Suzuki Katana Gsx1100f

CYCLE WORLD TEST

SUZUKI KATANA GSX1100F

A soort-tourer with the heart and soul of a GSX-R

YOU PROBABLY COULD FIND A HANDFUL OF RIDERS who would argue that Suzuki’s GSX-R1100 does not own the very cutting edge of sportbike performance. And you might even find some willing to debate the bike’s racetrack capabilities. But most would agree that riding the big GSX-R on the street is about as much fun as dancing barefoot on a bed of nails, that life would be sweeter if the 1100’s fire-breathing engine were available in a more civilized, down-to-earth package.

Well, thanks to Suzuki’s new-for-’88 GSX1100F Katana, things just got considerably sweeter.

With the 1100 Katana, Suzuki has built a Clark Kent for its Superman, a big-bore machine designed to meet the demands of the street rider rather than those of the real— or imagined-roadracer. The designers have taken the GSX-R 1 100’s heart and soul—the engine—cradled it in an urbane chassis, dressed it in elegant bodywork and called it Katana, a name resurrected from a few radically styled Suzuki sporting bikes of the early Eighties.

This latest Katana still promises the razor-sharp engine performance of the GSX-R racer-replica, but offers the kind of comfort and versatility that give it a much broader appeal. It can be a competent sporting machine for those whose level of cornering aggression stops just short of allout knee-dragging, or it can serve as a superb mount for sport-touring excursions. And better yet, it also will prove to be a practical, fun, all-around streetbike.

At first, it would seem that the Katana is targeted at Kawasaki’s shaft-driven Concours 1000 sport-tourer. But because the chain-driven, smaller-fairinged Suzuki is so much more versatile than the Concours, its most direct competitors actually are Honda’s Hurricane 1000 and Yamaha’s FJ1200, two extremely competent all-around open-class sport machines. The FJ 1100/1200 has been dropped from Yamaha's lineup for 1988, but it had been the darling of the European sport-touring crowd right from its introduction in 1984, despite being originally intended as a pure-sport machine; and when the big Hurricane came along last year, it proved at least as good as the FJ for that type of riding.

There’s no question that the 1100 Katana is right in the hunt with those two. It resembles the FJ 1200 in the way it handles and is designed, but has slightly better all-around performance than either of them.

As well it should; any motorcycle built around the GSXR1 100 engine couldn’t possibly be a wimp bike. Rather than a detuned GSX-R motor, it instead has an engine that is bigger— 1 127cc, as opposed to 1052cc for the GSX-R— and more powerful throughout the entire rev range. Its 75cc of added displacement comes from a 2mm-larger bore and a lmm-longer stroke; and the oil-cooled, dohc inline-Four has been tuned for additional low-end and mid-range power. It’s not that the smaller engine was pipey or power-deficient, but only that Suzuki wanted the 16-valve engine to be even more tractable on the street. Hence, it was designed to do its best work in the middle of its power curve.

For the most part, though, other engine changes have been minor. The compression ratio remains the same, but redline is 800 rpm higher, now on guard at 1 1,300 rpm. The engine is fed through 34mm flat-slide CV carburetors rather than the round-slide 34mm CV mixers on the GSXR, and it exhales through a 4-into-2 exhaust system instead of the GSX-R’s 4-into-1. These changes, along with slightly taller overall gearing, combine to help the 1 100 Katana feel less like a raucous factory racer and more like a well-behaved streetbike.

But it’s an enormously muscular well-behaved streetbike. Simply saying that the Katana is powerful is like saying an FI8 fighter is kind of fast. At or near full throttle, this bear of an engine pulls hard all the time, even when it’s just above idling speeds. It gets especially forceful around 7000 rpm, and stays that way up to and slightly past 1 1,000. The only caveat is that part of the engine’s excitement is often communicated to the rider in the form of minor vibration in the handgrips and footpegs.

Considering how much performance the Katana is capable of unleashing, though, its engine is surprisingly gentle, its power always controllable. There are no surprises, no flat spots, no sudden bursts of acceleration; the amount of performance you get is directly proportional to how far you open the throttle. Roll it open a little, and you get a little forward motion. Roll it open all the way, and you get a lot of forward motion.

With such locomotive-class power on hand, shifting often seems totally unnecessary; but when you do change gears, the five-speed transmission has a good, positive feel, always shifting easily and precisely. It's no wonder, then, that the Katana is a much more pleasant bike to ride on the road than its racing-intensive brother.

But when you want to stop the Katana in a hurry, you may find yourself wishing it had the GSX-R 1 100’s front brakes. The Katana’s front stoppers get the job done, but don't have a linear feel; when you pull the lever, nothing much seems to happen until you generate some significant pressure. The rear disc, however, works just fine.

