Katana (old) Prototype

**Dadpole** · 22nd September 2006, 23:45

Found a couple of pics of the one of the prototypes for the first Katana (the ONLY Katana IMHO) It was at the handover from Target Design to the new owner.

"last weekend, as planned, the Katana ED-2 Party at Target-Design took place. The prototye ED-2, freshly restored by Target-Design, had been handed over by Mr. Kasten to Mr. Ehn and is now to admire again at the Motorradmuseum Eggenburg."
A brief history is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Katana

Ahh: The memories...

**SARGE** · 22nd September 2006, 23:50

Originally Posted by Dadpole

Found a couple of pics of the one of the prototypes for the first Katana (the ONLY Katana IMHO) It was at the handover from Target Design to the new owner.

"last weekend, as planned, the Katana ED-2 Party at Target-Design took place. The prototye ED-2, freshly restored by Target-Design, had been handed over by Mr. Kasten to Mr. Ehn and is now to admire again at the Motorradmuseum Eggenburg."
A brief history is athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Katana

Ahh: The memories...

i had a popup... wicked bike for its day

**Dadpole** · 22nd September 2006, 23:53

Originally Posted by SARGE

i had a popup... wicked bike for its day

Seen a few turning up on Tardme lately. Some fairly reasonably priced too.

**slowpoke** · 23rd September 2006, 07:08

One of the true modern classics, shame they had to go and corrupt the name by slapping it on some of the later sluggardly yawn-mobiles.

Aaaaaaah, Hiscock- Katana-Wanga's, what a combination!

**nudemetalz** · 23rd September 2006, 18:16

Totally agreed here !!!
I remember the days of helping Dad clean down his wire-wheeler back in '82 after a meeting at Puke. He loved that bike.
Wonder what an original one of those would be worth today?

**AllanB** · 24th September 2006, 12:30

I must be getting old - I recall those prototypes being in magazines - the red MV based one in the background was very cool as well.

Now it occurs to me that it would be a fairly honest project to restyle my 1200ss to that original design (bar the tank) next winter.......hmmm

That's what the Bandit s should look like - wonder if they would sell more?

There were only really 2 Katanas in my book the 1100 & 750 - the wire wheel 120hp 1100 was the bees-knees at the time.

**terbang** · 24th September 2006, 12:48

Awesome bike and such a looker as well. I was lucky enough to take one (1100) out for a day ride back in the 80's. Having just stepped off an RD350 and onto this brand new beauty, it was an experience to remember. I was absolutely blown away by its performance and handling. I fell in love. The owner binned it a few days later in some loose metal and it was written off.

**orangeback** · 24th September 2006, 19:36

Wonder what an original one of those would be worth today?[/QUOTE]

Im up for that
Ive had 5 ove these monster (love them ) SF pop up and 2 SZ 750 and 2 SZ1100 , one of the 1100 with gsxr Running Gear
if you could land your hands on one ove the few SZX youll be paying 18-25 Grand for one, Have a freind with one that he bought out ove Invercargill in 1988

**avgas** · 24th September 2006, 19:51

That drawing in the background of the orange bike is the original concept drawing.
Someday i will get my popup

**nudemetalz** · 24th September 2006, 20:54

Originally Posted by orangeback

Wonder what an original one of those would be worth today?

Im up for that
Ive had 5 ove these monster (love them ) SF pop up and 2 SZ 750 and 2 SZ1100 , one of the 1100 with gsxr Running Gear
if you could land your hands on one ove the few SZX youll be paying 18-25 Grand for one, Have a freind with one that he bought out ove Invercargill in 1988[/QUOTE]

$18-25K?
Far out !!!!

I think the wire-wheelers were called SXZ not SZX from memory, but I might be wrong.

**Dadpole** · 24th September 2006, 22:14

I can't remember what the WW models were called, but SXZ may be right. A mate had one back in the old days and we traded bikes for a couple of weeks. I found the Katana too hard to live with for daily use compared to my GSX1100EZ. Illegal speeds were where it was meant to spend its life. At over 140km, the weight on your wrists was gone and the suspension started to work.
I must, however, report that my EZ was faster - courtesy of the performance bits off my old 1100EX black pipe coupled with decent carbs and Yoshi ($700!!! back then) exhaust.

PS
The thought of a 1200ss "Katanaised" is food for thought.

**T.W.R** · 25th September 2006, 00:33

Std Katana was a GSX****sz and the wire wheel was szx(1100 only)
plus the yanks got a 1000cc model to allow them to be run in the AMA superbike series, had a smaller bore & different carbs.

The unique speedo/rev-counter was a trick around the 140kmh area

The pop-up headlight model was a SE katana, scary at speed without the fairing off though

(a 16in front going nuts at 180 ain't nice

) the servo motor for the light wasn't the greatest neither was the plastic bead linkage

There was a supposedly genuine Wire Wheel advertised for sale a couple of years ago in Auckland, (one owner, low Kms) asking $22500, probably went off-shore.

**nudemetalz** · 25th September 2006, 19:16

Even by today's standards, the Katana is still a beautiful bike and W/W model,...well,.....

(forgive me for posting this again, but it is a very cool pic of mine)...