Suzuki Katana 400

SUZUKI KATANA 400

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Once and future Katana

IN THE EVER-CHANGING DEmands of the Japanese marketplace, the day of the repli-racer seems to be fading. Dawning in its place is a rapidly growing interest in retrostyle machines, proving that even in Japan, what goes around is likely to come around again.

The latest evidence of this trend comes in the form of Suzuki’s GSX400S Katana.

And no, your eyes do not deceive you. What you see here is not a photo of the old 1100 Katana of 13 years ago. This is

an all-new motorcycle. A smart move on the part of Suzuki? It just might be, especially when you consider that the Hans Muth design, which looked so bold when the bike originally debuted, is just as striking today.

The bike’s styling might be vintage 1980, but its engine technology is fairly up-to-date. The engine, for instance, is a 399cc, dohc, 16-valve, liquidcooled Four, with an 11.8:1 compression ratio and a quartet

of 32mm Mikuni carburetors.

It is no wimp, producing a claimed 53 horsepower at 10,500 rpm-a pretty good number for a bike that weighs a claimed 400 pounds dry.

The engine is, for its size, a torquey beast, at least partly because its bore-to-stroke ratio is the same as that of the 1 lOOcc version. The 18-degree forward inclination of the cylinder block also matches that of the original.

With 25 degrees of rake and

4 inches of trail, the chassis geometry is not as quick as that of some contemporary sportbikes, and the Kat’s steering is further slowed by its 18-inch front wheel. Thus, the bike’s feel is definitely vintage; it has little of the nimbleness of repliracers. You don’t flick it into corners. Rather, you countersteer and lean your body into the corner, and the bike follows you, in a gradual, deliberate and very stable manner.

With the Katana's engine making its peak power at 9500 rpm, it's clear that you have to spin the motor to sample this bike's performance. But you don't want to spin it too quick ly: Redline is at 12,500 rpm, relatively low for a modern en gine in this size category. In any case, running the engine within this rev range produces surprising performance. Don't believe it? During a group ride over some of Japan's steep, tight mountain roads, the little Katana was much quicker than the standard-model 750 and 1100 Katanas also along for the ride.

The bike’s price is 659,000 yen-not bad in Japan. But because of the softness of the dollar on world markets, that translates to the equivalent of about $5400, truly a lot of loot for a retro-tiddler like this, so don’t expect it in the U.S. Still, it is stylish and fun, and for those reasons alone, it has a very good chance of succeeding in the Japanese market-place. Yasushi Ichikawa