A Farewell to Arms - Suzuki Katana Long Term Update 3

After an interesting 3 months, it is finally time to bid adieu to our feisty long-term machine.

Lawrence Minnie

18 Sep 2023 · 19:29Bike Ownership3 min read

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A Farewell to Arms

Three months may sound like quite a bit of time but it's a blink of an eye when it comes to living with something. We have extolled the virtues of the Suzuki Katana in previous articles where we spoke of its storied history and what you can expect it to cost you to own, but after 13 weeks it was time to bid adieu to the street machine.

Our time spent with the Katana was filled with adventurous rides, daily commutes, and day rallies where it usually gathered quite a crowd wherever it went with everyone wanting to talk about the machine and tell their own personal Katana story.

Two Up

My pillion and I spent countless hours navigating the streets and freeways of Gauteng. Now this is a pretty important piece of the puzzle for me when it comes to reviewing bikes and I value her input greatly as the opinions and information regarding passenger positioning, power delivery, ergonomics, and overall comfort are very beneficial. The Katana proved to be one of her favorite bikes thus far to pillion on which rather surprised me at first as the Katana doesn't exactly lend itself to being passenger-friendly.

Naturally, by her own admission, her best ride experiences have been on the back of large displacement cruisers such as the Honda Goldwing and BMW R18 Transcontinental quickly followed by GT bikes like the KTM 1290 Superduke and Suzuki GSX S1000 GT, so proclaiming the rear "seat" of the Katana and its leg and body position as comfy, is praise in itself.

Final Ride

The bulk of the riding that we did with the Katana consisted of daily commutes between the East Rand and Randburg as well as weekend breakfast runs and day rallies and in this respect, the Katana excelled. It was however the longer outrides exceeding 200km that revealed the shortcomings of the machine. Frequent stops for fuel and rest breaks for a wind-buffeted neck and back were required to offset fatigue.

Our final ride and official send-off of the Katana happened at the launch of the new V Strom 800 DE and GSX 8S at Red Star Raceway where Suzuki kindly allowed us to track test their entire lineup with the Katana being one of the models on offer.

This allowed us to really let loose on the bike, to push the bike harder and faster than is safe to do on the street without fear of traffic, road obstructions, and pedestrians. The Katana showed what it is truly capable of, with whip-snap handling and beautiful power delivery through the corners. We returned the Katana to the pits sans chicken strips, revelling in the performance that lay untapped for three months and reassuring us in our belief that the Katana was made for this kind of riding.

Verdict

We'll be honest and say that the Katana is not perfect, it has a few foibles but on the whole, it is an awesome machine. Like so many bikes today the Katana is designed to do one thing very well but falls a bit short in others. As a daily commuter in and around the city and a weekend toy to visit rallies and race tracks close by, the Katana does well but once we start talking about longer rides and cold weather, riders are going to wish for more. A larger fuel tank capacity and some better wind protection would be first on the list.

We are sorry to see the Katana go as it has become an integral part of our team but as they say, all good things must come to an end but it won't be the last. Keep watching this space as there may be a new team member coming sooner than you think!

Rally images courtesy of Just Numbers Photography

Written by Lawrence Minnie

Lawrence has been involved with motorsports for almost 30 years. Whether it's two wheels or four, if it has an engine, he will try to race it. This love of motor vehicles has led him to ride, drive, film, photograph, and write about his passion. Freelance for a while but now a permanent fixture on the AutoTrader team for over 7 years, Lawrence contributes written, photographic, and video content for AutoTrader and AutoTrader Bikes.Read more