New Katana

[grog]

Imagine if they designed a new 14. Could it be as bad as this. Probably. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN1hphcxUN0

[seth]

I hope it's based on a gsxr1000s with different body work same as what Kawasaki has done with the new Z900 thing.

[ARH]

I was never a fan of the original Katana... and sorry but that looks awful.   What have they done to the back end???

[grog]

Seth, have you ridden gsx s-1000, just terrible.

[seth]

No I sat on one and the bars are way to low for me .
I did have a go on the z900 and wasn't impressed by it .

[Mister Fishfinger]

That bike was a mock-up done by a design studio.

Bennetts has some useful info, could be a big turbocharged twin apparently:

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/news/2018/september/suzuki-katana-for-2019-but-is-it-turbocharged

Anyway the unveiling is on October 2nd.

[Andre]

I was never a fan of the original Katana... and sorry but that looks awful.   What have they done to the back end???

Don't they do this kind of shite (and much more) to most new bikes!?

[ARH]

Have to agree with you Andre.  I really struggle to look at a new bike now and think... 'oooohh...that's nice'.   Most of the bikes I've seen over the last years look like some type of transformer.  Kinda fits with the power ranger look tho 

[seth]

Some of the mock ups look fantastic but some just like a dog's dinner .
I guess it's to provoke discussion.

[Mister Fishfinger]

It's interesting, all this chatter about a new Katana. People are forgetting that back in the day the Katana range didn't sell all that well - at least not in the UK.

[seth]

I guess for rebellious bikers we are all actually very conservative in our motorcycle choices

[Tony Nitrous]

I hope it's based on a gsxr1000s with different body work same as what Kawasaki has done with the new Z900 thing.

Personally I hope it's not.

The Katana was always a big bore brute, a heavyweight class leader. Really the only current motor Suzuki have is the Hayabusa / B-King although it may be an early release of the Gen-3 as the B-King was to the Gen-2.

The old GSXR motor reworked in the GSX-S was a good lump in its original form, but a proper Kat shouldn't have a detuned under 1000cc engine. It should be something special as it was in its day, not another tame "also ran" retro like the Z900.

EDIT: I make exception for the early Katana 1000. This was just to get into the sub-1K race class and was still a big bike in its day.

[Batkwaka]

I had the original Katana and liked the styling, it had a raw edge to it and just seemed to work. They actually struggled to meet demand for Katana's in Australia.
Then in 1984 they released the Pop-up headlight 750 and kind of lost the plot with it (first production bike with a 16" front rim I believe). Even looking at this one it has the shape but is a bit homogenised. Hasn't been a particularly good Katana since the 1994 model.

[Tony Nitrous]

I've had several big GSX's but my "SD" Kat was by far my favourite...

[Tony Nitrous]

"Run-What-ya-brung" or a test and tune at Avon Park Raceway.
I used to run in The Ultimate Streetbike series there occasionally too.

I rode my Nitrous Bandit down,
my fiancé rode my Katana down,
my lodger rode my GSXR11 down,
Run one, race back and jump on another already in the queue...