The Suzuki GSX1400 Owners Club

Reviews

A review by Neil Lombardo - 07/07/02

It’s obviously Suzuki’s try at getting into the market, current dominated by Yamaha with the XJR1300 and the Kawasaki ZRX1200. It’s a bike that has been beefed up physically with a larger engine to try and take away the competition from the other two. In my opinion, it’s working.

Traditional and modern is a great way of describing this bike. Air and oil cooled, fuel injected tubular chassis, solid suspension, extremely comfortable. All this with a nice, relaxed riding position. This is a bike that has attitude and gets noticed by the non-biking community.

The choice for this machine is three colours: grey, blue and blue/white.

This 1400 is a dream when it comes to riding. You can be in 6th , slow down to 50km/h, whilst coming into a village and you can easily pull away when leaving without changing gear right back up to Xkm/h
Apparently she’ll go up to 240km/h at 7000 revs. I’ve had her up to 220km/h and she feels solid as a rock.

Being a naked bike, going fast is a tad tough on the arms. Up to 140km/h is do-able but not for too long. What I did to solve this, is buy an Ermax mini screen. With this on, the wind passes comfortably over the top of the helmet and I’ve found that I can comfortably do 160 – 180 km/h on the French autoroutes.

Why though? This is a bike built for the A roads. The seat on this bike is big and comfortable and is great for long journeys. My regular pillion (read SWMBO) does tend to wiggle her arse more than when she was on my last bike, a 900 Diversion.

This is one bike that is very throwaboutable and is ideal for town and country. The chassis is a traditional Acier tube style. The weight of the engine does keep the Centre of Gravity quite high. This is the only thing that stops you from throwing the bike into blind corners. However to compensate for this and to maintain the bike in the direction you want to go, it's necessary to counter steer and force the bike in to the corner with the more than ample ground clearance and the great grip from the excellent Bridgestone 020’s.

The engine is turns nicely at 90 km/h with motor turning at 2500 revs. At 130 km/h, it goes up to 3700 revs (in 6th of course)

The six pot front disks are from the GSXR 1300. Not too brutal and good stoppers. As for most Suzuki bikes, a change to braided hoses will make a big improvement and is on the cards. Even so, the back brake feels great if a little spongy. I found it a bit disconcerting to use Engine braking at the start, due to the timidity of the fuel injected motor.

The centre stand on the bike is there only to assist you whilst greasing the chain but I’m not keen on the placement of the handle that assists you in lifting the bike onto the centre stand, so the side stand (quite long and forward, compared to the Divvy) is always used. One thing I have noticed is when I have the bike on the side stand along with the bars locked fully to the left, moving the bars to the centre push the bike slightly forward and in turn pushes the side stand forward too. It’s not caused the bike to fall over, but possibly could.

The bike does drink a bit with fuel consumption being a bit on the high side. The tank of 22 litres does me 240km to reserve with 290km to empty.

Under the seat it’s surprising, as there is loads of space. More than enough for a U-lock, waterproofs, a can of tyre weld, etc, etc, etc.

The idiot lights are basic and do the job and the fuel gauge is an accurate LCD display that knocks spots of the Divvy’s logarithmic gauge.

I’ve chopped the bike around a bit already, by buying a Topline undertray and an NWS hugger. Both of these make the bike look a lot sexier. The fitting of the undertray caused me to lose a little of the underseat space, but not that much.

There are a couple of little moans though. Suzuki standard cans are too quiet and are too restrictive. Design wise, they’re not too good either as they have a lip which can collect rain water when the bike is at a standstill. Fitting something like Akropovics or Scorpions will release a few more horses and a Power Commander will easily smooth out the flat spots. (The PC will also give the added bonus of improving fuel economy) . For a bike of this size and appearance, a change to something a bit more brutal is a good idea.