Like the engine and brakes, the chassis on the Katana is configured not to excel at racetrack maneuvers but rather to deal with the requirements of spirited road riding. The chassis is built upon a wide, “perimeter”-style double-cradle steel frame, with an aluminum swingarm. Being steel, the frame is considerably heavier than the GSX-R’s aluminum unit, and accounts for some of the 75 pounds the bike gained during the transition from sport-racer to sporttourer. At 551 pounds (without gas), the Katana is a big machine, nearly 15 pounds heavier than the FJ1200 and 20 pounds above the Hurricane 1000.

Further emulation of the FJ 1200 is evident in other key specifications. The 58.7-inch wheelbase, 28-degree steering-head angle and 4.4 inches of front-wheel trail are extremely close to the FJ’s corresponding numbers (58.9 inches, 27.5 degrees and 4.4 inches, respectively). Also like the FJ, the Katana uses 16-inch wheels at both ends, but unlike the Bridgestone/Dunlop-shod Yamaha, the Suzuki is delivered with Metzeler tires—an ME33 Lazer on the front and an ME99 Perfect on the rear.

Not surprisingly, then, the Katana shares quite a few handling traits with the big Yamaha, including a tendency to sit up when going through bumpy turns at higher speeds or when braking while banked over in a corner. Neither condition is as severe on the Katana as it is on the FJ 1200, but the tendencies are there nonetheless.

Otherwise, the Suzuki has good cornering manners and excellent straight-line stability, particularly at high speeds. At anything below an all-out sprint pace, the bike is a backroad joy, flicking through one bend after another as lightly as a 551-pound motorcycle will flick. And it handles long, fast sweepers with a grace that belies the machine’s size. In slow, first-gear turns, the chassis offers some initial resistance as the rider first starts to heel the machine over; but once the lean is initiated, the bike banks over easily.

Much of the Katana’s composure is due to a suspension that works quite well over a wide variety of road conditions. Set up softly, the shock and the fork completely soak up most rough spots on the road. With the exception of the aforementioned mid-turn bumps, it takes a significant undulation on the road surface to unsettle the machine. Even when it is set up softly, the Katana behaves well at sporttouring speeds.

For more aggressive riding, the preload and rebound damping on the shock need to be cranked up several notches. That helps reduce wallowing through fast turns and allows the Katana to maintain good cornering clearance—although it always will start dragging its undercarriage long before a GSX-R1100 will. The front fork is not adjustable, but its damping and spring rates are spot-on as delivered. Katana riders, unlike those on the more serious sportbikes, won’t have to worry about being abused from overly stiff suspension.

Neither will they have to complain about a cramped and torturous riding position, for the Katana has very comfortable ergonomics. The relationship between footpegs, seat and handlebars is relatively spacious compared with that of most sport-oriented bikes, and is equal to if not better than that of an FJ1200, the reigning class comfort king. The pegs are situated low and attached to rubber-mounted brackets that isolate the rider’s feet from most of the engine vibration that is transmitted through the frame. There also are soft, thick rubber pads atop the pegs that make comfortable platforms for the feet.

Adding to the comfort level is the seat, which is broad and firm with a nice foam density, though some riders complained that it was just a smidgen too wide at the front. The seat height isn’t cruiser-low, but neither is it high enough to be a problem for average-sized riders. For anything but extended freeway excursions or rides on which the rider’s movement is limited, the seat is just fine. And while the clip-on-style handlebars provide good leverage, they could stand to be an inch or so higher without forcing the rider to sit bolt-upright.

Then there’s the full fairing, which is kind of a mixed blessing. The scourge of modern liquid-cooled bikes is that they expose the rider to excessive amounts of engine heat, and Suzuki has done an admirable job of ducting much of the Katana’s fire away from the rider. That’s the positive side of the fairing’s design. The negative side is that it offers the rider little protection from the elements. Even when tucked in as much as possible, a rider’s hands and legs are exposed.

But by far, it’s the electronically adjustable windshield that will attract the most attention. With the simple push of a handlebar-mounted rocker switch, the shield can be raised or lowered as much as five inches. Most riders will find, however, that the lowest position offers the least amount of turbulence and wind noise around the helmet and shoulders, but also the least amount of wind-protection. And when the shield is in its lowest position at night, a bright band of light from inside the fairing is reflected in the shield, resulting in glare that can be extremely distracting. The power windshield is a clever, potentially useful idea, but its execution on the Katana leaves much to be desired.

With that one exception, though, the Suzuki exhibits a superb attention to detail and a high-quality fit and finish. As an option, Suzuki offers custom-designed detachable touring saddlebags built by Krauser. And the mirrors are situated so you can actually use them without having to do gymnastics—although they could still be another inch or so apart to provide a more complete rearward view.

So, while the 1100 Katana does not break new styling ground as did its namesake in 1981, it does have up-todate cosmetics. More important, it offers astounding engine performance, excellent all-around handling, superb comfort and much, much more versatility than the GSXR1100 from which it is derived. Altogether, it promises to be one of 1988’s superstars.

How sweet it is. ®

SUZUKI

GSX1100F KATANA

$5999