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• On tour with the model family
• New Katana is based on the GSX-S 1000
• 1100 engine still good today
• New katana almost only 12 liters of gasoline
• survey
• Conclusion

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

20th photos

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

1/20
The new edition of the Kulturgut-Bike is technically a GSX-S 1000, but when it comes to optics – where else – it uses the ancestor drawn by Target-Design.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

2/20
A GSX-S in fancy dress: with the Katana, Suzuki takes on the icon again. This time it is more pleasing and less divisive than the bold, extravagant Target design. Very controversial: now also in black.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

3/20
Split curves: katana style! The handling of the new machine is sleek as is its appearance.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

4/20
The cockpit is not as modern as it wants to be, TFT is still not made by Suzuki to this day. But it has its charm and fits well into the somewhat retro-futuristic overall picture.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

5/20
The rear view: This also modernizes the Katana line. Not in the picture: the nasty license plate holder.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

6/20
Katana: traditional Japanese combat sword for elite warriors, wielded by the legendary samurai, a feared weapon in their hands. Does that sound martial? Is also like that. And the lines reflect it.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

7/20
Technically, Katana and GSX-S are largely identical. With noticeable differences in ergonomics.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

8/20
Japan Fighter: The GSX-S 1000 also uses a formal language that is more articulated with Far Eastern terms. Technically, there is a lot of GSX-R from 2005 to 2016: engine, frame, swing arm.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

9/20
The price of the GSX-S 1000 is very attractive. The previous year’s model is currently available as a special offer for 10,995 euros.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

10/20
The well-known GSX-S cockpit is not an eye-catcher, but very likeable in its simple functionality and excellent readability. What is not there is not worth knowing.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

11/20
The GSX-S 1000 has fully adjustable KYB fork, here the rebound stage.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

12/20
Suzuki GSX 1100 S Katana: The 70s reached their peak with the lower, technical half of the Katana: 16 valves, over 100 HP, three brake discs, anti-dive. At the top, Target-Design opens a big can of eighties instead of GSX-S-Barock. A long time before everyone else.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

13/20
Photographer: “I can hardly get it sharp, everything wobbles!” Editor: “It was like that back then!”

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

14/20
Cooling fins at the front, stereo struts at the rear, even with adjustable damping. Surprise: the handling of this perfectly restored Katana is far less horrific than predicted.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

15/20
The contemporary trade press criticized this speedometer as difficult to read. Okay, the counter-rotating pointers are irritating, but apart from that, we were no longer better informed about the current speed than with them.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

16/20
The small windshield helps enormously.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

17/20
Not Steini, but an original MOTORRAD production from back then. Even the samurai seems to struggle with the sitting position.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

18/20
Stuntman Steinmacher, driver of the GSX-S 1000, was and is a Katana fan. The old photos are from him, the bike is a conversion. Thank you!

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

19/20
Intersection, the second: the new katana stands between the look of the ancestor and the technology of the sister.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

20/20
The new Katana is an all-round good, coherent motorcycle, apart from the tank contents, you can be accused of being unsound.

Suzuki Katana, GSX-S 1000 & GSX 1100 S Katana

On tour with the model family

After a long break, one of the big names in the business is back: Suzuki Katana. The new edition of the Kulturgut-Bike is technically a GSX-S 1000, but in terms of optics – where else – uses the Ahnin drawn by Target-Design. Is the result worthy of them? And is the new katana noble and sharp like the samurai’s long sword?

Black? Katana in black does not work."-"Why not the one in silver?"-"A real no-go. " In the editorial office’s underground car park, there is a kind of spontaneous advice of the wise about interesting new motorcycles with great reliability. This of course also applies to the most interesting new Suzuki for some time, the Katana. This council negotiates tightly, and there is not always agreement. This time, however, the judgment is unison and freely based on Henry Ford: "A Suzuki Katana can be in any color imaginable, as long as that color is silver." Exactly the silver in which Target-Design came up with it back then. Everything else is a breach of style.
D.at that time? A little digression to freshen up. The year is 1980: Helmut Schmidt is Chancellor, the liter super costs one mark and 16 pfennigs, and Suzuki is really into music in the battle of the four Japanese for technology market leadership. And with the GSX 1100 has a very hot iron in the fire. Two overhead camshafts, 16 valves, over 100 HP – prestigious material, state of the art, as the saying goes. Only when it comes to styling do many, especially the German importer, see a need to catch up. Suzukis would be too conservative, too homely. For the GSX model series, especially the 1100 flagship, an appropriate look must finally be found: "Unmistakable, sporty, according to the technical image of Suzuki."

