What's New For Eighty Two Suzuki
WHAT'S NEW FOR EIGHTY TWO SUZUKI
Big and Little Brothers For the Katana, Full Floater Suspension For the PE175, and Water Cooling For the RM250
Shades of high school pep rallies: we reporters are huddled in one corner of the giant auditorium otherwise packed with Suzuki dealers. We squirm through the recitals of cooperative ad campaigns and percentages of financing offered those dealers smart enough to fill out their order books now. Vital surely to the prime audience for the 1982 Suzuki show, but the press is there for the news, the machines.
And to learn what the dealers, the insiders who’re out on the line every day, think of what Suzuki has done for them.
And now—fireworks, blazing music— The GS1000S Katana!
The crowd roars approval.
The GS1100E!
Whoops, hollers.
The 550M!
Hats fly through the air.
Water cooling for the RM250! Full Floater suspension for the PEI75!
And the crowd really goes wild.
Model year 1981 wasn’t one of the best for motorcycle dealers. But at the end of the ’82 show Suzuki’s dealers were optimistic. Their factory has done some good work and some prudent work, expanding where bikes are hot, pulling back a bit where they’re not.
The biggest flag, so to speak, went up first. The Katana, designation GS1000S, was the first new model made public. The Katana was tested last month, so we don’t need to repeat any details but overall, the performance is terrific and the styling unmistakable. The Katana gives Suzuki an unforgetable image, a strong and distinctive family resemblance and Suzuki’s designers have wisely capitalized on this, with the sports GS1100E, mild Katana looks; and the GS550M, mid-Katana looks.
Same theme in the dirt, in that the RM motocrossers were best in class for all three classes last year, in our book and on the track. Major changes were logical. The RM250 gets water cooling, the RM465 has four sets of stronger gears replacing the five-speed gearbox of before. Smaller enduros are the hot class, so the excellent PE 175 now has the single-shock rear suspension from the RMs. For the junior racers, the RM80 has its own version of the Full Foater.
Details of these and more in due course. Because Suzuki designs in families, the dirt bikes tend to get their new stuff at the same time, ditto the lightweight road machines, the sporting jobs and the larger road bikes. Rather than repeat the technical changes for each, therefore, here’s a technical overview:
TECHNICAL FEATURES
None of the 1982 models have anything technically radical. There are no turbochargers, no new or different engine configurations, monocoque frames, etc.
Instead, there’s evolution. The anti-dive forks first seen on the Katana are also supplied with the GSI 100E, the mild Katana styling with the larger engine, and the GS750E, the most sporting of Suzuki’s three 750 Fours.
The anti-dive is linked with the front brake. Pressure on the front lever goes to the brake calipers and to valves in the fork sliders. Compression resistance increases, so the front of the bike doesn’t pitch down. Integral with this is a reverse system, so when a bump is encountered the added pressure can ease off the anti-dive.
A bit more common currently are rear shocks and springs that can be adjusted. These have a range of settings for damping and spring preload, and come on the GS550M, shaft and chain-drive GS650s, sports and standard 750s, Low-Slinger (cruiser) and standard 850s, the 1000 Katana and the sports and cruiser 1000s.
More a convenience item than anything else, there’s a finger controlled choke lever on all the road bikes larger than 450, except for the Katana which has the futuristic knob back on the left panel below the seat.
Suzuki shaft drive comes in two versions. The 650 Four has the newest Suzuki drivetr,ain. Main thing here is a direct drive in top gear. The output pipion is on the forward, main, gearbox shaft, inboard of the driveshaft. This allows a smaller and narrower gearbox and the only connections are primary to mainshaft and mainshaft to driveshaft. There’s less gear lash, less noise and smoother power delivery.
This in a way puts Suzuki’s other shaft drive in second place, which sounds worse than it is. Conventional is a better word, with all five gears using the layshaft and the drive pinion outboard of the driven pinion on the front of the driveshaft.
The same applies to the four-stroke engines. The four-valve heads with TwinSwirl Combustion Chamber get all the ink. Suzuki’s publicists have come up with the Twin-Dome name for the two-valve heads which also have combustion chambers sculpted to spin the mixture and allow more power, higher compression ratio on the same octane, etc. The four-valve head comes on the SP and DR500s, the 750s, the GS1000 and the GSI 100E.
