Suzuki GSR – Just a pain in the ass?

Hey all.

So I got my bike back last Wednesday and for the first 30 minutes of riding it, it felt weird. I had ridden the new (08) SV650 for the past week and had gotten used to the quick steering and fall over cornering. The GSR seemed a bit stiff, a bit like you need to work at it to get it to corner. I didn’t like it.

But then after riding it again on Saturday I was back to knowing my bike and it felt like second nature again. It’s amazing how quickly one can adapt to a different bike so quickly.

I had to go to work on Saturday, but left at mid-day.  I had to drop off a package in the middle of the city so after doing that I headed back home through the town. After a bit the bike started to feel really rough, shakey and just not right. I looked at my mirrors when I stopped  at a set of lights and it was like I was riding a V-twin! The mirrors were vibrating like nothing I have ever seen on the GSR.

It was then that I looked down at my dials, to see a flashing “121°C” oil temp and the red oil light illuminated. For reference, my bike usually sits around 70-80°C. I immediately thought “Shit, I need to get moving before my bike blows up” and then the lights changed, so I quick shifted to 6th and bumbled along. Thankfully within a couple of seconds the temp started to come down and when it passed 119°C the flashing of the digits stopped and the oil light went out.

Once I got to the dual carriageway the temp came down to around 85ish and my heart slowed slightly. However it wasn’t just this incident, as come Monday it was still pretty warm. Sure enough by the time I got to work the temp had crested 110°C and although the engine didn’t sound or feel like there was anything wrong, I certainly didn’t like it being so high. When I arrived at work I called the garage and they asked me to come in asap. When in the garage on Tuesday I handed the bike over at around 3:15pm, after arranging to be there for 3pm. Howeer I didn’t get my bike back till 5pm leaving me and Em floating about the garage for nearly 2 hours. It was a bit annoying as there aren’t any seats except the wall outside but when I saw this, it made up for it:

I couldn’t believe it when I saw them! The B-King with quad pipes. This is the same bike that had the 2 Brothers Exhausts on it, but man, these things are lovely…but then, after gazing at their titanium stainless steel splendor, your eyes can’t help but fall down on to the white slip of paper that holds the price for them. That’s right folks, you read it correctly: £1615 retail price. It seems no-cheaper with the “Our Price £1000″ because lets face it folks, a grand for a set of cans is pushing it, don’t you think?

(I would still have them though…)

So after I got my bike back, the boy mentioned that my rear-right hand indicator lens was hanging off. We went through to the workshop where my bike was in bits and there it was, hanging off. I never noticed it until this moment, but it was plain as day. Even the rubber seal was hanging out as if it’s intestines were on show.

I got the guy to order me a new one and tape up this one.

Pretty annoying and yet anothing thing to add to the long bill of parts.

Just for you, I now have a picture of the part that was most recently replaced under warranty: the whole crank casing.

That’s a whole lotta metal there folks. This part goes all the way from where  the black bit meets the silver bit at the left of the blue arrow, all the way down behind the header pipes at the bottom, all the way behind the big circle at the bottom left. It’s a massive bit, and pretty much the whole engine. All replaced under Suzuki Warranty. Beggards belief that Suzuki don’t think, “hold on, this is the same bike that was in just the other month there…” but hey, as long as it gets fixed.

Well, at least my bike seems to be running ok now and for that I am thankful.

In other news I have been made aware of something called FS365, it looks something like this (taken from www.scottoiler.com)

This stuff you spray on to your bike after a wet ride or in winter and it protects the bits that are cheap and shit from corrosion. It’s a little too late for my bike really, but I will still be investing in some for this coming winter to at least stem the rot.

Rusty.

Anyway,

I have some updates for my AGV GP-Tech and thoughts on my next bike.

Many thanks for all that take the time to write to me and all that visit regularly. I appreciate it all, and I hope that you enjoy what I write and review.
Yours
Gordon