Suzuki GSXS1000GT

[RAYK47]

I have been looking at one of these for a while now.  I would like something with better weather protection than my naked Triumph and i am not ready for an adventure bike yet.  Does anyone have one or have ridden one?  What are your thoughts? 

 

Suzuki are doing 4 years 0% APR at the moment so it has spung back into my mind.  With my trip to the Alps in May this would be a decent bike to do the trip on i rekon, probably better than my triple.  

[RideWithStyles]

Yep id say so.

[Capt Sisko]

The review below seems a fairly honest, but low 40s mpg and a 19l tank (just under 4.2 gallons) ain't a good recipe for efficient touring.

https://fliesonthevisor.com/suzuki-gsx-s1000gt-road-test-part-three/

[RideWithStyles]

If you want better efficiency don’t bother with a. 4 cly engine, Parallel twin or a triple

[JRH]

2 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

If you want better efficiency don’t bother with a. 4 cly engine, Parallel twin or a triple

A lot depends on the bike. My GSF1250 has an average of 49mpg over the last 33000 miles and it regularly gets into the 50’s which is a lot better than the GSX1250 as the bandit has a softer “tune”. Designed for touring torque not high horsepower and high speed.

[RAYK47]

Mpg don't bother me, my weekend car is a 3l twin turbo with over 300bhp. So I can safely say 40MPG would be fine. 

[Simon Davey]

@RAYK47

0% finance is a no brainer, you'll save so much money on top of buying a very, very nice bike. 

Watched a few reviews, and it comes out well. 

 

[RideWithStyles]

9 hours ago, JRH said:

A lot depends on the bike. My GSF1250 has an average of 49mpg over the last 33000 miles and it regularly gets into the 50’s which is a lot better than the GSX1250 as the bandit has a softer “tune”. Designed for touring torque not high horsepower and high speed.

Agree to a degree but I was generalising, With age and fully run in drag is less.

My experience:

1000 triple was 30-40mpg, 600-650 inlines 4’s were 40-50, 500 P twin nothing less than 74 but 100mpg could be achieved, 125 single 100mpg -125+.

 

anyway back to the original point if you like the bike/engine (inline 4), the deal is good and servicing you happy to pay for, then its a great way.

Reviews may or may not be useful but very subjective - only a test ride for yourself before committing will tell you if its for you.

 

i don’t think hardly anyone will disagree nor be disappointed with the whole package of ownership.

[RAYK47]

yeah i am not going to rush.  will have a test ride and see how it goes, its not the be all and end all as i love my triple.  so if i dont fancy it i will just go to the alps on the triumph (there is no gaurantee i will get a new bike in time anyway).  I dont plan to sell the triumph but that will depend of how often i ride it (if i do get something else). 

Edited February 7 by RAYK47

[RideWithStyles]

had many inlines but three is my fav, p two I liked for its road going dynamic effectiveness but my tinnitus doesn’t agree.

Well I’m back on a 4 not bad but just a different beast, still a fan of the triple and would return if possible.

well sure their some sexual or innuendos could be made about it to put it into context but I’ll leave it there.

[RAYK47]

I really love my triple and cant see myself getting rid unless i got another.  The street is such a great bike as its really light and manoeuvrable.  has enough power for me, i run out of talent well before it runs out of power.  

[Fender1515]

Post the 80's British bikes, I have run more 3 pots than in line 4's, on reflection, my all time fav was the Yam Thunderace, took be round Europe many a time and two up, was never a problem, felt very comfortable with chassis, predictable but easy and quick to turn, loved the engine, very easy to spanner on, downside was dem Blue pot callipers with the balance pipe, bleeding the air out,  complete nightmare, I did, eventually, having missed a weekend ride,  give in and fitted the R1 gold pots, .  Normalish rides over 100 miles I would get mid to top 40 MPG, a bit bonkers and mid 30's.  The very worst wallet emptier was the ZZR1100, the RAM Air kick was adrenalin junky heaven, I could, get the MPG down below 20, and did,  how I've made it to this venerable age, and still walking upright, but never won the lottery is one of my life's great mysteries!!  

[RAYK47]

2 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

@RAYK47

0% finance is a no brainer, you'll save so much money on top of buying a very, very nice bike. 

Watched a few reviews, and it comes out well. 

 

 

Yeah its the only reason i am looking at new.  I cant be doing with running in and the high cost service of new bike ownership (plus the niggles that go wrong in the first 6-12months).  Priced one up at 15k, can get one with less than 5k miles and about a year old for 11k second hand.  If i go second hand then it wont happen until about this time next year though.  it all hinges on the test ride really, if i like it enough then i will probably take the plunge, if i am not fussed then i will wait. 

