Hi Guys. Have recently purchased a GSX1400 (pic on intro page), and would really appreciate some help in identifying the year. Supposedly it's a 2006 but the first registration was 2011 here in South Africa according to the documentation. Because of this, assuming also that it is a grey import, not sure if Suzuki in this country officially imported the bike. Now here's the weird thing...in trying to find out by punching the VIN number into various websites that offer the service, I get a "This is not a valid number" flag. Here's the VIN: GY71A--103700, can anyone help? Also, while researching this I have noticed that the plastic panels on my bike, below the rear of the seat, don't seem to match any of the colours I have seen online. Mine are completely dark blue...others are all dark blue with white splashes. Don't think it's been resprayed, but who knows, I'm the fourth owner just here in SA. Thanks in advance.
Quote from: Greeny on Wednesday, 04 May 2022, 10:45 PM
Hi Guys. Have recently purchased a GSX1400 (pic on intro page), and would really appreciate some help in identifying the year. Supposedly it's a 2006 but the first registration was 2011 here in South Africa according to the documentation. Because of this, assuming also that it is a grey import, not sure if Suzuki in this country officially imported the bike. Now here's the weird thing...in trying to find out by punching the VIN number into various websites that offer the service, I get a "This is not a valid number" flag. Here's the VIN: GY71A--103700, can anyone help? Also, while researching this I have noticed that the plastic panels on my bike, below the rear of the seat, don't seem to match any of the colours I have seen online. Mine are completely dark blue...others are all dark blue with white splashes. Don't think it's been resprayed, but who knows, I'm the fourth owner just here in SA. Thanks in advance.
A picture paints a thousand words :)
Here's a phone pic, not the sharpest....
@Greeny Looking at the tank, that's definitely the K6 (2006) colour scheme.
As for the rear panel - that may have been replaced at some time as it should have white "splashes" as you say - however the white "splashes" were decals, so either the decals have been removed or the rear panel has been replaced at some stage and new decals not applied (they would not have been cheap to purchase).
That aside, indicators are close, but are not the standard indicators, also I'm unsure what that black is (just below the bottom yoke) on the fork stanchions...?
Finally - what you are suggesting is the VIN number is actually the engine number (according to the format). The VIN number (which should be on a plate on the nearside lower frame tube) is more the format XXnXXnnnnnnnnnnnn
Hope that helps
I'd say they are gators to protect the forks, maybe a good idea in places with a lot of flying stones or sand as I believe you get on some roads in SA.
Yup a K6 for sure.
Thanks for the responses so far. The 'VIN' number I quoted was taken from the registration paper...I went and checked the bike and that's definitely the number that's on the steering head column--no plate--it's stamped on the frame. The engine number on the reg paper is given as Y701126717. I know that the indicators are after-market and are much neater than the originals, in my opinion. The black lines on the fork legs are fake carbon strips and there are rubber sleeves on the stanchions. Could well be that the plastic bits have been replaced, but not the white transfers.
There should be a plate too, on one of the frame tubes down the front. I forget if it's the left or right side without checking.
Mine was I believe a 2006 model registered in 2007. Details were on the log book as follows...
ENGINE NO.YZ01-127007 FRAME NO.JS1BN111200104496
@Greeny Your's looks identical to how mine was when I got it apart from already mentioned, the decals are missing from your rear end plastics. Mine had the Suzuki "S" on the tank missing too.
I took the bike along to a local Suzuki dealer yesterday and he confirmed that it was a grey import, year 2006. According to him, Suzuki South Africa only officially imported these bikes for a few months in 2005. He verified that the 'old style' VIN number on my bike was genuine but couldn't explain why it wasn't a JS........ or such number used on most of the other models of that year. He also couldn't tell me which country it originally went to. I had a VMax and a Suzuki Freewind that were grey imports also and they were great value for money. They stopped with that when dealers complained of loss of sales, possibly around 8 years ago I think.