Image the scene: I’ve pulled right into a motorway providers on a busy summer season afternoon. I rejuvenate with the assistance of a cup of tea and chocolate croissant, and, upon strolling again to the 2025 GSX-S1000GT that I’ve borrowed from Suzuki, some a part of my mind observes that the automobile park is significantly much less full than once I arrived.
Helmet on. Fireplace up the 999cc inline four-cylinder engine. Experience its menacing, deep bass hum at idle. Visor down. Roll out of the providers…
…And immediately I observe that I’m the one individual on the motorway. I’m not talking figuratively right here. In all three lanes, there may be not one different automobile. Not one HGV. Not one automobile. Not even one other bike. Simply me.
In my head, I put the items collectively and realise that some type of obstruction has stopped visitors someplace earlier than the providers.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
So, take into consideration this: It’s a heat, sunny, dry day. I’m fully alone on a motorway that I do know nicely (and subsequently know that there are not any pace cameras forward). And I’m sitting astride a motorbike that’s pushed by an engine derived from the mighty Gixxer. What would you do on this scenario?
For authorized functions, I need to stress that I carried on in a protected, prudent, and fully authorized method.
However everyone knows what I might have performed, proper? I might have dropped right into a full tuck, cracked the throttle, and found that the GSX-S1000GT accelerates with virtually terrifying ease. I might have felt my coronary heart and lungs go all humorous with simultaneous glee and concern. I might have hit a pace that may break data in some elements of the nation, and in the end misplaced my nerve/licence lengthy earlier than the engine ran out of puff.
Once more, for authorized functions, it is extremely essential for me to say that none of that occurred. However, you understand, it might have.
And if it had, that may have been the purpose once I screamed on the high of my lungs: “HOLY F–Ok, I LOVE THIS BIKE!”
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
A conventional sport tourer
The GSX-S1000GT was first launched in late 2021 for the 2022 mannequin 12 months. It didn’t get one of the best introduction to the UK market. With pandemic weirdness nonetheless upon us, Suzuki wasn’t in a position to host the normal “solar and paella” kind of press journey that one would usually select for a motorbike like this. As an alternative, it took journos to Scotland for rain and haggis, with an additional serving to of rain.
It was a setting that demonstrated the bike’s bonafides when it comes to the ‘touring’ facet of the sport-touring equation, however supplied valuable little alternative to essentially profit from its dealing with prowess and iconic powerplant.
Right here at Visordown, we made certain to journey the bike a second time – in higher climate – to achieve a greater understanding of what it might do. Different media retailers didn’t do this. And perhaps that’s one of many causes the bike doesn’t appear to have caught on as I really feel it ought to have.
The Suzuki is a conventional sport-touring bike, the likes of which had all however died out by the point it arrived on the scene.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
Again in Ye Olden Tymes, sport tourers had been all the fad. Nearly each producer supplied its tackle the style; some supplied a number of variations.
ChatGPT tells me that the 1977 BMW R100RS was the primary sport tourer. I’d argue that issues return additional than that – at the least to 1973, with the BMW R90S. BMW truly raced that bike – profitable on the Isle of Man TT, Daytona 200, and within the AMA Superbike championship. Prospects geared up the factor with saddlebags and, voila: sport tourer.
The shortcoming to definitively title THE first sport tourer speaks to the malleability of the style’s definition. Maybe the best definition is that this: a sportbike made comfy.
Historically, that meant taking a sport bike, altering its ergonomics a bit of bit and, normally, tweaking the engine’s efficiency to make it a bit of extra highway pleasant. The thought was to ship a sportbike that might be ridden from the flat, uninteresting locations the place most of us reside to the curvy, undulating locations the place sportbikes shine.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
During the last decade or so, the definition of sport tourer has modified. Arguably, there may be now far larger emphasis on the ‘tourer’ facet of the equation, with journey bike-style ergonomics providing a neater journey – particularly for these with an extended inseam or creaky knees.
Positive, there are nonetheless some sport tourers that go like stink – eg, the BMW S 1000 XR or the lately unveiled Ducati Multistrada V4 RS – however even they make some concessions when it comes to buying and selling cornering capability for consolation.
A conventional sport tourer is sort of at all times going to provide the benefit within the twisties.
An underappreciated pleasure
Whereas the trad sport tourer was as soon as the ‘it’ phase of motorcycling – as widespread as the journey bike phase is now – nowadays, there are actually solely two choices. OK, perhaps three when you embody the 144bhp BMW R 1300 RS.
The BMW’s 1300cc boxer twin isn’t derived from a sportbike engine, nonetheless. Whereas the engines driving the GSX-S1000GT and the venerable Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX are. The latter extra not directly: the Ninja’s 1099cc inline 4 can hint its roots all the way in which again to the 1994 ZX-9R. The Suzuki’s K5 engine comes extra straight from the GSX-R1000.
Brakes are glorious, too
The K5 is a legendary powerplant. Initially designed as a superbike engine – for the 2005 GSX-R1000 – it was shortly discovered to be so practical and tractable that Suzuki put it to work in quite a few functions. At current, it’s the four-cylinder wündermotor that drives not simply the GSX-S1000GT, but in addition the GSX-S1000GX, GSX-S1000, and Katana.
