The Suzuki GW250 is getting recalled, due to water being able to get into the wiring harness at the rear brake light switch connectors, which could possibly corrode the brake light switch.
The issue only affects certain 2013, 2015, and 2017 model year machines – for a total of 1,890 units in the recall.
Recapping the recent INTERMOT show, Episode 36 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast covers the three big themes that emerged from Cologne: homologation specials, vintage motorcycles, and rider aids.
With these themes in mind, we have a good conversation about the three homologation specials we saw from the Japanese manufacturers at INTERMOT: the Honda CBR1000RR SP2, the Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.
The conversation then turns to the neo-vintage models we saw in Germany, and how brands like Triumph and BMW are investing heavily in this trendy niche.
We finish up the show talking about motorcycle electronics, inertial measurement units (IMUs) to be specific. This game-changing technology continues to permeate through the motorcycle industry, along with other rider aids, so we have a good conversation about the rise of the IMU.
As always, you can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!
Suzuki has finally gotten into the quarter-liter sport bike game, debuting the 2017 Suzuki GSX-250R in China this month. Before you get too excited, you should know that the GSX-250R is really just the Suzuki Inazuma in new clothing.
This means that the twin-cylinder six-speed street bike makes 25hp, 17 lbs•ft of torque, and weighs 392 lbs at the curb.
Not exactly mind-blowing stats, but Suzuki’s goal with the GSX-250R is to build a more practical and affordable machine, rather than a race bike as seen with the KTM RC390 and Honda CBR250RR. To that end, we’d say they accomplished that goal.
Is there such a thing as an Alien? The provenance of the term is uncertain, though most people believe that it was coined by Colin Edwards in 2009, after he kept finishing in fifth place behind Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and Dani Pedrosa.
Whatever he tried, he could not stay with them. “They are riding out of this world,” he said.
The term has stuck. Since then, the term Alien has been applied to the top four riders, the only difference being that Marc Márquez has been swapped for Casey Stoner now that the Australian has retired.
The reality is that since Jorge Lorenzo entered the class until the start of the 2016 season, the five MotoGP Aliens had accounted for all but two of the 143 MotoGP races held.
The two non-Alien wins were by Andrea Dovizioso (Donington 2009) and Ben Spies (Assen 2011). Both of those races came in unusual conditions. The five Aliens dominated the podiums throughout that period as well.
2016 looks like becoming the year the Alien died. Or perhaps more realistically (and less dramatically) the year we had to readjust the concept of a MotoGP Alien. The season was going very much to plan up until Assen, when Jack Miller won an interrupted race in the driving rain.
Then in Austria, Andrea Iannone finally did what everyone has been waiting for, won a race with a Ducati. Cal Crutchlow used a drying surface to his advantage to win at Brno, and then Maverick Viñales won at a dry but cold Silverstone. Questions were asked whether Maverick Viñales was the next Alien.
One of the gems on display at the INTERMOT expo in Cologne, Germany this year was this Dakar Rally race bike, built off the Suzuki DR-Z dual-sport model. A predecessor to the bikes that share its name now, these DR-Z750 and DR-Z800 bikes were the OG of adventure bikes.
The modern-day equivalent now is the DR-Z400, which comes to the US both in a dual-sport and supermoto trims. Despite closing in on its second decade of service, the DR-Z400 remains a popular model, offering a reliable motorcycle package at an affordable price.
As a rally raid racer, the Suzuki DR-Z400 offers a reliable and affordable racing platform for privateers, and if you look far enough down the entry list of races like the Dakar Rally, you will find this venerable dirt bike listed.
This particular DR-Z800 was raced by Belgian Gaston Rahier, a two-time Dakar Rally winner (’84 & ’85) on the BMW R100GS, but during the 1989 Dakar Rally, he campaigned this Suzuki with the Hessler Rallye Team.
Rahier’s race bike is a cool piece of history, and it is an interesting glimpse into a piece of Suzuki’s past that should be remembered.
The headlines out of INTERMOT have been about the return of the King of Superbikes, so its easy to forget that Suzuki’s success go beyond the road racing paddock. Hopefully we’ll see a follow-up on great bikes like these from Suzuki, now that the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer has awoken from its slumber.