[Simon Davey]

1 hour ago, RAYK47 said:

 

Yeah its the only reason i am looking at new.  I cant be doing with running in and the high cost service of new bike ownership (plus the niggles that go wrong in the first 6-12months).  Priced one up at 15k, can get one with less than 5k miles and about a year old for 11k second hand.  If i go second hand then it wont happen until about this time next year though.  it all hinges on the test ride really, if i like it enough then i will probably take the plunge, if i am not fussed then i will wait. 

 

You had me looking last night, they're gorgeous looking bikes.

LOVE This, what a stunner!

[RAYK47]

28 minutes ago, Simon Davey said:

 

You had me looking last night, they're gorgeous looking bikes.

LOVE This, what a stunner!

 

 yes that was the first thing that drew me in, i have been looking at them since they were released.  I wanted a bike similar to my triple that offered weather protection, but without the seating of a supersports bike and clip ons.  This was the first one that seemed to tick the boxes i was after (the Kawasaki was a close 2nd).

 

Kawasaki 1100SX

[Simon Davey]

One of the guys on the German trip last year had the Kawasaki, gorgeous bike, not sure if it sits you up like the Suzuki, depends which model though. 

[Capt Sisko]

17 hours ago, RAYK47 said:

Mpg don't bother me, my weekend car is a 3l twin turbo with over 300bhp. So I can safely say 40MPG would be fine. 

It's not the actual mpg that's important on a bike used for distances, it's the combination of mpg and the size of the tank, i.e. your real word range. On the French motorways you can usually sit quite happily at their limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) but at those speeds your mpg is going to take a hammering. 40mpg x 4 gallons gives you a theoretical 160miles, in practice you'll be looking for fuel every 120 to 130 (or whatever your comfort zone is). If you're on your own and don't mind that, fine, but if your riding mate's bikes will happily do 200miles between refuels they ain't going to be impressed.  Don't get me wrong that GSX-S1000GT is going to be a great bike when you're down in the Alps, way better than any lardy tourer, but if you're taking the direct motorway drag there & back the tank range may be a bit irksome.

[RAYK47]

There are 10 of us on the tour so we will be making plenty of stops. Also very little motorway driving. Maybe day one from Calais to metz and the last day, if we need to make up time 

[S-Westerly]

6 hours ago, RAYK47 said:

There are 10 of us on the tour so we will be making plenty of stops. Also very little motorway driving. Maybe day one from Calais to metz and the last day, if we need to make up time 

When I went to Munich a couple of years ago went from Calais to near Metz. Started off avoiding the motorway but the innumerable villages with low speed limits and cameras everywhere meant that after 2 hours I'd barely made 100 km and still had 300 or so to go. Hello autoroutes!

It's interesting to see, especially the WW1 sites but it's not really practical in a day imo unless you get the autoroutes. Also when I did it the day turned out to be the hottest of the year and the Ducati I had then at slow speeds in hot weather was like sitting on a lit stove.

[bonio]

I've ridden from Calais to Valenciennes a few times. The first 45 minutes, there's a nice back route through some hills, but after that it's so built up with villages cropping up everywhere, it's better to hop on the autoroute and get through it quickly.

[Capt Sisko]

5 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

Started off avoiding the motorway but the innumerable villages with low speed limits and cameras everywhere meant that after 2 hours I'd barely made 100 km and still had 300 or so to go. Hello autoroutes!

Been there, seen it, got pissed off by the lack of progress. Yes, you have to pay for the French 'Peage' system, but that keeps a lot of the local, 'I'll just nip down two junctions', traffic off it, plus of course HGV's are banned from using them between certain hours in the summer at weekend & bank holidays. This makes traveling long distances far more efficient than on UK motorways. As I look at it, I'm heading to the Alps, Provence or wherever, not sightseeing through the miles & miles of boring wheat fields of northern France. Anyone who's done that run back to Calais from the south will know exactly what I mean by that. You run out of 'I Spy' things to guess!     

Edited February 8 by Capt Sisko

[RAYK47]

7 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

 

It's interesting to see, especially the WW1 sites but it's not really practical in a day imo unless you get the autoroutes.

I really want to do the WW1 and 2 sites one day, the beaches, pegasus bridge etc. maybe next year 

Edited February 8 by RAYK47
.

[S-Westerly]

WW2 is really Normandy certainly for D-Day and it's aftermath. Then there's the routes that ended at Arnhem or the Bulge. WW1 is Northern France and Belgium. I have Ypres and the Menin Gate on my bucket list as apparently my grandfather's brother is on it.

Edited February 8 by S-Westerly

[RAYK47]

Yeah would probably do them in 2 separate trips to get as many in a s possible 

 

That would be amazing to see his name on it

Edited February 8 by RAYK47

[Yorky]

I stopped off in Ypres the other year specifically to attend the Last Post ceromony at 20.00.

Quite moving to think that the Belgiums still do this every day in memory of the fallen.