SUZUKI GSX-S1000
There are plenty of folk with seriously fond memories of the K5 Gixer thou’ so you can’t blame Suzuki for wanting to capitalise on that by utilising the much-loved K5 motor in their addition to the super naked sector. A smart move, given that Suzuki would seriously struggle in a game of spec sheet Top Trumps, even just against the other Jap bikes but particularly if the Euro trash joined in too.
Perhaps if the Suzuki’s only opponent was the Kawasaki, it might stand a chance of Top Trumps triumph – after all it does have price on its side, being the cheapest bike in the entire test (Euro stuff included) at £10,099.
From side-on the GSX-S looks like a typical super naked. Short, stocky, muscular and aggressive – but from the front, that headlight looks, well… weird. But that’s not a problem, you can’t see the shape of the headlight when you’re on board. What you can see is the massive wide Rental Fat-Bars that look as though they have been taken straight off a motocross bike (I actually have a set of these on my CR250 MX bike).
All aboard, everything’s pretty well placed. The riding position is as you would expect, nothing is out of the ordinary, aside, perhaps, from the extra wide bars. Sparked into life there is a fairly strong intake roar but a fairly weak exhaust note. The last GSX-S I rode I remember being mega revvy, so instead of getting too upset at the lack of exhaust decibels, I looked forward to giving the throttle a twist and making Suzi sing for her supper.
Once rolling, it didn’t take me long to realise that ‘sing’ was exactly what I was going to have to do to make the big GSX-S really move. Don’t get me wrong, the power is usable low down, but has more of a commutery feel about it low down. Below 7,000rpm there was smooth drive but above 7,000rpm the thing got a lot better. The peaky motor would pull more and more until it reached its peak power at 10,000rpm, but wouldn’t stop there – there was still about another 2,000rpm to play with after 10k, which really gave the whole package a sporty, playful feel. But if peak power is at 10,000rpm, why would you bother revving the old girl to 12k, I hear you ask? Well if I can refer to the aforementioned muted exhaust note; at the gentleman’s end of the rev range it is anything but muted, rather more like the sound of a
thousand virgins being de-virginized – it’s sure to make you want to grab it and pull it back as hard as you can… the throttle, I’m talking about. Well, what else would you expect from the K5 Gixer engine?
The lack of tech in evidence on the Suzuki didn’t go unnoticed. It is sometimes refreshing to go back to basics and not have umpteen levels of this, that and the next thing to shovel a bucket load of confusion into every ride out, but for anything over the £10k mark (albeit only just) a quickshifter at the very least would be nice. When hanging the proverbial bag out, dipping the throttle fleetingly to change up through that ’box sent the extra wide ‘Fat Bars’ into a mild frenzy which in turn caused the whole bike to enter into a bit of a weave.
It wasn’t anything horrendous and I’m positive that a decent quickshifter would have ironed this out. The dash is fairly basic too but it does the job, the switch gears are simple (if a little basic) and the three-level traction control system is simple to adjust and/or turn off. The TC on the Suzuki was a much less sophisticated affair then its rivals. It was far from the worst system in the world but it certainly felt dated and did cut the power in a very noticeable way, rather than gently curbing it.
The Suzuki was well poised on almost all of the roads that we threw at it. It had a tendency to feel a little firm over bumps, particularly from the front end which on occasion caused medium to large tank slappers, although the wide bars probably made them feel worse than they actually were. In the bends, provided a smoothish surface was beneath, the GSX-S was as happy cornering as any of the other Jap Nakeds on test. In fact it was very happy, and would drop into bends with the smoothness of a fine satin-weave silk.
Braking was more than acceptable thanks to the four-pot Brembo callipers, with a strong bite but unfortunately the ABS was a little too keen to join the party – heavy squeezing often resulted less in braking force than light braking, meaning missed apexes were common until I’d got the hang of less being more. But is less really more? Well the Suzuki certainly costs less than the others on test, and it might not have an abundance of tech but the exciting, screamy motor really got us going on our road test.