Hunting The Snark

For the snark was a boojum, you see.

• Home

Swordsmanship. 10/31/2006

The UJM, or Universal Japanese Motorcycle, has been with us for close on to 40 years now. With the introduction of the CB750 in 1969, Honda introduced what the British motorcycle manufacturers should have done then, but never did. The CB750’s engine configuration, an in-line 4 cylinder, with overhead camshafts, became the de-facto engine configuration for large capacity motorcycles produced in Japan. All of the big 4 manufacturers in Japan had their interpretation of the superbike, and this reached a rather silly zenith with Kawasaki’s Z1300, and Honda’s CBX 1100, with their 6 in-line cylinder configurations. Although smooth and powerful, these bikes were heavy, and as wide as the side of a barn. Kawasaki developed their 6 cylinder engine, water cooled it, and put it into their Voyager series touring bikes as a 1200. Honda retired the CBX in favour of their 2 four cylinder engines, the VF in a V-4 arrangement, and the CB inline 4 cylinders. There was Honda’s GL series, but that’s another story for another time.

However, there was one manufacturer who put all the rest of the Japanese motorcycle factories in the shadow. The GS and GSX series bikes from Suzuki were the fastest, most powerful, most reliable engines of their time. In the late 70s and early 80s, Suzukis were the superbike to have. Helped along by the success of Barry Sheene and Marco Luchinelli, every schoolboy wanted a Suzuki GS, and later, the GSX.

Aircooled, with dual overhead cams in the GS series, and later with 16 valves in the GSX, the Suzuki big bikes would do 140 m.p.h in standard form without breaking a sweat. They became, very quickly, the preferred engine of drag racers, who loved their bullet proof reliability, and ability to taking tuning abuse. And Suzuki, perhaps realising that their engine was deserving of something a little special, had a chat one day with a certain Herr Muth.

Hans Muth was a designer, and Suzuki had asked him to design a package for their biggest, most powerful engine to date, the GSX1100. He went away, and in 1980, unveiled the Suzuki GSX1100SX Katana in Köln. It was the first time that a design house had designed a complete motorcycle, along the lines of Pinifarina designing for Ferrari, and Bertone for Lamborghini. Interest in this motorcycle, to put it very mildly, was strong. So strong, in fact, that Suzuki had to make it a production motorcycle, or risk being lynched by the motorcycling public.

The swoopy, streamlined styling was ahead of its time. Literally. The next time the public saw a motorcycle as flowing as this would be the Honda CBR600 (known in United States as the Hurricane) in 1986. The Katana was perhaps the best interpretation of the unfaired superbike. The edgy styling, meant to represent the samurai sword, caught everyone’s imagination. I know it caught mine.

The first time I saw a Katana in the flesh was in 1982. I stood there, a little gob smacked by this bike. It was intimidating. It looked huge. To me, it represented power, and force. I wanted one. I looked at my GS550E, which was my first motorcycle, sitting next to Katana, and she suddenly looked dull and dowdy. It was like being with Minnie Mouse, and having Jessica Rabbit suddenly walk in. “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”

And the Katana looked bad. Bad as in good. Bad as in you knew this bike would eat children and small animals for breakfast. Bad as in this bike would crush anything standing in its path. And you controlled everything with your right wrist.

I never realised my dream of owning a Katana. I had many rides on them, one of them a very highly tuned dragster. By today’s standards of superbike performance, the Katana is very much old school. In the 80s, the Katana was high tech. Today’s riders would look at the Katana and laugh. But it is only today, after years of more of the same thing from all the factories, that are bikes starting to look intimidating again. I never did give up my quest to own a Katana. A proper one. The GSX1100S. Not the 750, or 650. Not even the flip up light GSX750S, of which Oz_Guy owns a couple of examples (one of which is ear marked for me, should the time and opportunity present itself).

So I had to content myself with one of these.

Tamiya produced this kit, in 1:6th scale. With chromed plastic parts, working suspension and rubber tyres. And lots of tiny screws and other fiddly bits. Don’t get me wrong, over the years I saw a couple of Katanas up for sale. One of them, probably the best example I had seen to date, was owned by an internet mate, Azi. He offered it to me, but sadly, I had to decline, because importing the bike into this country would have been more trouble than it was worth. I saw a couple locally, but they were in sad shape, and their owners were asking too much money.

So I just kept waiting, thinking that I would never get the chance to own of these dreams of my teenage years.

Until today. A conversation with Oz_Guy, based on some comments in this blog, plus other chats that we have had over the months, has resulted in my making some definite plans. Which will come to fruition by 2008 in Sydney, Australia. If it all works, then I will be finally, perhaps, at long last, be happy and at peace with my inner self.

Thanks Oz_Guy, you bitch. I’ll see you in Tokyo next year.

• Posted in : On the road
• Author : thesnark

message
name email url

search

Recent Posts

• Muscle Contractions.
• The Three Bears
• Riding it.
• Ouch #2
• Immobility.
• Like cats.
• Still life.
• Memory Lane.
• An officer and a gentleman.
• All animals are equal

• Feeds

• Full
• Comments