Suzuki build all-new TL1000S

Suzuki demonstrated their parts back-up service for older bikes by building a TL1000S from entirely new old stock parts at Motorcycle Live. Suzuki technicians carried out the build on their stand, and fired the bike up for the first time on the closing Sunday.

It took the entire nine-day duration of the show to build; including building the engine up from bare crankcases. Suzuki GB now plan to register the TL as a new bike and then donate it to Riders for Health, who will auction it off at the Day of Champions in 2015.

Nathan Columbi was the Suzuki technician working on the bike at the show and he told MCN: “When we ordered the parts I was surprised it wasn’t more than 1600 individual parts, but when they all arrived it looked like loads more. First we checked everything was there that we would need, then we divided the parts up into days to allow us to just get on with the job and not go searching for the stuff we needed in all of the bags and boxes.

“The only parts of assembly we did before the show was to put tyres on the wheels, fit a couple of bearings, and the frame number was stamped back at the workshop so we knew it had been done neatly and properly. The rest has been done here at the show.”

The total cost of building this all-new TL is being kept under wraps, as Suzuki had to commission some parts just to complete the bike, and they don’t want to skew its eventual auction price.

You can see the full story of the build in Practical Sportsbikes’ January Issue, on sale December 17.