The Motorbike Archives

So it's not important whether or not the GS450ST carries real roadrace credentials. What is important, though, is that the bike presents itself as roadrace fodder. The moment you kick a leg over the narrow saddle and grab hold of the low-slung handlebar, something inside stirs and you understand that this bike should not be kept upright. And as an on-board reference point to insure that the horizon is always tilted, Suzuki has provided a raceresque handlebar fairing. It's easy to believe in the ST's full-speed imagery.

If you start to picture the 450 as a sporty motorcycle, you're not far off-base; and you're pretty close to the way Suzuki wants you to think of the ST, too. Suzuki is perhaps the most sport-conscious of the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, and it is well aware that a sporting image helps sell its street models. In the past, however, this image has been lavished on the large-displacement bikes at the expense of the smaller machines. For them, Suzuki used economy as a marketing tool.

So, all told, the GS450ST represents a significant break with tradition for Suzuki. Bold measures were taken in its styling, and the aggressive lines found on Eurobikes envelope the ST. These styling/ sport licks include not only a fairing and low handlebar, but rearsets with a Heim-joint shift linkage as well. Suzuki felt that this sport package was spot-on for the tastes of young American enthusiasts who could afford the seemingly small price of $1739 for the ST. The design of the ST seems even bolder when you consider that it contrasts directly with the current trend towards using pullback handlebars and stepped seats to grab the young audience.

Though the styling of the GS450ST may break new ground, the bike is based on Suzuki's existing GS400/425 twins. The engine pieces are similar to those of the GS400 that was introduced in 1976, later to become a 425 by virtue of a 2mm bore enlargement. To get to the new displacement from the 425, both the bore and stroke dimensions were changed; the new 448cc engine measures out at 70mm x 56.6mm. Since the engine carries a slightly shorter stroke than the one it replaces, you'd expect it to be capable of revving higher. Which it does, posting an additional 500 rpm on the tachometer face. Surrounding the new cylinders are new squared cooling fins that provide additional heat-dissipating surface area and continue the theme of Euro-flair that is so much a part of the ST.

It's this European styling that Suzuki is banking on for most of the ST's success. The lines actually are an aggregate of Japanese, Italian and German styling. The seat's rear body section, front fender and handlebar area all look like they could have been lifted from a BMW. The megaphone exhaust pipes, corrugated side covers, fairing and angular seat pad could've been spawned in Italy. So far, the bike is well on its way to the Continental Look, but the Eurostyle is spoiled by the sort of gas tank that Suzuki, along with the other Japanese manufacturers, made famous in the Sixties. Still, it is this aggressive styling that catches the eye—and will eventually either make a success of the 450 twin or doom it to failure.

The bike's lines are important, but they lose some of their impact once you're aboard. Tucked behind the ST's bubble and feeling every inch the roadracer that this bike inspires you to be, the only lines that will concern you are the writhing lines on the road ahead of you. Then, the same basic chassis (the steering geometry has 11mm more trail) that helped the 400/425 steer well will turn that concern into sheer enjoyment. No matter what the corner—a sixth-gear sweeper on the highway or a sec: and-gear gutter-putter around town—the ST turns its nose precisely in the direction that you dictate.

Unfortunately, these trips through the twisties will be hampered by the 450's suspension, which is not as proficient at backroad-taming as the steering. Suzuki tuned the bike for a soft ride, so when you're in town and dodging potholes, the fork and shocks work out the bumps before they reach you. In fact, the 450's suspension is so soft that it's one of the most comfortable small bikes for around-town riding. And when the city streets lead to a freeway on-ramp and you unscrew the throttle a bit, you won't notice much of a change in the suspension's disposition. The ride is still smooth and supple, almost what you could expect from a large-bore touring bike. What you get is a pillowy-soft freeway ride that no other bike in this displacement category can match.

Soft the freeway ride may be, but as you can imagine, you pay for it during sport riding. Which, after all, is where the ST's styling seems to promise excellence. Although the bike's fork springs now have slightly more preload, the rebound damping has been reduced. The fork bottoms-out under even moderate braking loads, and the slightest ripple or change in the road surface when cornering hard disrupts the attitude of the motorcycle. Almost routinely, the fork and rear shocks set the 450 into a rocking motion, and despite considerable ground clearance, the centerstand touches down because the suspension is so easily compressed. If you continue to push hard, you can grind the sidestand bracket on the left side and the muffler/headpipe joint on the right.

Taking the soft suspension into account, perhaps the best method of controlled lean-and-scratch riding on the 450 is to enter the turn without jabbing the front disc brake, so the suspension isn't already settled before you apex. When you clip the apex, gently apply the throttle so the suspension's equilibrium is maintained; the only likely disruption will come from road-surface irregularities.

While the suspension may cause some problems while cornering, the bike's ergonomics won't; they're made for it. The combination of a low handlebar and the slightly rearset footpegs put you into a roadracing position, so you can stay tucked-in when cornering. Your only movement to handle a corner need be a slight drop of the inside knee and a small shift on the seat. Then you point the bike for the turn and zip through like a two-wheeled slot car. The theatrical mood of your cornering is enhanced by the road-racy bubble in front of you. You can tuck behind it when exiting turns, not to increase your speed but to make you feel fast. And the impression of racetrack competence is part of what the ST is all about.

