1998-2001 Suzuki TL1000S

‘Shock, Suzuki TL1000s motorcycle ate my baby.’

Apart from perhaps raising a smile, if this sort of headline appeared in some of the more enthusiastic journalistic tripe inhabiting your local newsagent shelves, you would put as much faith in it as you would in a friend who has just promised on their mothers life not to take your R1 over 70mph.But time and time again, when Suzuki’s half faired brother (or sister, take your pick) of the TL1000R comes up in the biking press, this is nearly the sort of greeting it gets due to an alleged handling problem that all centred around the unique rear rotary damper.

The Bike

I will try to stick with the real issues of owning a bike that will effect you everyday, e.g. comfort, fuel economy etc.

Right lets dispense with the well-trodden road of bad handling, it doesn’t. What I would say is, it is probably not as keen to tackle corners as say an R6, but when your pushing hard it still feels well planted and just like any large capacity bike you have to show some respect with your throttle hand when getting back on the gas. Perhaps some of the problem lies with the lazy way you seem to make rapid progress, as the motor seems audibly unstressed until higher in the rev range. But if you like that raw energy feel that you get from an inline four working hard then perhaps a ‘Twin’ is not the bike for you. On the subject of noise this bike rattles and ticks at idle and armed with a Suzuki workshop manual, toolkit and more Internet advice than can be used, no amount of fiddling will cure it.

For a sportsbike it is comfortable, but I have found that after the second fill up which is approx 220 – 250 miles you’ll be glad of that fill up and probably take advantage of the time off the bike .You can almost hear the Fazer 600 riders giggling into their wallets, but what will wipe the smile off their faces is the acknowledgement from other riders on the road, each with an individual recognition for a bike that does demand respect from those that ride it in a world full of R1’s’, Fazers, GSXR’s and CBR’s that seem to get easier to ride with every press article you read.

So perhaps any TLs article should read is, ‘Shock, TL1000s motorcycle is my baby’, but then this would never do for Suzuki’s bad ‘V’ twin.