If you don’t keep a pulse on the work that Team Classic Suzuki has been producing the last few year, then you owe it to your nostalgia to peruse their Katana race bike or Suzuki XR69 replica endurance bike. They are exquisite.
Now the British outfit has a new bike for us to drool over – one that cuts right to our 1990’s loving superbike hearts. It is a Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD circa 1996.
Team Classic Suzuki is known for making some impressive vintage-inspired machines, but today’s example might be the pinnacle of their prowess.
With racing basically non-existent during the early days of COVID, the team found itself with an abundance of time on their hands…and idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.
So, taking an ex-Alstare Racing WorldSBK-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000 from the garage, Team Classic Suzuki created this very attractive (and potent) Katana.
We are big fans of the creations that Team Classic Suzuki has been churning out. Stop what you’re doing right now, look at this Katana race bike, and try to disagree with our enthusiasm. It cannot be done.
Taking their touch to the current Suzuki GSX-R1000R superbike, we see what this tire-shredder would look like in a retro-mod livery that is inspired by the bodywork found on the original GSX-R750.
So far it sounds like the bike is a one-off, done by our friends across the pond, but we think Suzuki should seriously consider some throwback paint schemes in its lineup.
Until then, items of note include a number of tasty Giles-made bits, straight from the Suzuki performance catalog, otherwise the bike shown here is pretty much stock.
Overall, the effect shown here is superb, and a big step forward from the powder blue that the GSX-R1000R comes in from the Suzuki factory. We think you will agree.
Per usual, no pixel was spared in the photos on this post. So enjoy the details, in their ultra high-resolution glory.
I am young enough that most of what I can remember of the 1980s is skewed by the forming mind of a child, thankfully. New Coke, ponytails to the side, Cabbage Patch Kids…Alf – it is all a bad dream as far as I am concerned.
The 1980s were a pretty good decade for motorcycles though. Two-strokes still reigned supreme in grand prix racing, and some of America’s best two-wheeled heroes were riding them.
The only rider-aids that were available were things like handlebars and footpegs. Even then, racing a motorcycle was a pursuit full of perils.
Mirroring this notion on the production side of things, the superbike was just starting to be born in earnest, with consumers able to buy fire-breathing monsters that tested the limits of chassis and tire design. A healthy dose of male bravado was involved in riding a motorcycle like a Katana.
If the current trend in the custom world is to re-invent these machines, then we are all for it.