#suzuki

The long winter break from racing is almost over, as the 2016 World Superbike season will kick off in just over a week in Australia at the beautiful Phillip Island circuit. Jonathan Rea took the 2015 championship – his first world title – in convincing fashion, and with a new Kawasaki ZX-10R at his disposal, he looks to be a favorite to defend his title.

When the hyperbike wars were taking off at the start of the new millennium, Kawasaki was caught with its pants down, so to speak, as Suzuki had lit the field on fire with its Hayabusa. Team Green’s response? No, not the ZX-14R we know today, but the ZX-12R. A fast bike by most measures, when placed against the ‘Busa it simply couldn’t keep up. For this week’s Church feature we have our first ride review of the 2002 Kawasaki ZX-12R, the result of Kawi reimagining the 12R (slightly) for hyperspeed touring duty since it wouldn’t win any drag strip wars. 

Last month we brought you the Top 10 Most Anticipated Bikes of 2016. For February, let’s take a look at the most affordable new bikes of 2016, because, well, a lot of the bikes in that other list are pricey: XDiavel, Brutale 800, Super Duke GT … you get the picture. There already exist a lot of motorcycles in the sub-$10k price category, and here’s 10 more new models joining that list. From retro to modernistic, cruiser to sportbike, on-road to off, there’s a little something for everyone in this list.

In honor of it being 30 years since Suzuki’s first GSX-R750 came to America, we hereby present what I’m pretty sure is the rarest of them all, the bike that proudly wore two “R”s before others had even one, the super-rare race-homologation special 1989 GSX-R750RR – also reverentially known as “RK” among the few collectors who know this bike exists.

Last year’s Ultimate Sports-Adventure-Touring Shootout – a six-day, nine-bike extravagasm – pitted some of the lesser dirtable models (Versys 1000 LT, Multistrada S, S1000XR) against some of the industry’s more formidable off-roaders (1290 Super Adventure, 1190 Adventure, R1200GS) as well as a few inbetweeners (Caponord, V-Strom, Tiger Explorer). With this year’s introduction of Honda’s Africa Twin, Ducati’s Multistrada 1200 Enduro, and Triumph’s Tiger Explorer XCx, three more off-roady models have emerged.

For this week’s Church feature, we’re continuing the Suzuki two-stroke dirtbike theme. Last week we featured the 2001 Suzuki RM250. This week, it’s Mark Kariya’s review of the 250’s little brother, the 2001 Suzuki RM125. Incorporating many of the improvements seen on the RM250, here, Kariya tries his best to impersonate Travis Pastrana. In case you’re of the generation who only knows Pastrana for his backflips and four-wheel rally exploits, Travis also has a 125cc championship to his name as well. And he did it aboard a Suzuki RM125. Read on to see Kariya’s impressions of the bike. 

Suzuki’s GSX-R750 is arguably the most influential sportbike of all time, and 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of when the original GSX-R750 debuted on American soil. The Gixxer 750 is now bookended by 600cc and 1000cc versions, but the 750 remains one of the best-balanced sportbikes on the market. Our Australian correspondent, Jeff Ware, has loads of experience with the GSX-R750, being a longtime motojourno and the restorer of the 1985 Gixxer used in the article below. Ware outlines the history of the GSX-R750 and compares his original GSX-R with its contemporary brother to illustrate the evolution of the sportbike over the past three decades. Enjoy! —Kevin Duke, Editor-in-Chief

Each year around this time the MO staff gathers to contemplate the new breed of tasty two-wheelers coming our way. This is also when each editor begins positioning himself for a particular press launch. Last year, Preemptive Editor, Troy Siahaan made it abundantly clear that only an act of God would keep him from the R1 launch. This year he’s communicated the same thing about the new Suzuki SV650, a bike that, democratically, didn’t even make this list (Ouch. -TS).

With BMW’s announcement that it will be producing a small-displacement, single-cylinder motorcycle – the G310R – aimed at newer riders and available come the latter stages of 2016, the German marque has signaled to everyone that it’s aiming at world domination. And if you’re familiar with South Park or internet memes, I’m imagining the plan goes a little something like this:

In racing lightness is everything, and that was the main objective when designing the 2001 Suzuki RM250 motocrosser, the subject of this week’s Church feature, the first one of 2016. Yep, we’re going back 15 years and checking out what MX’ers were looking as the hot ticket. Every facet of the RM250 was approached with optimum racing performance in mind, and according to author Mark Kariya, the Suzuki two-stroke didn’t disappoint. Read on to see what the RM250 was all about. 

Motorcycle shootouts are a relentless procession of putting the screws to a couple or numerous models selected for similarities in performance, style, purpose, price and, of course, engine displacement. Two of our most recent shootouts, the Gentleman’s Hooligan Comparo and Japanese Mega Standards Shootout, pit four excruciatingly similar models from Kawasaki and Suzuki against one another in two separate competitions. At 999cc and 1043cc the GSX-S1000 ABS and Kawasaki Z1000 ABS were the Goliaths, while the 749cc and 806cc displacements of the Suzuki GSX-S750 and Kawasaki Z800 ABS were the Davids. Is it possible for David to defeat Goliath? Which motorcycle is the true king of Israel?

As I look forward to this holiday season I’m reminded that I have plenty to be thankful for, not least of which is the return of the Suzuki SV650 next Spring as a 2017 model. Short of telling you my life story, let’s just say the SV has a special place in my heart as it does for many other riders out there. So, as I rejoice about this good news from Suzuki, allow me to explain 10 reasons why the SV650 is such a great motorcycle.

Us MOrons enjoy the luxury of working from home offices, but imagine an alternate world where we actually had an office to go to everyday. Clearly, this scenario won’t be hard for many of you to imagine as it’s your reality. And if you’re also the type to take the long way home after clocking out, followed by a lengthier ride come the weekend, you’re the type of rider Kawasaki and Suzuki are reaching for with the Z800 ABS and GSX-S750 – unless you live in California. Neither bike is currently being offered for sale in the People’s Republic. Intended for the sportbike rider who may be more, ah, mature these days with things adults call, um, responsibilities, the two still offer middleweight performance without the supersport ergonomic commitment. They are also more affordable, at $7,999 for the Suzuki and $8,399 for the Kawi.

Another thing the interwebs have diluted a tad is SoCal’s local International Motorcycle Show, the one that kicks off new-motorcycle fever in Long Beach, California, every November. Now that we get to see nearly all the new bikes the week before from Milano, it’s slightly anticlimactic. Only slightly, though. It’s still a great place to see everybody in the U.S. bike industry all in one place and gauge their confidence/fear ratio, along with most, if not all, of the new machinery, and to ask each other collectively, ‘How we doin’?’

“Know this: It is the most powerful, hardest-accelerating, cleanest-running GSX-R ever built.”