Mully
19th April 2009, 22:43
Since fate and circumstance had conspired to kick me in the balls, I was unable to take up Mr Random's kind offer test the GSX1400 for a full day on Saturday (18th April), so this is a "Reader's Digest Condensed" version, as to ride another man's bike and not review it for the salivating masses would be, to be frank, rude.
Firstly, the subject.
"Betty" is a 2007 Suzuki GSX1400 with some light mods, namely;
A 2 Brothers slip-on can which sounds like Christmas in my pants,
MX Bars replacing the standard bars,
A BMC Air Filter and appropriate "tweaking" to the fuel, and
A bar-end mirror on the right hand side
More generally, "Betty" is a 1402cc Fuel-injected IL4 Air/Oil cooled motorcycle weighing (according to Wikipedia) 226kg dry. Interestingly, Wikipedia's contributors have also deigned the GSX1400 as a "Sports Tourer" when I would classify it as a naked muscle bike.
And so on to the ride impression.
After dropping my current personal steed (1996 RF900 for those too important and/or lazy to cast your eyes slightly up and to the right) off to Mr Random's abode and a quick visit to the local Shell servo to brim the tank and check the pressures in Mr Michelin's fine Pilot Powers, it was time to make my way towards my preferred test area.
Initial impressions are that the wide MX bars make the bike extremely flickable. The flip side to this is a sense of "twitchyness" and lightness to the front end when speeds approach (and pass) speeds which Mr Plod deems acceptable on public carriageways. There is also, to me, a nice seat-pegs-bars relationship (for reference purposes, I am 6'1" and of generous proportions). Standing on the pegs (whether to stretch the legs, or to look ahead of a row of cages) is easy. Adjustable clutch and brake levers can customise the bike somewhat for the particularly large-or-small of hand.
Also apparent early in the ride is the enormous amounts of torque in seemingly any gear. This delivers fantastic roll-on acceleration. Overtaking errant cagers (indeed; lines of cagers) is almost as much a matter of thought as actual movement of the right wrist. This also, I suspect, would make the 14 a more enjoyable real-world ride than, say, a Superbike replica which would probably be faster point-to-point, but arguably less enjoyable and almost certainly harder work than the big girl.
The gauges are nice and legible - analogue speedo on the left and tacho on the right, with tripmeter and fuel gauge/clock underneath, respectively. The usual array of idiot lights (easy to see at a glance even in bright sunlight) are in between. One small niggle; the indicator lights flash green (the same as the neutral light), giving me the corner-of-the-vision impression that I had grabbed an inadvertant neutral when turning through the occasional intersection (for the record, I never found a false neutral, but more on the gearbox later)
Despite a little whoopsie at the end of the North-Western Motorway (had a brain melt about which bike I was on and messed up the clutch and throttle action, leading to an embarrassing nearly-wheelie-into-nearly-stall situation before I recovered my composure and carried on, thankful for my full-face helmet) my first thoughts of the bike were overwhelmingly positive (helped, no doubt by the burble of the muffler behind my right heel on every blipped-throttle downchange).
Turning from State Highway 16 into Old North Road in Kumeu, I was stunned (despite being warned about the lack of ground clearance) to touch down the toe of my boot in the corner. The first (straight) part of Old North Road itself allowed me the opportunity to open the bike up somewhat for the first time, devoid of traffic. It was here that the high-speed twitchyness made itself apparent, particularly with wind-blast pushing you back and making you pull back on the bars. She can, however, hike up her skirt and bolt if given the berries.
The trip to Kaukapakapa was mostly uneventful, apart from the Noobie error in mistaking an unfamiliar corner for one I thought I knew and going in a bit, umm, hot for the bend. This allowed me to sample the brakes - the six piston Tokico callipers managing to haul an impressively large combined bike and rider weight to a more managable speed and leaving your reviewer giving himself a stern talking to for his Noob mistake.
The bike continued to impress on the ride - not being on familiar terms with the local constabulary and not being keen to become familiar, I restrained from opening it right out - and the burbling of the can, plus the repeated boot scrapings left me a grinning buffoon.
Kaukapakapa saw a stop to clean the bug cemetary off my visor and the headlight, as well as removing my sunglasses in deference to the fading light. Similarly, I made a decision not to carry on to Wellsford, but to go to Helensville and back home via the back roads of Waitakere.
So I did.
A stop for a peanut slab and Lift Plus in Helensville (after another bug cleaning) had me pondering the GSX1400. Not really a corner carver (lack of clearance deciding that), not really a high-speed tourer (MX Bars notwithstanding, the wind blast would get very old very quickly, I suspect) and not really an around town bike (Supertanker weight vetoing that).
To be brutal (and cliched), Suzuki seem to have built the suspension to a price, rather than a standard on this bike. I suspect some dollars thrown at the suspension hardware would make all the difference.
The gearbox can reasonably be described as adequate, if a little agricultural at times. Blipping the throttle on downchanges (again, not a chore with that noise) seemed to deal to the problem. This bike also had some "creep" when in first gear with the clutch lever fully in, leading me to believe the clutch may need adjustment, which could be a contributing factor to the gearbox difficulty. For this reason, I'm not prepared to break out the pitchfork and torch just yet.
Regrettably, Miss Mully didn't get to try the pillion accomodation while the bike was on the move. She did sit on it stationary and proclaim it comfortable.
Despite some flaws, the bike does a lot of things well. I loved the thing, and the limitations of the rider were certainly met much earlier than I felt the limits of the bike were met.
Would I buy one? Given Suzuki are running these bikes out at a paltry $12995 including a slip-on Yoshi can, if I had $13K burning a hole in my pocket, the standard GSX1400 would certainly be on my shortlist.