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Impression Suzuki Katana
Intersection

Original original katanas are rare today

Together with the European headquarters, they took matters into their own hands in a night-and-fog operation, commissioned a young, German, at the time still unknown studio: Target-Design. Hans-Georg Kasten, Hans A. Muth, Jan Olof Fellstrom. They set to work in April 1980, creating what is required in just three months. And give the child the name that would become legend: Katana. A German team of all people had to come up with the idea of ​​naming a Japanese sports motorcycle after the noble long sword of the legendary samurai warrior. Suzuki Katana, that sounds as natural as Ferrari Daytona. Presentation of the prototype to the top boss: "When the towels fell, there was an oppressive silence in the room for a few seconds. Until Osamu Suzuki, the president, said with certainty: "I like that. It reminds me of the Concorde." The futuristic prototype goes into series production with only minor modifications. A shape that was never known before, sensational and definitely unmistakable.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

Suzuki GSX 1100 S Katana.

Unfortunately, Suzuki then laid an egg for itself when it came to the price: even in the high-end league, 13,000 marks were too much. In addition to the shape to be polarized for the mass market, this was the reason why the sales failed to materialize. In 1985 Katana was over again in Germany. The Japanese loved them, however, and various models rolled off the assembly line there by the year 2000. The lack of success did not harm the cult that was to develop around the original katana, on the contrary. Original katanas are rare, sought-after and expensive today. Incidentally, the same Osamu Suzuki, born in 1930, still chairs the company today. Back to the now, where Suzuki, Retro rolls on, the Katana has reissued. This time with design help from Italy: Rodolfo Frascoli was involved in Moto Morini Corsaro 1200, Triumph Tiger and the Vespa GT. It has the iconic shape, here too, the Council agrees, reinterpreted it coherently and brought it into the present. With today’s eyes, the 2019 vintage looks more pleasing, more contemporary, less extroverted. And yet it is immediately recognized as a katana at any time, even in black. After all, they would also be available in silver

New Katana is based on the GSX-S 1000

For the technology, Suzuki again relies on what is already available, tried and tested, the GSX-S 1000 forms the basis. In other words, a potent powernaked without serious faults or blame, with an unbeatable bang-for-the-buck factor. Where else can you get 150 hp for less than 11,000 euros? The working class hero, who is simple at heart, has always been convincing in comparisons and is still somehow owed the one, the compelling reason to buy. Is the power flower a good basis for the new version of the katana? Let’s take a closer look: Side by side, the GSX-S looks shorter, beefier, lower. The Katana, on the other hand, despite the identical substructure, the identical Kayaba chassis (fork fully adjustable, spring strut in preload and rebound), the same frame and the same swing arm, appears higher, longer, more stretched. The silhouette is more oriented towards the ancestor. So that fits perfectly.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

Suzuki GSX-S 1000.

This impression continues when you sit up. The roadster is positioned deep in the motorcycle, with a relatively low seat hollow, narrow handlebars and a compact aggressiveness. The GSX-S looks more like a 750 under you. The new Katana, on the other hand, feels like another, larger motorcycle, although technically the same and ergonomically only readjusted in the centimeter range. At first you sit higher overall, more on top than inside, and wider behind a wider handlebar. The knee angle is much more open, which is better overall by objective standards. More dignified, grown-up, yet appropriately sporty. Larger riders will tend to feel more comfortable on the Katana, while smaller riders will feel more comfortable on the GSX-S. Thank God, Suzuki resisted the temptation that might have been there to take up the seating position of the past. Because it may be unique, a clear unique selling point – but it seems almost grotesque from today’s perspective: You sit at the back and deep down in the motorcycle, far in front and high up (!) There are handlebars behind what feels like a meter-long tank. Contemporary as "sporty, comfortable sitting posture" sorted, it reminds of advanced yoga today.

