewhere in between. The rotary shock gave inconsistent damping and it was easy to over-tighten the chain, which effectively locked the suspension travel. After a few wellpublicised crashes early bikes were recalled to fit a pig-ugly and over-stiff afterthought steering damper, which mucked up low-speed handling without curing higher-speed instability. Exiting corners in low gears, the front would lift and skim the road on modest throttle openings and with inexperienced hands gripping too tight, a tankslapper was only ever a heartbeat away. Even experienced hooligans soon learnt that you NEVER let a TL’S front wheel come back to earth even slightly out of line.
Without the TL1000S...
There’d be a few more undamaged hedges on twisty backroads...
“That engine is one of the great motors of all time”