Big Kat diary!

Or how Big CC Racing turned Suzuki’s 2019 Katana retro into a wild, turbocharged street-sleeper

- ALAN DOWDS

Like a lot of folk, I was a wee bit underwhelmed by Suzuki’s new Katana when it was launched a couple of years ago.

The original 1980s Katana was part of my teenage biking fantasies, and while I never got the chance to own one, the super-trick design, solid 80s superbike performance – plus the cool name and logo – all had a big impact on me. Back in 1981, machines like the Katana were a big part of why kids like me got into motorcycles. A Kawasaki GPz1100 or Suzuki Katana poster on a 10-year-old’s bedroom wall generally only led in one direction – to the local bike shop six years later.

Fast forward four decades, and while the new Katana looks good and goes well, it’s some way off today’s cutting edge. It is, essentially, a GSX-S1000 naked roadster in a posh suit, with the same engine and running gear; a 150bhp version of the GSX-R1000 K5 motor, bolted into a twin-beam aluminium frame that’s also based around the GSX-R1000 design. The forks, swingarm, brakes, wheels and tyres are all the same as the GSX-S, and only the bodywork, bars and fuel tank have been changed. It’s a handsome, solid bike, but unlikely to make it on to the wall of any 10-year-old kid’s bedroom (or on the lock screen of their iPhone today).

Sean Mills at Big CC was also slightly underwhelmed by the Katana. Unlike me, though, he has both the skills and the chutzpah to do something about that. And here it is, parked up outside the Big CC Racing HQ in Wokingham – a 260bhp, turbocharged 2020 Katana.