DETREVNI SNOBBERY!

The GSX-R1100K was a bit of a handful and Suzuki’s successor the 1100L was supposed to turn all that on its head: literally, as it was the first Suzuki model with the soon-to-be-fashionable inverted or ‘upside-down’ front forks…

- BERTIE SIMMONDS

It’s fair to say it was form and function that led to the changes to the mighty Suzuki GSX-R1100 becoming the ‘L’ model for 1990 – that’s more than 30 years ago now…

If we delve back into history, Suzuki’s GSX-R1100 was an impressive sports bruiser of a motorcycle. Coming out in 1986, the 1100G was based heavily on the previous year’s trendsetting GSX-R750F. So, it aped the looks of little brother, sharing a similar-looking MR767 aluminium box-section ‘double-cradle’ frame, the ‘Full-Floater’ swingarm and a 1052cc motor which would become legendary in tuning and drag-race circles. Or should that be drag-race ‘straight lines’. Cooling would be – like the 750 – a combination of air/oil, but power was a mighty 128bhp claimed at the crank at just under 10,000rpm. Weight would be 197 kilos dry, but this would creep up as the various models progressed.

So it was that by 1988 the K-model 1100 weighed in at around 210 kilos dry, albeit with 10bhp more at around 9000rpm. But it was the suspension and overall geometry that seemed to be the main issue – the 1100K was, in fact, a bit of a wobbler…