1982 Suzuki GS1000SZ Katana
Suzuki's GS1000SZ Katana had the looks and the goods.
May/June 2006
By Landon Hall
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Underneath the wild appearance of the Katana lives a more-or-less standard issue Suzuki GS.
Photos by Richard Backus
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Years produced: 1982
Claimed power: 90hp @ 8,500rpm
Top speed: 140mph
Engine type: Air-cooled, in-line four-cylinder
Weight (wet): 252.4kg (556.5lb)
Price then: $4,499
Price now: $3,500-$5,500
MPG: 35-50
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If you grew up in the Eighties, chances are when you think of a time machine, you think of a stainless-steel DeLorean — complete with a flux capacitor.
In 1985, executive producer Steven Spielberg introduced thousands of teenagers to what would become their first object of moto lust: the gullwing-doored DeLorean that Michael J. Fox drove across the silver screen in the movie Back to the Future. Although Spielberg originally thought about using a refrigerator as a time machine, he turned instead to the DeLorean for something a bit sexier. With just a bit of plutonium for power, the DeLorean sent its driver and passengers traveling through time.
For people like Richard Bruner, the owner of our fine photo bike, the 1982 GS1000SZ Katana is a time machine of a different sort. It mentally takes him back to his senior year of high school. “I spent more than one lunch period in the school library reading about it in all of the motorcycle magazines of the day,” he admits. Now he can spend his lunch hour aboard one of his two GS1000SZs or a host of other fine bikes in his garage.
Though the GS1000SZ Katana was not an entirely new motorcycle when it debuted in 1982, it was radically different in design and idea than its predecessors in Suzuki’s GS line of bikes. “What struck me the most,” Richard says, “was the appearance, the way the back of the tank came to a point, and how the seat was ‘scooped out’ to allow the rider to feel like they were a part of the bike, rather than sitting on top of the bike.”
The unusual design was wild on purpose. Though Suzukis of the day were known to be some of the fastest, best-handling machines in their respective classes, the word on the street was their lineup was also a bit boring when it came to looks. Then as now, appearance was key when it came to motorcycle sales, so Suzuki decided it was time to make a bold change.
To update their image, the company hired Hans Muth, a German designer and ex-chief of styling for BMW. Basically, they told him to come up with something so outrageous that no one would be able to ignore it, hoping that somehow just one wild design would draw attention to their whole line.
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