If all of this guarded talk about the GS450's performance leads you to believe the bike is a stone, you shouldn't. Because the bike's performance really is quite respectable when you consider that it began life as a 400cc economy commuter. And after all, the 450 produces 6.5 horsepower more than the original 400.

Most of that power increase resulted from the displacement boost, as well as through a pair of different mufflers. The DOHC head and valves are the same as those of earlier 400/425 twins, and the only change to carburetion is jetting required to meet 1980 standards. Cam timing for the 450 is only slightly different, more for a commitment to clean air than for performance. The 180-degree crankshaft has been retained, but instead of using a costly press-fit crank on roller bearings as with the 400/425, the 450 has a one-piece crank. The plain-bearing crank not only is cheaper to manufacture, but it's quiet in operation. And by reducing mechanical noise here, Suzuki had a bit more regulatory leeway in tuning the exhaust system for more power.

Even with the 450's additional power, the new twin still runs butter-smooth, thanks to the same gear-driven counterbalancer just ahead of the crankshaft that softened the 400/425's power pulses. Packed behind the forged crank is the same sixspeed transmission from the 400/425. In case you have trouble monitoring the close-ratio gears, the familiar Suzuki digital gear readout still is mounted on the dashboard for your reference.

Further changes to the engine include elimination of the kickstarter, chrome cam-cover caps, and the addition of a deeper clutch basket stuffed with GS750 plates. The clutch lever is integrated to the idiot-proof ignition system, so you can't start the engine without first pulling in the clutch lever. And by turning the ignition key full left, you now can lock the fork.

And there will be cold mornings, too, when you'll want to leave the ST locked up. If you're in a hurry, you might do better to rely on public transit than to wait through what seems like an eternity for the 450 to warm up. Plus-five-minute warm-ups are not uncommon for this bike when the temperature drops.

When the bike is finally warm enough to ride, you'll find that the racer theme is again emphasized, through the roadracerlike clutch-slipping that's required to get the GS450 off of the line. And you have to add a little throttle-blipping into the mixture so that engine rpm doesn't drop below 4000 rpm. If it does, the engine will stutter and jerk; work the clutch quickly and precisely—just like a roadracer—or you stand a good chance of stalling.

Acceleration gets better—but not by much—as the 450's engine warms up. The problem can be traced directly to the Mikuni constant-velocity carburetors, which are jetted lean through the low-speed circuits to meet EPA regulations.

Riding the ST with its jerky low-speed throttle response is trying, and it becomes more difficult when you figure a passenger into the equation. Adding to the confusion is a seat that's not quite long enough for two, so you have to slide all the way forward. This in turn makes shifting uncomfortable, since you don't have your foot resting firmly on the rearset footpeg. In all, you're better off unloading that rider than trying to make do, since two-up travel is simply not the 450's forte.

As annoying as the jerky starts and the short seat might be, you'll ignore all that when the revs are near redline and you're flicking the bike from side to side through twisty road. The neutral steering begs for a series of convoluted turns; the ST is just that kind of a bike. And whether or not the styling catches your eye, whether or not you fancy yourself a roadracer, the low price is plenty of enticement. And that alone will probably steer many Walter Mitty roadracers into Suzuki dealerships. Never before has the price of sporting performance been so affordable.

RIDE REVIEW

I have never really grown fond of small motorcycles. Being 190 pounds and an inch or two on the far side of six feet, I tend to dwarf anything less than a full-grown street bike. Yet, the GS450 felt right from the first ride. It didn't seem overly tiny, yet it was agile and light, with a strong motor to pull it along. Yes, I really did start to like the 450. That friendship could have blossomed, if only some very annoying problems hadn't, intruded. But try as I might, I couldn't ignore the flat-spotted mid-range carburetion or the limp-wristed rear shocks. The fairing seemed to funnel air into my helmet and the bar-end mirrors vibrated, but these two handicaps I could live with. At least they give Suzuki the classically clean lines that attracted me in the first place. In fact, on looks alone, the ST is almost good enough to let the friendship continue.—David Dewhurst

On the whole, Suzuki's 450 is a terrific performer and certainly one of the most ambitious styling efforts ever seen in that class. But for me, all of the 450's excitement mutates into aggravation and blind rage every time I have to ride it away from a standstill or roll the throttle on or off out on the road. The EPA carburetion makes the engine run so feebly at low rpm that the 450 is just barely able to get underway in first gear. And there's so much lash in the drive-line that every on-off or off-on throttle transition is answered with a sudden whiplash-quality lurch. So between the lurching and the engine's flat spots, a really good rider can climb aboard a 450 and begin looking like a rank novice right away. And that's reason enough to spoil my appreciation for any motorcycle, regardless of how good it is otherwise.—Paul Dean

No one could be more enthusiastic than me at the prospect of a school-boy's racer. And I guess there's few who appreciate the virtues of Suzuki's small-displacement twin as much as I do. But you still can't get me to spend much time with the GS450S. It's not the sporty bike of my dreams at all.

My unhappiness goes beyond the S-type's comic-book styling, too. This motorcycle lives up to its sporty billing only in the quarter-mile. Elsewhere its mushy and weak-kneed suspension lets me down. And the horrendous low-rpm carburetion and drivetrain lash further distract me from good times. Honda's Hawk presents a better lick in the sporting mode, to my tastes.

If I wanted comfort, I'd buy a GS425. If I wanted sport, I'd slap some shocks and a quarter-fairing on a GS400. The 450 tries to combine the two and gives me neither.—Michael Jordan■