Much thanks must go to JRandom for the kind lend of Betty for the afternoon.
Firstly, the subject.
"Betty" is a 2007 Suzuki GSX1400 with some light mods, namely;
A 2 Brothers slip-on can which sounds like Christmas in my pants,
MX Bars replacing the standard bars,
A BMC Air Filter and appropriate "tweaking" to the fuel, and
A bar-end mirror on the right hand side
More generally, "Betty" is a 1402cc Fuel-injected IL4 Air/Oil cooled motorcycle weighing (according to Wikipedia) 226kg dry. Interestingly, Wikipedia's contributors have also deigned the GSX1400 as a "Sports Tourer" when I would classify it as a naked muscle bike.
And so on to the ride impression.
After dropping my current personal steed (1996 RF900 for those too important and/or lazy to cast your eyes slightly up and to the right) off to Mr Random's abode and a quick visit to the local Shell servo to brim the tank and check the pressures in Mr Michelin's fine Pilot Powers, it was time to make my way towards my preferred test area.
Initial impressions are that the wide MX bars make the bike extremely flickable. The flip side to this is a sense of "twitchyness" and lightness to the front end when speeds approach (and pass) speeds which Mr Plod deems acceptable on public carriageways. There is also, to me, a nice seat-pegs-bars relationship (for reference purposes, I am 6'1" and of generous proportions). Standing on the pegs (whether to stretch the legs, or to look ahead of a row of cages) is easy. Adjustable clutch and brake levers can customise the bike somewhat for the particularly large-or-small of hand.
Also apparent early in the ride is the enormous amounts of torque in seemingly any gear. This delivers fantastic roll-on acceleration. Overtaking errant cagers (indeed; lines of cagers) is almost as much a matter of thought as actual movement of the right wrist. This also, I suspect, would make the 14 a more enjoyable real-world ride than, say, a Superbike replica which would probably be faster point-to-point, but arguably less enjoyable and almost certainly harder work than the big girl.
The gauges are nice and legible - analogue speedo on the left and tacho on the right, with tripmeter and fuel gauge/clock underneath, respectively. The usual array of idiot lights (easy to see at a glance even in bright sunlight) are in between. One small niggle; the indicator lights flash green (the same as the neutral light), giving me the corner-of-the-vision impression that I had grabbed an inadvertant neutral when turning through the occasional intersection (for the record, I never found a false neutral, but more on the gearbox later)
Despite a little whoopsie at the end of the North-Western Motorway (had a brain melt about which bike I was on and messed up the clutch and throttle action, leading to an embarrassing nearly-wheelie-into-nearly-stall situation before I recovered my composure and carried on, thankful for my full-face helmet) my first thoughts of the bike were overwhelmingly positive (helped, no doubt by the burble of the muffler behind my right heel on every blipped-throttle downchange).
Turning from State Highway 16 into Old North Road in Kumeu, I was stunned (despite being warned about the lack of ground clearance) to touch down the toe of my boot in the corner. The first (straight) part of Old North Road itself allowed me the opportunity to open the bike up somewhat for the first time, devoid of traffic. It was here that the high-speed twitchyness made itself apparent, particularly with wind-blast pushing you back and making you pull back on the bars. She can, however, hike up her skirt and bolt if given the berries.
The trip to Kaukapakapa was mostly uneventful, apart from the Noobie error in mistaking an unfamiliar corner for one I thought I knew and going in a bit, umm, hot for the bend. This allowed me to sample the brakes - the six piston Tokico callipers managing to haul an impressively large combined bike and rider weight to a more managable speed and leaving your reviewer giving himself a stern talking to for his Noob mistake.
The bike continued to impress on the ride - not being on familiar terms with the local constabulary and not being keen to become familiar, I restrained from opening it right out - and the burbling of the can, plus the repeated boot scrapings left me a grinning buffoon.
Kaukapakapa saw a stop to clean the bug cemetary off my visor and the headlight, as well as removing my sunglasses in deference to the fading light. Similarly, I made a decision not to carry on to Wellsford, but to go to Helensville and back home via the back roads of Waitakere.
So I did.
A stop for a peanut slab and Lift Plus in Helensville (after another bug cleaning) had me pondering the GSX1400. Not really a corner carver (lack of clearance deciding that), not really a high-speed tourer (MX Bars notwithstanding, the wind blast would get very old very quickly, I suspect) and not really an around town bike (Supertanker weight vetoing that).
To be brutal (and cliched), Suzuki seem to have built the suspension to a price, rather than a standard on this bike. I suspect some dollars thrown at the suspension hardware would make all the difference.
The gearbox can reasonably be described as adequate, if a little agricultural at times. Blipping the throttle on downchanges (again, not a chore with that noise) seemed to deal to the problem. This bike also had some "creep" when in first gear with the clutch lever fully in, leading me to believe the clutch may need adjustment, which could be a contributing factor to the gearbox difficulty. For this reason, I'm not prepared to break out the pitchfork and torch just yet.
Regrettably, Miss Mully didn't get to try the pillion accomodation while the bike was on the move. She did sit on it stationary and proclaim it comfortable.
Despite some flaws, the bike does a lot of things well. I loved the thing, and the limitations of the rider were certainly met much earlier than I felt the limits of the bike were met.
Would I buy one? Given Suzuki are running these bikes out at a paltry $12995 including a slip-on Yoshi can, if I had $13K burning a hole in my pocket, the standard GSX1400 would certainly be on my shortlist.
Much thanks must go to JRandom for the kind lend of Betty for the afternoon.