[WickedKatweazle]

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/pweter/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-6.png[/IMG]

[JasonChen]

wow.... old thread.

I miss CP.....

[Cheriff]

kwebbel made an appearance in it too...

[4banger]

JAJAJ I also like the KATANA name it sounds goodddddddddd.... But I like that new gsxf it looks goodddddddddddd....

The chick in your avatar is hottttt

[Bart]

The Kat's a legend. I understand that this bike is going to go through changes and plenty of people are going to get nostalgic about whatever they're used to and automatically hate the new version, so be it. Still, the name "GSX###F" has always been a Katana, and this new thing just ain't no Kat.

Let me see if I have my history right, do please correct/affirm what I believe:
The GSX-F/Katana was basically Suzuki's debut of the Twin-Swirl-Combustion-Chamber (TSCC), & was hence one of the first super high-revving motorcycle engines.
The competition was hot on the trail, soonafter coming out with their hi-revvers, except theirs were lighter, faster and even more designed with track-performance on production bikes.
Thus began the dawn of the then-new category "sportbike"
In order to compete in this market, Suzuki came out with the "racing" version, the GSX-R.
This left the GSX-F as... well, either a guiney-pig or a quasi-sportbike with a cult following.
Ultimately the weight and mechanically traditional engine left this bike in an increasingly wider gap behind the mass-produced, highly popular superbikes called "sportbikes".
Thus, this bike which ironically pioneered the sportbike movement was, via relative lack of change, now spawned a category called "sport-touring".

=-=-=-=-=

So here's my .02:
This "new" GSX 500/650 - F is meant to appeal to, or be perceived as, a "Sport-Touring". But it's not.

I dare estimate that a very high number of bikes sold are sombody's "beginner" bike. People love sport-bikes, and see that a 600 is the smallest of the standard sizes, thus they assume that a 600 is a "small" sportbike and thus a good beginner bike.

What Suzuki needs to do, and half-heartedly did with this new F-series, is to make a "beginner" 600 with sportbike-like styling. I just think that sticking the "F" on there is a cheap way to capitalize on the GSX-F familiarity for a bike that's not in the same class. Call it like "MR" for mini-ricer, or a "Bixxer" or "Baxit" or "Gizzander" if it's that much like a fairing'd Bandit.

What they should do is to make "Sport-Touring" an official and immediatly recognizable category. With the Kat (the true GSX-F) they already have a jumpstart on this. What they ought to do now is exaggerate the Kat's longer wheelbase, wider-heavier frame and gorgeous curves away from the short angular look which has become par for the course in sportbikes. Create (er, polish the creation...) of something, and force the competition to follow the lead.

In other words, make it like a mini-goldwing. Go ahead and stick in the fuel-injection and make it belt- or shaft driven. Make it smooth. Just don't make it too much like a cruiser or standard, or huge like a touring bike. Just please rearrange certain features so that it is then visually just outside the range of looking like a "crotch rocket" - then people will quit asking us to do wheelies.

Although it would be yet another change in the evolution, I would personally be satisfied in calling that the "new Katana".

- PS, call it a "Katu"... for "Kat-2"?

[loudnlow7484]

Let me see if I have my history right, do please correct/affirm what I believe:
The GSX-F/Katana was basically Suzuki's debut of the Twin-Swirl-Combustion-Chamber (TSCC), & was hence one of the first super high-revving motorcycle engines.
The competition was hot on the trail, soonafter coming out with their hi-revvers, except theirs were lighter, faster and even more designed with track-performance on production bikes.
Thus began the dawn of the then-new category "sportbike"
In order to compete in this market, Suzuki came out with the "racing" version, the GSX-R.
This left the GSX-F as... well, either a guiney-pig or a quasi-sportbike with a cult following.
Ultimately the weight and mechanically traditional engine left this bike in an increasingly wider gap behind the mass-produced, highly popular superbikes called "sportbikes".
Thus, this bike which ironically pioneered the sportbike movement was, via relative lack of change, now spawned a category called "sport-touring".

=-=-=-=-=

Not quite.

The GSXR created the modern sport bike segment when it was released in 1985. The engine of the original 1985 GSXR750 was the base from which all oil-cooled Suzuki engines were created. It took a few years for everybody to catch up to the GSXR...... probably the first years I would put another bike on par with it would be in the late 80's when the new ZX7's came out. The GSXR1100 was caught more quickly by the FZR1000, and then got smacked in the face by a baby-powdered hand in 92 when Honda released the original CBR900RR, which was absolutely the greatest revolution in open class sportbikes since the introduction of the GSXR.

The GSXF was brought out in 1988, a full three years later when the GSXR entered its second generation. Steel frame, the original GSXR750 engine sleeved down to a 600, mellow geometry....... this bike was never meant to be a track weapon (even though it was campaigned in some racing series at the time). The 600 class hadn't really taken off in racing, so there wasn't much need to have a GSXR600 yet. As a matter of fact, if you exclude the 92-93 GSXR600 (it deserves to be forgotten) then Suzuki didn't really make a serious attempt at a race-quality 600 until the SRAD came out in 1996 (when Suzuki proved that they really could build a watercooled sport bike, since they didn't do so well in the 93-95 version). The GSXF started out the same as it is today...... a sporty bike, but not a race machine.