Dunstall Styling For the Suzuki Gs1000

DUNSTALL STYLING FOR THE SUZUKI GS1000

All or Part, the GS1000XT Kit Definitely Looks Unique

Everybody’s got their own idea of good styling and opinions are divided on how a sports bike should look. So it's no surprise that the distinctive, flashy Dunstall Suzuki we recently tried drew a lot of looks and a lot of comments pro and con.

“That thing’s so ugly only an idiot would be seen in public on it.” said one observer.

“Gosh, that's a beautiful bike.” said another, a few moments later.

One way or the other, the cafe look applied to the Suzuki GS1000E by noted English performance accessory parts manufacturer Paul Dunstall attracted attention and stood out from the crowd. The angular lines, red striping on the black fairing and red seat panels demand notice. There isn't anything quite like it on the road.

You can’t buy a complete, ready-to-ride GS1000 cafe Suzuki from The Paul Dunstall Organization. Inc., but you can buy the parts and either do it yourself or have a local shop install the pieces. (In England, they sell the complete motorcycle with Dunstall kit and call it the Dunstall GSIOOOXT.)

Buying the styling parts in the United States costs $669. plus tax. The kit includes a fiberglass front fender; fiberglass fairing w ith w indscreen; fiberglass seat base, tailsection and rear fender; dual cafe seat w ith red side and rear panels; stubby bars that resemble upside-down clubman bars; a four-into-one exhaust with muffler plus all the brackets and hardware needed.

The bike we rode was fitted w ith 29mm Mikuni smoothbore earbs and the cylinder head had been ported and polished. But the Dunstall people found that dealers could buv Mikuni smoothbores from U.S.based distributors for less than Dunstall could afford to sell them wholesale. So it’s uncertain whether or not the carbs will be sold as a Dunstall part. As far as the cylinder head porting goes, that's undecided. too. while Dunstall negotiates with an independent tuner to handle the modifications.

For reference, a set of Mikuni smoothbores costs $333 and cylinder head porting costs $275 from Yoshimura Speed Center. 1958 Placentia. Costa Mesa. Calif. 92626. (714) 642-7094.

The Dunstall Dart fairing looks like, well, a dart. It’s frame mounted and sweeps back to a point just ahead of the average rider’s knees—in fact, the rider’s knees often bump up against the fairing under hard braking, but that’s as much a function of the seat shape as the design of the fairing.

The sides of the fairing are Hared enough to clear the tips of the short handlebars. but steering lock must be limited to keep the bars from hitting the forward portion of the inner fairing. Metal bumpers on the fairing mounts reduce lock by intercepting the lower triple clamp. Even so. several staffers reported that their hands were pinched between the bars and the sides of the fairing when maneuvering at slow speeds, as in a parking lot. With less lock, moving the bike around inside a garage is a back up. turn, roll forward, back up. turn, roll forward, etc. affair.

Once out of the driveway and on the road, the limited steering lock isn't generally noticed. But the bars are. At least one staffer complained that the bars made his wrists ache, and asked why such sports fairings couldn’t be designed to use longer, flat bars like those found on the BMW RIOOS or Honda CB400F.

The seating position is wrong. Rear set pegs weren’t used because Dunstall wanted to retain two-person carrying capacity. and fitting rear sets would either force the removal of. or interfere with, the passenger pegs. As a result, the footpegs are too high and forward in relationship to the seat and handlebar location.

With the fairing installed, the front turn signals are moved to a bracket on the bike's frame just below the fairing.

The standard Suzuki tach and speedometer are relocated forward and down on mounts provided with the other fairing hardware. Visibility remains excellent. If the instruments were left in the stock position with the short bars, the rider's face would be uncomfortably close to the dials.

The fairing-mounted mirrors are tiny, streamlined, and not much good for normal road use. They are, to be sure, racylooking and compact. But for function, the best view they render is of the rider’s sleeve. >

The windscreen is relatively tall. Dunstall suggests that the Dart fairing is for touring use—the English have a different idea of touring than most American riders. The upper edge of the shield flips upward, in theory to direct the wind blast over the rider’s head.

We found that the fairing offered good protection from wind and even light rain, keeping everything but the rider's shins and boots drv. Of course, because the air flow is deflected from the rider, he stays comfortable with less bulky gear in colder weather.

The windscreen does distort the rider’s view w'hen looked through, so as usual, the rider should look over, not through, the shield. Unfortunately, the shape or height of the fairing and screen produee an unpleasant buffeting around the top of the rider’s helmet, rattling his helmet’s faceshield and making as much or more wind noise as experienced without a fairing.

