Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

...... ..... l-< 0.. < • eeuss Lots of chrome. lots of c ruiser styling: Suzuki 's new Int r uder is the company's first V-twin. designed for the"American sports" market. By John Ulrich Suzuki is the last of the four ' J apanese m o torcycle m anufacturers to introduce a cru iser-styled V-twiri. But the compan y's n ew ' VS700G L (a n d VS750GL outside the U n ited 16 States) Intruder sets new standards in lengths gone to ac h ieve what Suzuki's Japanese engi- n eers I spans." refer to as "America n . T he Intruder .is a s much a st yling exercise as it is a ma chine. The loo k is a fam ili a r'o ne in ge ne ra l terms, a n d Suzuki, like other manufacturers before it , ide ntified p o pular CUSlOm VTw in features through focus-g roup research sessions . . Suzu ki resea rch ers ca me away from th e focus groups with a co nce p t targe t; th e way th ey read th e research, a successfu l machine for th eir market segment would need a n extre me ly-lo w sea t h eight, th e righ t cr u iser Took, a spe ci fic ex ha us t so u nd a n d very 101'quey power charac teristics. T h e engineering p ro ject team wa s flo wn into th e U n i ted States, a n d wh en th e work was done th e co m p an y had a' made-in- the -U .S.A. wood a nd -clay mockup o f th e moto rcycl e th ev wa nted. Ii co u ld appear that for m rook p receden ce o ver fun ct ion. T ha t's 'n o t qui te ~r!,e. A bet ter rep resenta tion would be th at form a t times o bsc ured fun ct ion, o r di sgui sed fun cti on - as in th e case of th e design-dictat ed fins o n th e wat er -cooled cylin de rs. Aft er all , th e Intruder sti ll has wa ter-cooling a nd o ther fu nc tio na l, perf o rm an cerelat ed featu res - which we' ll ge t into m o re in a m oment - under n eath th e bo rn- in-a -focus-g rou p , h ard-core-sem i-ch o p per a p pearance. In basic mecha nical ter ms, the Intruder is a 45° water -cool ed V-Twin with four va lves p er cy li nder, si ngle . o ver head ca ms ha fts, a p lai n -bea ri ng cra n ks ha ft, wet s u m p, fiv e-speed transmi ssion a nd shaft fin al d rive. But fa shion and style h as influen ced even th ose bare specifica tio ns, because the cy linde r a ng le - 45° - a nd th e an gle between th e dua l cra n k p i n s - again 45° - wer e spe cifica ll y chosen 10 produce th e desired exha us t no te, , T becra n kshaft has three flvwh eels, two o n th e o u tside a nd o ne in th e middle, th e flywh eel s sa nd wichi ng th e tw o throws, o ne for eac h co n ne cting ro d . Su zu ki enginee rs like 10 co mpare th e Intr uder's firing o rde r a n d cra n k pin o ffse t with o t he r cru ise r-styled V-rwins from Japan , notabl y th e Honda VT700 Shadow (45° cyli nde rs with dual crank pins o ffset 90°) and th e Yamaha Virago XV700 (75° cylinders sharin g a single cran k th ro w), In terms of degrees o f cran ksha ft rotati on , th e Suzu ki fir es o ne cylinder a t 0°, th e seco nd a t 270°, a nd th e first aga in a t 450°, a nd th e seco nd cylinde r aga in a t 720°. . The H ond a fir es a t 0°_225°_495°_ 720°. The Yamaha fires a t 0°-285°-435°720~ ,

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