New Zealand import Neville Hiscock took the fight to the dominant Honda CB1100 RC’s with some significant results. The late Wayne Heaseman was immediately onto the podium in local 750cc class road racing. The 7 Katana’s were a totally different story. The 550 and 650 had some canine genes in their DNA, and despite their zooty Katana clothing were slight “dogs”. A homologation 1000cc “Special” was also built, featuring spoked aluminium rims that were slick tyre compatible. In 1983 it sold for the princely sum of R5500!. It was sold alongside the standard GSX 1100 and inspired a range that included a 550, 650 ,7. Pegs were rearset and the whole package was unashamedly sporty. It had a frame-mounted fairing with a tiny yet effective flyscreen windshield. Sleek, sharp and low slung, it dispensed with the bull horn handlebars of the GSX in favour of clip on’s. The big Kat was a far cry from Suzuki’s GSX 1100, which was a great bike but not really easy on the eye, with slightly bulbous and frumpish lines. The bike that resulted was the Hans Muth designed “Katana”. In light of this, I believe Suzuki had a cutting edge weapon in mind when their Katana was conceived.īack in the late 1970’s Suzuki approached a German design studio to style a bike that would take their sports offering to a new level. As recently as the Second World War, Japanese officers carried Katana’s as a sidearm and symbol of rank. A process similar to Damascus steel manufacture was used to forge the “tamahagane”, Japanese sword steel, to a water quenched, consistent hard blade that could be honed to an edge that would slice through Mongol armour. Said blade was only sharpened on the leading edge and could be utilised for cutting and thrusting. Swordsmiths made a double-handed sword with a slim, slightly curved blade. When the fighting got really heated they found that the swords they were using were not particularly effective against the tough boiled leather armour worn by the Mongol warriors. They carried swords as symbols of class rather than primarily as weapons. The Samurai at that point were incredibly skilled mounted archers. So what the hell is a Katana? Photo credit: Bjorn Moreira / ZA Bikersīack around 1400 AD the Japanese warrior class, known as the Samurai, were at the forefront of the battle against marauding Mongol Hordes. Needless to say the ‘busa quickly established itself as the new benchmark for those who worship at the Altar of Speed. Turns out that the Hyabusa is a breed of falcon native to Japan that feeds on…. The fastest production motorcycle available at the time of the ‘busa’s launch was Honda’s Lockheed SR71 inspired Blackbird. More often than not there is a deeper meaning to the choice of name. Suzuki has a penchant for giving their motorcycles interesting names.
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