The Bold and the Brave
Motorcycle Sport & Leisure|July 2023
Hats off to Suzuki, who aren't afraid of making brave and bold decisions. Recently, they pulled out of MotoGP just a couple of years after winning the world championship, then they also announced that they're pulling out of the World Endurance Championship
John McAvoy, Derek Baker
The Bold and the Brave

2023 Suzuki GSX-8S

Next, they make the GSX-R1000 obsolete due to not enough sales, swiftly followed by an announcement that they’re building a new bike so they can get a slice of the hugely popular sub-£8000 category of bikes, and this is a very brave move. Brave because that price point is currently rammed with bikes that are simply great bikes, regardless of their price tags.

The competition that the GSX-8S faces is fierce, with the main contenders being the Yamaha MT-07, the Triumph Trident 660, KTM 790 Duke and the Kawasaki Z650, all under £8000, and all make extremely compelling cases for your hardearned cash. So, Suzuki started with a clean sheet of paper and predictably started by opting for a parallel twin cylinder layout for the engine. It’s the easiest way to achieve a decent capacity without the cost of making a four-cylinder engine or the lack of flexibility of a single cylinder engine. It’s no coincidence that it’s the preferred choice of engine layout for all its competitors, with the exception of the Triumph which gets a three-cylinder engine.

This story is from the July 2023 edition of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.

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This story is from the July 2023 edition of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.

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