The tech of the new motor
gives increased fuel
economy and combined
with the big tank, there’s a
huge range
THE LONG ROAD HOME
After a breakfast in New Plymouth the only
thing left was the long trip back to Auckland.
Filling up in NP I wasn’t sure how comfortable
the seat would be for one long hit. The GSA
gets a flatter rallye-style seat, which doesn’t
look like it’ll be as comfortable as the seat on
the smaller GS, but I can confirm it’s actually
very good. Despite staying seated all the way
back I was surprised it was so comfy.
The tech of the new motor gives increased
fuel economy and combined with the big tank,
there’s a huge range – the tank is 10 litres more
66 KIWI RIDER
capacious than the standard GS. Over the
entire trip including motorway cruising, gravel
riding, fast back-road riding, the GSA returned
a spectacular 4.6l/100km. One tank fill in NP
took the bike 442km to beyond Helensville,
above Auckland and the trip computer
reckoned it would go another 170km. To put
that into perspective, Ray’s Yamaha MT-07
returned 4.5l/100km on the same trip. It’s quite
simply phenomenal, giving the bike a range of
over 600km on a single tank.