The stock Suzuki headlight is fitted into the fairing, sitting at the back of the scoopshaped nose. Headlight performance isn’t significantly affected by the fairing, although lighting to the side is restricted a little.

Construction and material quality of the fairing seemed excellent. The fairing did resonate at certain rpm. but nothing broke, cracked or fell off despite severe use. We don’t know how aerodynamic the fairing is or what effect it has on top speed. But the Suzuki’s drag strip times and terminal speeds were respectable (more on that later).

The Dunstall seat is comfortable for the rider, but the rise in the rear section slides the passenger forward into the rider instanti). That may not be so bad for a teenage Dunstall owner out on a date with a sweet young thing, but less cozy couples may not appreciate forced fraternization.

The seat does not flip up like a stock seat so access to the toolkit is complicated. The seat must be unbolted to be lifted.

The two-bulb tailsection uses the standard Suzuki taillight lens, but three of the four plastic tow/ers that accept the lens screws snapped off at their base during testing—we had to hold the lens on with duct tape.

The front fender looks racier and is much lighter than stock. But it doesn’t protect as well, allowing more spray from wet streets to hit the engine and cases than does a stock steel fender. The standard Suzuki fender incorporates a fork brace, but the absence of the brace wasn’t noticed in riding with the Dunstall fender installed.

The heart of any motorcycle is. of course, the engine. The Dunstall GS1000XT we tried had head porting, 29mm carburetors with velocity stacks and a four-into-one exhaust system with a “Power Silencer” muffler. The engine work gave the 532-lb. (with a half-tank of gas) Dunstall Suzuki the capability to turn a best of 11.59 sec. at 115.5 mph in our testing. The bike is based on a GS1000E deluxe model with cast wheels and with front discs. In our experience, standard GS1000E Suzukis of similar vintage usually run about a 12.20 E.T., so the changes were worth about 0.5 or 0.6 seconds.

The exhaust system weighs 15.5 lb. compared to the stock system’s weight of 35.5 lb. But the Dunstall exhaust is much louder than the stock system and significantly louder than most aftermarket systems, reading 95 db(A) in our sound test. Because the muffler system is all steel without any fiberglass, the exhaust noise level should not change over time. The pipe isn't excessively loud to the rider’s ear during normal street operation, but it is definitely noticeable and loud to passersby.

More disturbing for riders who enjoy pavement scratching is the fact that the exhaust system drags at the collector and ahead of the collector when the bike is ridden hard. The lack of available clearance on the righthand side severely limits cornering speed. The pipe does allow easy oil filter access and fits with the centerstand in place. To test clearance and handling we removed the centerstand and sidestand and ran the bike at an American Road Racing Assn. (ARRA) club event at Ontario.

In street use the bike’s rightside cornering will be limited by the exhaust system, and the leftside cornering by the stands. But as we tried it on the racetrack, only the stock footpeg touched down on the left.

At Ontario, the machine indicated about 145 mph (the speedometer only reads to 140 mph) and handled well within the limitations imposed by street tires and the mentioned cornering clearance problem. The short bars made it harder than normal to lever the bike from right to left to right in the esses, a situation not improved by the high-mounted fairing. The wind blast off the shield was most noticeable when the rider popped up from behind the fairing at the end of straights and hit the brakes—the buffeting seemed like it wanted to tear his head off. But the fairing held up to the high speed perfectly and as long as the rider stayed behind the windscreen, all was calm.

In all fairness, the Dunstall Suzuki isn’t a racing bike. Rather, it is a styling exercise above all. The rider who wants a distinctive machine and likes the Dunstall look can buy all or any of the parts and build himself a bike without having to modify the already-excellent GS1000 engine. Or a Suzuki owner can buy the engine pieces or exhaust he wants from any of a dozen suppliers and add them to the Dunstall style parts.

Anybody not firmly dedicated to the cafe scene won't appreciate the seating position imposed by the combination of short bars, slanted seat and stock footpegs, but, taken for what it is, the cafe kit does what it’s supposed to do.

We doubt that Americans will abandon their semi-choppers en masse in favor of the Dunstall style. But if it’s you, Dunstall is waiting.

Prices

Dart Fairing..........................................$310 Seat/fen der ............................................150 Exhaust/muffler ....................................189 Front fender..............................................20 The Paul Dunstall Organization, Inc., 27402 Camino Capistrano, Suite 206, Laguna Niguel, Calif. 92677 g]