I was trying to come up with some sort of excuse to show this video about the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R, since it’s basically just a two-minute orgasm about Suzuki’s new superbike.
If you can’t tell, I’m pretty jazzed about the new Suzuki GSX-R1000R and its lower-spec sibling, the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000.
I think there would be more buzz about the new GSX-R if Suzuki hadn’t basically shown the superbike to us a year before its release, but that seems to be the Japanese manufacturer’s jam right now.
I wont’ waste your time further. Close the office door, hide the kids, pour a drink, grab a towel, and press play.
Suzuki is giving us an early look at its 2018 lineup, showing the 2018 Suzuki GSX-S750 and 2018 Suzuki GSX-S750Z street bikes at the INTERMOT show this week.
Adding a better compliment to the Suzuki GSX-S1000, these 750cc machines build off the same strategy of taking a track-focused sport bike, and making an naked street bike out of it. For the 2018 model year, Suzuki is revising the GSX-S750 it debuted in 2014, to take on the FZ-09 in earnest.
This time, Suzuki is adding more to its venerable open-class machine, the Suzuki GSX-R750, in order to make the 2018 Suzuki GSX-S750.
Also, two flavors will be available, the Suzuki GSX-S750 and the 2018 Suzuki GSX-S750Z – the latter having ABS brakes and a matte black livery.
No, that extra R in GSX-R1000R isn’t a typo – Suzuki is releasing two versions of its superbike at INTERMOT today, the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R being the higher spec model for track enthusiasts.
Available later in mid-2017, the Suzuki GSX-R1000R takes the already robust package that is the Suzuki GSX-R1000, and adds to it an up-and-down quickshifter, launch control, and cornering ABS feature set.
The suspension has also been upgraded, with the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R getting the very noticeable Showa Balance Free forks (note the gas cartridge on the fork bottom), and the Showa Balance Free Rear Cushion rear shock, which is an interesting piece of kit, since Showa says the design does away with the need for separate high-speed and low-speed compression adjustment.
The last item of difference, besides the price of course, is that the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R includes a lighter triple tree top clamp.
We have had to wait nearly an entire year for Suzuki to finalize and release its new superbike, after first teasing us at the 2016 EIMCA show with it. But today at INTERMOT, the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 is finally ready for primetime.
Because Suzuki already teased us the new GSX-R1000 a year ago, much about the machine is already known. But, for a proper plot twist, there will in fact be two variations of the Suzuki GSX-R1000 for 2017, with a higher spec 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R debuting as well.
For the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 base model, of course everything is brand new. The inline-four engine on this liter-bike features a variable valve timing (VVT), a first in the superbike segment. Peak power is just shy of 200hp, with Suzuki claiming 199hp and 86.7 lbs•ft of torque.
The crown jewel of the electronics package is a six-axis IMU, which brings a 10-level traction control system, riding modes, cornering ABS, launch control, up-and-down quickshifts to the once “King of Superbikes” (the latter three items being on the GSXR-1000R).
With a wet weight of 441 lbs, the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 is in the hunt to reclaim that crown, making this a strong return for the Japanese brand in the superbike segment.
This is truly a golden age of motorcycle racing. The Silverstone race was proof of that. A stunning contest, with positions fiercely fought over. A new winner added to MotoGP’s pantheon.
Five riders doing battle over second place, including some of the greatest riders of their respective generations. Bikes from four different factories in the top six.
And Silverstone is hardly unique this season. 2016 has seen two different satellite riders win races. It has seen seven different winners this season, and the last seven races each won by a different rider.
It has seen relative newcomers win, and seasoned veterans win. 2016 is the culmination of a long period of rich results, with four riders all capable of winning on any given day over the past four or five years. Margins of victory have never been tighter, nor has the gap between the front and the back of the grid.
This cornucopia is not just in the premier class. Racing is returning to Moto2, after a drought of processional contests. Moto3 is overflowing with young talent, with rookies quickly challenging the older guard, who are in turn off to fatten the field in Moto2 next year.
At Silverstone, the Moto2 race was hard fought between a small group of riders, with incidents that had serious long-term effects on the championship. The Moto3 class produced a customary thriller, Silverstone’s long straights and high winds making escape impossible, but making staying out of trouble imperative.