Two-valve Twin Domes are on the 650s, while the 450 Twins and shaft-drive Fours have non-TD two-valve heads.
For the dirt bikes, there are flat-slide Mikuni carbs for the RM250 and RM465. This is what it sounds like. The slide is flat, like a guillotine blade but with a square lower edge. It works just like a normal Mikuni, with needle, main jet, pilot jet, cutaway to control mixture under acceleration and so forth, but according to the tech guys, the rectangular slide concentrates the venturi area. This speeds flow and the speed improves atomization. Sounds reasonable, but we’ll see when they arrive for test.
We’re already convinced of the virtues of the Full Floater single rear shock now used on the PE175, RM80, RM125, RM250 and RM465. All the above also receive straight-pull spokes. The hub is cast so the spokes seat directly; no bends. Spokes are stronger in tension than shear and seat evenly so again, a good thing.
More of a feature but also welcome is the folding shift lever for the RMs, the PE and the DR500.
MODELS
Like motorcycle factories everywhere, Suzuki has a coding system, with letters and numbers supposed to tell the workforce, dealer network and buying public which model is which. Suzuki’s system, though, isn’t always as clear as it might be.
The last letter number of the full code designates year, that is, the RM250X was a 1981. The sequence skips letters and the 1982 letter is Z. (Yes, we can guess why they left out the letter between X and Z).
The forward letters change less. GS is street bikes, RM is for motocross, PL is enduro. Then come what are for now single models; JR50 for the kid bike, SP is four-stroke dual purpose, DR is fourstroke dirt only, there's one DS, the 80cc play mini, and one GN, the 400cc roadonly Single.
Toughest to decipher are the letters
after the numbers. The road bikes come in varieties. As a general rule the “L” stands for cruiser. “E” for standard models, and “T” for traditional. The full sports model gets an “S” and as engine size increases, the same trim and style of the the chaindrive “E” becomes a shaft-drive “G.”
When the variation becomes more varied still, the model may have a second letter; the cast wheel version is a T, while the cheaper spoked wheel bike is a TX. Or a shaft-drive “G” with full touring equipment is the “GK.”
And so it goes. Suzuki has vertical models, L through S, and horizontal models, 400 to 1 100 and we're tempted to warn that there may be a quiz. More to the point, Suzuki codes are like English grammar; you have to know the exceptions as well as the rules.
Beginning with the big stuff. . .
GS1 100. There are really two engine/
drivetrain combos in the 1 100 class. Major consumer news, though is that Suzuki has introduced a ready-dressed touring model, the 1100GK, with factory-designed full fairing, saddlebags and backrest. Solid design, without any particulary different look, the GK is based on the shaft-drive powertrain and uses the older, two-valves-per cylinder dohe Four. Suzuki salesmen obviously know that their big 1 100 nearly always gets a touring fairing, so the factory will do it at home, with color match. For those who want to choose their own fairings, there’s the 1 100G; same engine, shaft drive, generous 5.8-gal. tank, all disc brakes, cast wheels, fuel gauge and the normal list of feaures. The eruiser, the 1 100GL, shares the engine/drivetrain/ chassis but has stepped seat, smaller (4.5 gal.) tank, 16-in. rear wheel.
Sport? Wow. The 1100E is tipped to click off the standing quarter mile in less than 1 1 sec. The E is not at all like the other Suzuki 1 100s. Instead, it’s a mix of Katana, old-style GS 1000S and the punch that comes from having an engine too big for acceptance in Superbike racing.
The 1 100E has the TSCC engine, bore and stroke 72 x 66 mm. Everything else, as in carbs and compression ratio, is shared with the 1 OOOcc Katana. The 1 100 has less radical styling, but still obviously related, chain drive, triple discs, low; bars and the checkpoint silhouette that’s come to mean sporting. It should, on paper, be the quickest Suzuki and maybe—the other makes are still to come at this writing the rocket of the year.
There is one, only one, GS1000 for 1982, the full Katana. Rational decision, as the 1000 and the 1 100 engines are alike, the prices were alike and it was hard to sell the 1000 against the big one. So the big one is the survivor.
