Suzuki GSR600 Road Impressions

I might as well get this out of the way at the beginning; when I first rode this bike, I didn’t like it. Actually, let me rephrase that; I didn’t like the engine. It represented everything I don’t like about smaller capacity in-line fours; no torque low down the rev range and needing to be revved ridiculously to get anywhere.
That was at the beginning. However – and let’s also get this out of the way at the beginning– by the end I was really sorry to see it go. It’s all a matter of learning how to ride the engine and, once you have learnt, this is a really nice piece of kit.
Whether it is nice enough to take sales away from Honda’s Hornet or Yamaha’s FZ6 is another matter and I’m not really concerned with that here.
It’s a bit of a parts-bin special, with the engine coming from the 2004 GSX-R600, brakes from the 2000 GSX-R750 and the styling taking many cues from the B-King concept of 2001 but they come together with more success that would at first seem possible from such disparate sources.
Taking the rolling chassis first, this is a really comfortable bike to ride. It looks small but, when sitting on it, it feels compact and nimble but not cramped, even for my 6-foot plus frame. It’s a horrible phrase but the controls really do ‘fall to hand’ and the instruments are sensibly laid out and clear. Maybe I’m getting old and forgetting how to count but I do like the inclusion of a gear indicator on the dash. But the bike feels instantly controllable and very easy to ride; it’s light and the seat seems to hold you in position very well. The point is; it’s not an intimidating bike to ride.
The suspension is supple but controlled although the front forks are too soft, leading to too much dive and not enough control on the rebound, making it feel a little bouncy. But this only rears its ugly head at the upper limits of the handling and not something that the everyday rider would necessarily notice. But it needs to be pointed out as some owners might see the bike as dual purpose – commute during the week and track toy or country lane scratcher at the weekend.
The brakes are lacking in bite and feel, which just goes to show how things have progressed since they were the brakes of the moment back in 2000 on the GSX-R750. Bu they do their job in an unobtrusive way, being neither terrible or particularly outstanding.
And so to the engine. The whole problem with road testing bikes is that one minute you might be on a torquey twin, the next a four-cylinder superbike, followed swiftly by a scooter. How do you form objective opinions on any of them when they are all designed to different parameters to fulfil different design briefs and satisfy different riding requirements?
So it was that it had been a while since I had ridden a 600cc-four. I had simply forgotten how to ride them. But, once it all came back I started to enjoy myself. Yes, you have to rev it to get anywhere, but why is that a problem? The only one as far as I could see is that I had been used to twice the amount of torque at half the revs for too long – I had got lazy!
Keep the motor above 6,000rpm and it moves along nicely. Take it above 10,000 (it peaks at 14,000rpm) and it shows its heritage and things really start to happen, despite being re-tuned for torque rather than top-end power. OK, so it won’t pull your arms out of the sockets but isn’t that a great safety feature? But it will shift if you want it to and, just like the chassis is benign and forgiving, so the engine matches that mood by not being so lairy that you frighten yourself silly with every twist of the throttle.
The only conundrum is why, with the GSX650F and the SV650S, Suzuki needs this middle-range bike in the first place. Seeing as how it has been around since 2006, however, they must know something that we don’t.