1100 engine still good today

This bizarre seating position is also the defining feature of the driving experience with the old Katana. It’s like pushing the 19-inch front wheel at a great height on the wheel axle. The handling is stable to stubborn. Of course, cast wheels as heavy as lead and a good 250 kilos that always feel like more. The adventure begins when there are bumps in the slope. Brake? Three panes and yet, from today’s perspective of course, little effect. Nevertheless, as bad as everyone has prophesied, the 40-year-old katana does not operate. Above all: How good this air-cooled, roller-bearing-mounted Suzuki engine is still today! An incredibly smooth running culture, mechanically quiet, soft on the gas, minimal load change reactions, creamy pulling power from the very bottom. The gearbox is also really great, the clutch is perfect. The highest Japanese four-cylinder architecture, where the sought-after commonalities end. Must, because four decades of progress, if we are honest, make any further search for parallels futile.

tysonjopson.com, Rossen Gagolov, Achim Steinmacher

Suzuki GSX-S 1000 Katana.

In any case, the two new machines also live from their powerful inline four-cylinder. It also runs over wide areas, but not mechanically fine everywhere. First and foremost, however, Suzuki’s 1000 is a real, hurricane-like powerhouse, and in the case of the new Katana, it even packs another five on the promised 150 little horses. A mercilessly short translation does the rest, but also requires a high speed level. There is still a distance to the most extreme representatives of the guild, who of course come from Europe today. But by no means a huge one. The GSX-S and Katana are also in agreement: the transmission is smooth, the clutch is inconspicuously smooth. Traction help "Low RPM Assist" nice, hoarse, full-bodied inline 4 orchestra for fans of the screamer principle a pleasure. The harsh load changes, the most tangible point of criticism of the GSX-S, are actually mitigated. A new throttle unit allows the katana to accelerate a little more smoothly at the apex. Stalemate also with the chassis. Both reasonably tight, but the response is not necessarily sensational, just acceptable. Appropriate for the price. Brake? In each case not overly pointed, but easy to dose and completely appropriate in effect. SECTION? Sensitive, no lean angle sensors. Traction control? Three appropriate levels, also sensitive, also no curve function. So well known, so identical, so good. So unexciting.

New katana almost only 12 liters of gasoline

It gets more interesting when it comes to the driving experience. The first tires alone separate the two, but the new Dunlop Roadsport 2 of the Katana plays subjectively in the same class as the D 214: In the dry, brought up to temperature, an acceptable, thoroughly agile touring sports tire, in the wet, little grip. You can only feel the touch of the katana in a direct comparison. No, the thing is interesting because both are the same motorcycle, but the driving experience is unexpectedly different due to the changed ergonomics. So the GSX-S looks more greedy, drives more over the front wheel. The katana, on the other hand, is the more neutral, more stable motorcycle. Circles more homogeneously, more fully, without ever losing its handiness. An absolutely consistent, pleasant driving behavior. Matching the name, matching the look. How well this motorcycle with a full grip tire, in a contemporary dimension at the rear (i.e. 190 / 55-17 instead of the antiquated 190 / 50s) must drive!

survey

New katana, old katana or GSX-S 1000? Which Suzi do you like best?

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Suzuki GSX-S 1000 Katana

Suzuki GSX-S 1000

Suzuki GSX 1100 S Katana

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The thing with the tank volume. The new Katana only holds 12 liters of fuel, minus a full 5 liters. Is that enough? Thanks to its low consumption, the new one creates at least sufficient distances in normal operation, but we get the feeling that there might have been more. Nothing fundamental changes in the processing either. It remains accurate, but the design is visibly simple. Only an LED headlight and a new cockpit upgrade the Katana. Simple controls and footrests seem less suitable on it than on the GSX-S. Measured against what is on offer, the purchase price of 13,690 euros, around 1,300 euros more than the normal price for the GSX-S, is of course completely okay. Whether that alone is enough?

Conclusion

The new Katana is an all-round good, coherent motorcycle, apart from the tank content, you can be accused of being unsound. The technology for a 1000 from 2019 is basically simple, but works flawlessly. As has always been the case with the GSX-S 1000. So anyone who likes the design can access it without hesitation and be happy with a good retro powernaked. But is that enough? Does that do justice to the big name Suzuki Katana? It stood for cutting edge, for futuristic, progressive design. The old katana was a shocker. Technically hot, optically innovative. The new one isn’t really either. No matter what color.

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