Kiwi Rider July 2022 Vol.1 | Page 51

Suzuki ’ s GSX-S1000 appeared on the market in 2015 as its litre-class naked sports bike contender in 2015 . Last year , the GSX-S got a whole new lease of life from Hamamatsu factory ’ s engineers and designers . I think the latest design looks cool from top to bottom . The tiny , minimalist LED headlights in the small front cowling , winglets and the slimmed down rear section leave one in no doubt this is a muscular , naked , street fighter of the first order .

SOMETHING SPECIAL LURKING WITHIN Sporting the ( relatively ) long stroke motor from Suzuki ’ s GSX-R1000K5 , an engine that is still praised to this day by GSX-R fans and journalists alike , the engine is a gem . In these days of 200hp + road-going sports bikes , the GSX-S ’ 150hp might seem low to some , but it ’ s still a huge amount of power . I ’ d wager that most owners of 200hp + sports bikes have never accelerated with the throttle fully wide open in third gear from 5000rpm all the way to the redline . They ’ re outlandishly , ridiculously , licence-losingly fast . Accelerating flat out with ‘ only ’ 150hp is still very , very fast . That GSX-R engine is retuned for improved lower and mid-range grunt while forgoing a whisker of the original bike ’ s top-end power , hitting its peak power at 11,000rpm . That 150hp coupled with 106Nm of torque at 9250rpm is wonderful to use on the road . Suzuki has got it right . Top ( sixth ) gear can be used most of the time on the open road with very little shifting required . Roll-on grunt for passing at the legal limit is excellent and it will happily idle through towns at 50km / h in top too . At first it almost feels a little low geared , but you ’ ll soon
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