Suzuki GS 1000S

LEICESTER SQUARE ODEON TO downtown Peterborough one fine, dry Sunday evening — one hour 20 minutes.

That same downtown Peterborough pad to the uptown Portsmouth suburb of Purbrook — two hours 15 minutes.

Eighty miles of deserted dual carriageway/motorway — a smidge under 50 minutes.

Hoho, the list goes on and on — and not just on the medium to long distance stuff either. Even a snappy blap around London town, or the roundabouts of Peterboro', fell into a familiar pattern of beaming from one venue to another, scratching to knock off a few more seconds. During the weeks aboard Suzuki's GS1000S, my regular routes — pounded in the name of reporting and/or entertainment — had their usual journey times slashed, aided considerably by the late autumn good weather.

On no, I can hear some of you sceptics (and there's a surprising number, so I've discovered) saying, here's another over-excited hack penning a sop to the escalating megabike race. Well, think that if you like, but the GS astounded me, not just with its obvious power, speed and sheer stomp, but with the adept manner in which it tackled all sorts of motorcycling tasks. For instance, that blast down the Al in ridiculous time was in company with another Total Lunatic piloting a nicely setup 'Guzzi Le Mans 850 — a sports bike in the usual street racing garb of clip-ons, rearsets, etc. And though I was unwilling to make a serious move for the lead through a turn or a roundabout, I could easily have done so, even though the Suzuki doesn't have such an aesthetically pure role. On acceleration, the GS would have left any big twin for dead, let alone a heavy flywheeled bike like a 'Guzzi.

Likewise, on returning from Leicester Square, brains trickling down the nape of my neck after having a thorough nervous system pummelling while watching and hearing Alien on the biggest screen and best sound cinema in England, the GS displayed remarkable panache in coping with its paranoid rider trying to scythe through the massed hordes of West Enders all searching for a parking slot. And it folio wed-up this experience with yet another flat out homeward blast up the Al, this time two-up though you'd hardly notice a pillion's extra weight.

The fact is that the GS1000 Suzuki isn't such a single purpose motorcycle as most of its contemporaries and is therefore a better bike for most riders. It's also one of the first big Jap multis where the designers have made a serious attempt at providing a chassis which really works. The GS is almost as quick as Honda's CBX — a total excitement machine that's impossibly impractical for an ordinary income rider — and the GS holds the road better. The GS has a motor with a power delivery almost as flexible as that of Yamaha's giant-hearted XS1100 — and yet the GS goes round corners with none of the XS's wallowing. And the GS could be described as the logical development of Kawasaki's original Z1, instead of the soft, squashy lumberjacks the Big K are now producing.

Admittedly, the GS doesn't steer, hold the road or just plain handle as well as most Italian bikes — but it's a far more civilised experience with a big, comfortable dual seat, switches that work every time and are positioned just where they oughtta be, and the GS is as mild-mannered in deep city use as Ducatis and 'Guzzis are long-legged out on the open road. Only BMWs seem to offer a direct challenge — and they'll rush you an extra thousand green ones. Of course, it's a fairly elitist group of bikes we're talking about here. When there's so much personal finance tied up, each rider has his own preferences and prejudices so profound that even a gearchange at eight grand on an XS1100 wouldn't shift their perspective. Let's take an objective look at the whole spectrum of motorcycling offered by the GS1000S at its tag of £2045. It's no cheap banana, for sure.

The 'S' version is instantly recognisable from its 'E' brother by the Walls Ice Cream paint job and cockpit fairing ripped off from BMW. Despite the appalling colour scheme, that fairing is the key to much of the Suzuki's adaptability. At high speeds — say 80mph or over — the screen is sufficiently tall to punch a big hole in the fast-flowing airstream and take the pressure off your body and arms, meaning that high speed is far more enjoyable. Instead of wondering what shape elbows you're gonna have at age sixty, you can concentrate on the road ahead — no bad thing when you're two balls to the wind and searching for grip. It also means you can cruise for longer in safety since you're retaining your energy.

The fairing means that flat Vincent type 'bars have to be used to clear the edges; the flat 'bars mean higher and more rearwardly set footrests are needed and — fail accompli — you've got one big Jap bike with an Italian riding position. Since you've got the position, you may as well get the suspension to suit, so Suzuki's line of reasoning seems to flow. The GS comes with front forks having adjustable air pressure complementing the coil spring, and rear shocks having four damping settings in addition to the usual five-position spring preload. So you can have a softly set-up tourer for smoothing out those bladder-splitting potholes, or a hard V taut street racer. Whichever mode you opt for, the engine continues to churn out gallons of usable power to match either scene.

Most of the test miles were ridden with the suspension set in the standard, as recommended, positions but for the final ride back to Suzuki's Croydon HQ, just to flavour in full those delicious, expensive, exhilarating, neck-snapping, stomach-churning sensations, it was time to Get Serious. Adjusting the rear shocks is easy enough though it's necessary to delve into the excellent toolkit for a handle to operate the spring preload cam, and a screwdriver to rotate the niched disc to alter the damping rate. This disc is on top of each shock between the mounting eyelet and the spring collet with an encapsulating rubber grommet to resist the ill-effects of weather. A good match for my twelve stones proved to be the number four spring position and number four (the hardest) damping rate.

