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"
he Katana's ABS plastic fairing, pressed up tight against the upper frame rails, measures only 19 inches wide. Yet cutaways in the fuel tank give the rider room to squeeze inside the bubble for full-body protection against the cold. The GSX's air management with ducts to draw cooling air into the engine bay and airbox, and heated air out, away from the rider—is effective. Even during cruising through warm, mid-town traffic, not a trace of engine heat spills into the cockpit.What sets this fairing apart from run of-the-mill aerowork is Suzuki's new Power Shield, a retractable windscreen operated by a handlebar-mounted control switch. Push the button and the shield raises as much as three inches from its fully retracted position. Using essentially the same mechanism as automobile power windows, the PS employs a pair of plastic ball-chains—the left side driven by a sprocket from a small Kioto servo-motor, the right by a drive shaft—to articulate the shield in push/pull fashion.Although raising the shield extends the envelope of still cockpit air and shrouds the rider's chest and shoulders from the blast, helmet buffeting and wind noise at 60 mph actually increase when the shield is in its fully extended position. Not until 80 mph and faster does this air-spill become less turbulent. In the high-desert chill, we settled for earplugs and ran at a law-abiding 60 mph with the windshield full up."
See My Garage for mods...
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Why can't Suzuki make this bike any more?
Even by todays standards it is still comprable to some modern bikes:
5.5 gallon fuel tank
130HP
538 dry weight
It just needs updated brakes and wheels. The front and side profile are not that bad but the rear tail light does need updating.
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The windshield was stock from '88 thru '93.
If you're interested in how it operated, you can look at the Power Screen Parts Fiche.
Originally posted by squiggy View PostWhy can't Suzuki make this bike any more?
But if you mean, why can't they make this same basic bike with a more modern engine (say Bandit 1250 motor)? The answer is simply cost & number of units moved -- they didn't sell all that many of these bikes "new" because of the extremely high buy-in price compared to other choices in the category. I don't know what they were charging for them in the US at the time (I was in Germany at the end of the 80's), but there they were priced at the very top of the heap.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet
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CyberPoet's Katana Maintence and Upgrade Parts Offerings
The Best Metal Steel Aluminum Motorcycle Tire Valves in the World, plus lots of motorcycle & Katana (GSX600F / GSX750F) specific help files.
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Originally posted by The CyberPoet View PostBut if you mean, why can't they make this same basic bike with a more modern engine (say Bandit 1250 motor)? The answer is simply cost & number of units moved -- they didn't sell all that many of these bikes "new" because of the extremely high buy-in price compared to other choices in the category. I don't know what they were charging for them in the US at the time (I was in Germany at the end of the 80's), but there they were priced at the very top of the heap.-Steve
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Originally posted by steves View PostThey could give Honda a run for their money with that 1250 motor up against the VFR crowd... if they did it right
They have the Bandit 1250 platform (look at the Canadian & UK offerings of the same bike with full clad fairings and hard bags pre-included, although both the bags & full fairings are 3rd party); if they took that as the basis and actually built proper fairings, did a tighter integration of some custom bags and added a bit more bling (data systems with info like range-to-empty, chain oiler), they could have a real winner.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet
__________________________________________________ ________
CyberPoet's Katana Maintence and Upgrade Parts Offerings
The Best Metal Steel Aluminum Motorcycle Tire Valves in the World, plus lots of motorcycle & Katana (GSX600F / GSX750F) specific help files.
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Originally posted by The CyberPoet View PostBut if you mean, why can't they make this same basic bike with a more modern engine (say Bandit 1250 motor)?
It looks like the cruiser styling is the new sport-touring. Even Kawasaki took the old Voyager name tag and slaped it on one of their cruiser barges.
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