Except that AMA rules require less than 1025 cc, with no legal way to decrease from the production size. Thus the chain-drive GS1000S has radicaled itself into the Katana and the 1000G of last year evolved into 1 1 00s.
GS850s are a jump in the direct line. Historians will remember that the GS750s began the four-stroke Suzuki family, with chain-drive, and grew into the 1000s. The 850 was Suzuki’s first shaft, and grew to 1 OOOcc and now' 1 100.
For 1 982 there are two 850s, both shaft drive. As the letters indicate, the G is the more sporting; lower bars, larger tank, 1 7in. rear wheel and the GE has pullbacks and so forth.
GS750s, the original, aren’t outmoded. The 750 Four carries the TSCC engine, a performer. The 750E is the sports version and has disc brakes, anti-dive forks, neat stuff like an oil temperature gauge, the fingertip choke lever. The 750T is a blend, with two-tone paint, a traditional separate rear fender and the TSCC engine. There is no 750E.
GS650s separate again, in several ways.
There is the cruiser GL, with shaft drive, and a standard style 650G, and the chaindrive 650E, all with revised two-valve Twin Swirl dohc head.
There are only two 550s. Really new is the 550M, totally sports and perhaps the best use of the Katana design. It’s close to the full treatment, with silver paint and two-tone seat, but the bars are higher and the generous (6.1 gal.) tank is lower. The 550M is obviously race derived, obviously Suzuki but doesn’t have the radical bits, i.e. the flyscreen, and dipped seat, that put the GSlOOOSjust one degree beyond what some people want.
The 550M has all the good stuff. Suzuki says the engine output has been increased, there’s the six-speed transmission, tunable suspension, halogen headlight, triple discs and all like that. We’ve ordered one for test and we’re eager, but at the same time we're puzzled. Other countries get the same trim, frame, tank, etc., and the 650 engine. If we were going into battle against the GPz550 and the 550 Seca, we’d wrap another l OOcc around our knuckles.
The other 550 is the L, with shared frame, engine, gearbox and cast wheels, but with drum rear brake and the cruiser style bars, seat and tank.
The GS450 collection has its own surprise. There is no more 450S. Instead, the baseline 450E has the neat tank, seat and tail of the old S model, but no cafe fairing. The Suzuki guys muttered something about the sporting element being able to buy the 550M instead, which doesn’t convince us.
The 450E does look tidy, though. Also in the class are the 450T, with cast wheels and traditional looks, the 450TX, like the T except for spoke wheels and no air caps on the forks.
The lone 400 is the GN400T, the fourstroke Single first seen in the SP/DR models. It’s basic in that there’s no electric start, and it’s an exception because the 400T has more extreme pullback bars and stepped seat than any of the L models.
OFF-ROAD
Speaking of leaving your money on a winning number, the stupendous RM465 is nearly unchanged.
The ’82 gets a four-speed transmission similar to those in the works MXers, the flat slide Mikuni in size 38, low-friction bushings in lighter fork sliders and the folding shift lever shared by most of the dirt Suzukis.
Newest motocrosser is the RM250. The excellent new-in-’8l engine gets water cooling, via two radiators mounted higher on the steering head than the RM l 25 has. Still Full Floater, the 250 has the same front suspension improvements as the 465. PI us, the factory says the water-cooled 250 is lighter than its air-cooled predecessor.
The RM125 was new and water-cooled last year. The ’82 engine now has full case reed induction and a few pounds have been pared off, although the factory announcements didn’t say where or how.
The RM80 is billed as the expert’s mini. It gets Full Floater suspension, less weight, new leading axle forks, even AMA-legal number plates. The RM60’s only major modification is air caps for the forks.
Enduro news consists of the PEI 75, with Full Floater suspension and more power. Pure Enduro, as they say, and the PE has quick-adjustment cables, an optional center stand and quick-change rear hub. The 175 is the only PE announced to date. We’re told the 175 is the most popular class but Suzuki won’t deny that larger PEs could be announced in the spring.
Speaking of that, the DR500 and SP500 get new trim, folding shift levers and that’s it. And there were no dual-purpose TS models shown or announced.
Instead, one of the top men said there will be another show in the spring. Most of the news then will involve four-stroke, dual-purpose Singles, he said, which we interpret as 125 and/or 250cc versions of the SP and DR. ÍS
