Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126410
" A contrast in design, Suzuki's lat est endeavor, their shaftdriven GS850G sits before Bob Cannon 's 1941 Stearman bip lane. The machine (t he one with two wheels and no w ings) combines the best of two worlds with proven GS-series handling and power, and the reliability of the driveshaft instead of a cha in. Im~ression: Suzuki GS850G Add a shaft and lOOcc, "and'sensill 'sporty' no longer are contradicto By Charles Morey The-people who sell motorcycles have come up with a new term: sports touring. It's meant to 'app eal to all of us, from the Roger-Hull/BobBitchin types who find joy in putting horizons behind them to the soon -to-be club road racers who like their m t rc cling in small but intense o 0 Y • doses. The term suggests that It 22 is indeed possible to combine the satisfactio n of accumulating four -digit mil eage figures with the excitement of wearing dow n your foot peg tips on a win ding country road . Perhaps they're right. And if their att em p t to sell us their idea kee ps p roducing motorcycles like the Suzuki GS850G , the co nsumer comes out a winner whether he believes their sales. pitch or not. It's a good bike. Motorcycles that , according to their m a rketing/ a dvert ising departments , fit into the sports touring category are , in the 750 ·1300cc displacement range . They weigh more than a comparablysized superbike (a nother colorful sales term), and they - usually - have exchanged the ubiquitous rear d rive chain in favor of a maintenancemiserly driveshaft. Like the dualpurpose street/trail bik e , the sports to uring machine doesn't represent the best of either world , but it 's a successfu l compromise . Suzuki's GS850G , although at the lower end o f the sports touring displacement scale, meets all the re quirements. It's a nimble handler with credit due its heritage: Suz uk i's GS750 and GSIOOO sports models. T he GS-series cycles ha ve earned an enviable reputation for fin e handling that began with Suzuki's pre-sale cla ims , was backed up by tests in the motomonthlies . then confirmed when AMA Superbike Production racers and tuners like Pops Yoshimura put them in the winners' circles. The GS850 is a direct descendent of the sports machines with a couple of important changes. As its n umerical designation suggests, the .motor is an 850 . actually 84!lcc , that retains the same stroke as the GS750 but ha s a bo re increase from 65 to 69mm . And it has a propeller shaft , or as we more commonly call it . a driveshafr , instead of a rea r chain . The shaft a nd the displacement increase are directly related. Suzuki engineers knew that their shaft mechanism, as sim ple and efficient as they designed it , could not match the mech anical efficiency of a chain. Hence . the increase in ' displacement. to produce more power , to compensate for the mechanical efficie ncy •.loss. to • •prod uce performance comparabl e to the GS750. It worked . Obvious from the photos accompanying this article , Suzuki engineers did not complicate the gearbox innards with an array of extra whatzits and widgets . They simply added a set of bevel gears in place of the countershaft sprocket to get the shaft aimed toward the rear wheel and included a clever-but-simple shock absorber mechanism in the gearbox to m inim ize driveline snatch. There's a standa rd pinion gear at the rear wheel that connects to the hub through a spline (for easier wheel rem ova l) a n d the typica l r ubber cu shion drive fou nd on m any bikes . It 's simple and it works beaut ifu lly. We had o nly two problems during our test sessio n t hat involved sh ifting: The clutch dragged. making it difficult to find neutral while stopped, and th e green neutral indicator lights would lie once in awhile. Neit he r problem is majo r . and neither is particularly u nco mmon in other motorcycles we've ridden..