Because of the engine having appeared in a number of fashions, it’s estimated that nicely in extra of 200,000 items have been produced through the years. And also you’ll discover loads of individuals who will argue that it stays higher than any fashionable powerplant.
“Even towards at the moment’s engines, it nonetheless presents one of the best mixture of sturdy low-end torque and excessive peak energy,” says former MotoGp and Superbike racer Martin Bauer.
Easy, torquey, and highly effective just about in all places within the rev vary, the GSX-S1000GT’s engine is paired with a slick gearbox and even slicker quickshifter – definitely the most effective I’ve ever encountered.
Peak outputs on the GSX-S1000GT are 150 bhp and 78.1 lb-ft of torque. I discussed above that conventional sport tourers featured re-tuned engines. Producers would carry down peak horsepower within the strategy of delivering larger torque. Suzuki didn’t actually need to do that with the K5 – the torque was just about there already – however has performed so anyway for the sake of sturdiness. On this set-up the K5 is bulletproof.
The bike’s TFT display is readable even in vivid daylight
Add to {that a} just-right suspension with absolutely adjustable entrance forks and adjustable preload/rebound on the rear. It’s not the flowery digital set-up you get on the GSX-S1000GX, and I’ve seen some criticisms that the rear is simply too smooth for observe use, however for my road-focused using I discover it just about unflappable.
Ergonomics are sporty however not an excessive amount of so for this 6-foot-1 rider. And on and on and on. There’s no actual have to assessment this bike – we did that three years in the past. What I need to underline right here is simply how good it’s. All of the issues {that a} rider would ask for are there.
And abruptly I can’t assist however consider an commentary {that a} consultant from a sure American bike model made to me many, a few years in the past: “The client doesn’t truly know what they need till we give it to them.”
In the event you had checked out motorcycling boards within the week, month, or 12 months earlier than the GSX-S1000GT was first revealed, you’ll have discovered submit after submit from (principally) old-boy riders lamenting the loss of life of conventional sport touring bikes and pleading with producers to revive the phase.
“I need a bike that provides XYZ!” the posts would shout, with XYZ being every little thing that you just get on the GSX-S1000GT.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
That is it. That is the bike that folks had been asking for. The bike that some seemingly out-of-touch riders are nonetheless asking for. It’s right here. It’s proper in entrance of you. And but, based on How Many Left, there are presently simply 738 registered GSX-S1000GTs on UK roads.
Examine this towards, say, the roughly 720 Harley-Davidson Road Bob fashions from 2022 or newer (the GSX-S1000GT was launched for 2022). Utterly completely different style, however equally priced. Properly, truly, the Harley prices £2,000 greater than the luggage-equipped GSX-S1000GT+.
So, is it a style factor? Probably. Possibly, as is so typically the case with each different facet of life, individuals on the web don’t truly mirror the bulk opinion. Possibly not that many individuals actually need a conventional sport tourer anymore.
Maybe people who did/do need the normal tackle the phase had been already being served by the Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX and Ninja 1000SX earlier than it (and Z1000SX earlier than that). There are roughly 1,700 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX and Ninja 1000SX fashions of 2022 or newer on UK roads.
Mix the Kawasaki and Suzuki numbers and also you’re nonetheless nicely wanting the 4,653 registered BMW S 1000 XR fashions on UK roads. And the S 1000 XR is only one of many fashionable takes on the sport-touring idea.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
Proper bike unsuitable time?
So, why isn’t the GSX-S1000GT extra widespread? I believe it’s potential that it suffers just a bit bit from Suzuki’s fashionable fame for prudence. Ever for the reason that Nice Recession, Suzuki’s had a behavior of creating protected bets.
And maybe the Japanese producer doesn’t do a adequate job of selling the truth that protected bets are sometimes dependable ones. I used to personal a Suzuki (a 2015 V-Strom 1000 – one other bike that relied on an outdated engine), and though it wasn’t the flashiest machine with cutting-edge tech, it began each rattling time. It was well-balanced and totally usable. I don’t suppose sufficient riders put sufficient inventory in reliability.
However, principally, I think that there simply aren’t that many individuals who need a conventional sport tourer. Not as many as web boards would have led us to consider, anyway.
And of those that did need such a motorbike, maybe they had been largely being served by the Kawasaki. By means of its variations, the Ninja 1100SX/Ninja1000SX/Z1000SX has been a stalwart of the normal mind-set since 2010. However for 2022, when the title went to Suzuki, the Kawasaki has been the bestselling sport tourer within the UK for greater than a decade.
However generally that was just because it was the one sport tourer. Occasions transfer on, and because the BMW’s numbers show, most riders have embraced the brand new mind-set about sport-touring bikes.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
As somebody who’s presently using Suzuki’s modern-take GSX-S1000GX, I received’t lie and say that I believe that the outdated approach of doing issues is healthier. However I’ll say that I believe it’s too shortly dismissed. And I think that for a lot of riders – if they might pull their ideas away from want-needing absolutely the latest, flashiest factor – the GSX-S1000GT presents every little thing they really need in a motorbike, and a bit of extra.
It’s felony that there are so few GTs on the highway at the moment. Which means there are such a lot of individuals lacking out on what is perhaps their excellent bike. The one resolution os so that you can go take a look at journey one. The package deal is so, so, so good. Possibly even excellent.
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