But the air forks . . . Jeez, what a hassle getting both legs equal. Suzuki supply an air pressure gauge but it's all too easy to let air escape while you measure. It's necessary to overfill each leg (they're not linked with a balance pipe) to allow for the amount you're going to lose — and the legs must be equal to within 1.4 psi or the thing won't steer straight. Compressed air lines aren't acceptable, of course, since there's only a minute amount of air in the forks and the seals could easily be damaged; an S&W syringe is ideal. Standard pressure for England is 14.2 psi. with a maximum of 17.1 psi for street racers who want to feel every lump of gravel, and a minimum of 11.4 psi which is what the Americans are recommended to use.

Air shocks are available for the rear of the 'E' GS1000 but after messing around with the forks, I'd rather stick with ordinary coil springs. It's interesting to note that the fastest GSlOOOs in the Avon/Bike Roadrunner series all use the coil spring rear shocks, mostly for the adjustable damping facility. With the bike arranged so's any ripple or road deterioration would find its way through the 'bars, the machine psyching was over and the transformation into a balls-out roadburner complete. All you've got to do is live with it.

It takes several hundred miles to warm to the task of competently handling a megabike if you don't want to be spat off as a mere statistic, and during this period came more reminders of the GS's all-round abilities. While getting used to the bulk and amazing acceleration, the GS would deliver its goods in the most controllable manner. There's none of the camminess attached to the CBX or the mid-range flat spot of the Z1000, for instance. The power band starts at just above tickover, where it's quite happy to lope along in traffic queues, and keeps pumping out bhpees until you're reaching for the warp factor button at the 8,500rpm redline. At such engine speeds that's 50mph in first gear, 75mph in second, 9Smph in third, HSmph in fourth and — all things being right — 135mph in fifth gear. All things weren't quite right for our speed-testing session, it seems, since the best the bike would do on the day was 127mph. This may have been due to one or a combination of several points: the drag effect of the screen maybe since it's no aerodynamic wonder, the one inch greater diameter rear wheel on the 'S' which raises the overall gearing over the 'E', or maybe the engine just wasn't tuned spot-on. The engine certainly felt free enough and the difference may even have been due to the clime at the time.

That's all rather academic; what's certain is the free 'n' easy manner in which the GS busts wide apart the 70mph speed limit, whisks you past the ton in twelve seconds, and will hold a genuine 100mph plus cruising speed in total comfort and safety (given a certain level of rider sense and responsibility in just where and when to engage in such activities). As described in our July '78 test, the GS1000's engine is derived from the GS750 but is actually lighter. Ten pounds are saved by paring off ounces wherever experience with that engine had shown Suzuki's engineers it could safely be done. Thus there's no kickstart mechanism to back up the totally reliable electric start, the crank is two pounds lighter, and the cases are shaved on various bearing support bosses. At 5671b with a gallon of petrol, the GS1000S is 401b less than the CBX or the XS1 KM), and less weight makes the chassis designer's job that much easier and more likely to succeed.

The GS1000's frame is a masterpiece of rigidity and economical use of thin wall tubing. There's massive support to the steering head and no less than five cross braces between the two. top frame tubes — Suzuki have recognised that most of the forces created by braking, and cornering have their zenith here. Further strength comes with a huge swing arm supported by caged needle roller bearings; the 37mm diameter fork tubes resist twisting under braking and taper rollers are used in the steering head. Thus all the right bits are in the right places.

It's because the chassis is so rigid that the inadequacy of the IRC tyres is so pronounced. In wet weather, the predominant condition in this country, they've no right in being on any motorcycle let alone the GS1000; in the dry, they allow an odd drifting — more a sort of sideways scrubbing action than an all-out slide. The drift is always predictable thanks to the chassis transmitting the relevant information, and could be detected in the early stages and corrected by lifting the bike up a bit and redirecting accordingly. The tyre pattern looks as though it should be effective with a rounded profile, strong ribs and pinholes for wet weather grip, so the fault must more than likely be with the tyre compound. With a decent set of boots on, the GS would be nigh on perfect.

Braking from the twin front discs is unaffected by rain, however, for which we can all be thankful, but the floating caliper brakes suffered from an appalling squeal whenever applied at town speeds, and needed heavy hand pressure from high speeds. It's a problem acknowledged by Suzuki GB's service staff who are getting more efficient by the day despite problems created by the new car side of the business, and new design calipers and slotted lighter discs are on the way for 1980. The GS1000 will not be superseded by the GSX1100, by the way. That model is to be an additional megabike range leader, yawn.

In equipping the 'S' with a handlebar fairing, Suzuki have done more than merely tarting up the GS1000. The revised console includes an accurate and useful clock, and an oil temperature gauge which is of less obvious use. It will, however, tell eyou when the motor is fully warmed up and when it's safe for the motor to be operated at full bore — a surprisingly long time. Usual operating temperature evens out at just below 200 degrees Fahrenheit on the gauge and this isn't achieved for at least twelve miles, especially on chilly autumn mornings. Spin the motor to high revs before the oil is circulating properly and you're not going to get a good mileage from what should otherwise be a strong, long lasting bike. The fairing also houses a 60 watt H4 headlamp, and is made from tough fibreglass that looks as though it'll take a knock.

The GS1000S provides virtually all the thrills of big bore motorcycling — and has handling and roadholding comparable with many a lighter, smaller bike. It retains the bulk of a megabike but not to such a displeasing degree as the CBX, the XS1100 or, even worse, Kawasaki's Z1300. It's a tourer and a street racer all in one, and a pretty good one at that.