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/127813
By Paul Carruthers Photos by Rich Chenet and Tom Riles uzuki's tech briefing of the TL1000S was nearly complete, but the questions were still there, hanging in . lllidair in search of a response: Did .Suzuki have plans to race its new V~twin sportbike? Would we soon see a 'TLlOOOS racing in the superbike wars? : "We see lots of potential to race with I is engine," the translator said - with . an emphasis on engine - after each and every engineer had looked at each other, one waiting for another to respond. And so we are left to wait and see what racing plans Suzuki has with its aimed-at-Ducati (and now Honda) Vtwin sportbike, the TLlOOOS. In the meantime, we. have a pretty damn good street bike to contemplate. Overall, the TL1000S has been· a fairly well-kept secret. While rumors of a new V-twin sportbike from Suzuki filtered through now and then, most dismissed them for what they were rumors. After all, Suzuki had just come out with an all-new GSXR750, and a totally redone GSXR600 was also on the way. If Suzuki had a V-twin on the horizon, certainly it wouldn't be out until 1998, maybe 1999. But Suzuki apparently wasn't planning on falling behind on this one. The TLlOOOS was designed, built and produced in a relative veil of secrecy and then unveiled via press photos in publications to potential consumers. The pictures weren't so shocking. It was red and had a half fairing, proudly showing its 996cc Vtwin engine and the aluminum trusses of its chassis, not to mention some strange-looking rear-suspension device tucked neatly behind the frame on the right side. The surprises came from the spec sheet. The TLlOOOS was fuel-injected. The shocker, though, came Iater - the TL1000S carried a price tag of only $8999. Or 13,770,000 in Iire? • . Recently a horde of the world's motorcycling press was invited to sunny Florida to sample the TLlOOOs in the high-speed atmosphere of the Homestead Motorsports Complex and the tedious 45-mph zones of highway AlA, 140 miles of T-shirt stands, tiki bars and flea markets leading into and through the picturesque Florida Keys and ultimately to Key West, the southernmost tip of the continental United States. Our two days began with the road ride, a small group of Americans, Australians and Canadians complaining their way through the Keys, anticipating how wonderful life wouId be the following day on the Homestead race track. While the Florida leeys offer plenty for the sun-seeking tourist, fishermen, or lushes-in-training, it offers nothing for the sportbike-toting journalist. The road itself is slow, straight and downright boring. In this atmosphere, the TLlOOOS proved itself to be a rather ordinary motorcycle. That many miles without the ·twists and turns of a good mountain road will make any sportbike seem uncomfortable and wrist numbing, and with nothing else to fill the mind you end up noticing things that ordinarily would go unnoticed if there was any fun to be had. Little things Like not being able to find neutral easily at a stop, gear changes that seem clunky and not refined, a seat that's a tad too hard... My judgments on this motorcycle would have to wait another day. The AlA p.roved only one thing: that this group of well-mannered journalists could get thr~ugh south Florida without even a single speeding ticket, despite a lurking patrol car on seemingly every corner. "TOMORROW, TOMORROW, IT'S ONLY A DAY AWAy..... What a difference a day makes as speeding around Homestead quickly healed all of the Suzuki's wounds.. It was on the 2.2-mile race track tha t the TLl OOOS started to shine. The first thing you notice while trying to get up to speed on the TL is that its power is truly linear. The big V-twin makes power from the get-go and continues to do so all the way to redJine. Flat spots? They don't exist. Wrong gear choice? No worries. The power is smooth and plentifuI enough so that fourth gear in a second-gear corner isn't" the predicament that it can be on a higher-revving four-cylinder. There was no bogging, or lurching, just a constant pull that quickIy gets the TL1000S back to where you should (Above) The heart and soul ofthe TL1 OOOS - the 996c, 9O-degee V-twin engine. It sits in an aluminum truss frame. (Right) Suzuki's unique rear suspension package uses a rotary damper, a system that relies on two separate linkages. have had it in the first place. The power and pull comes directly from the 90-degree, V-twin engine and its Suzuki Ram Air Direct (SRAD) induction system. The design of the TL's powerplant features four valves per cylinder, downdraft cylinder heads and an extremely short stroke of 66mm for its 98mm bore. The arrangement puts the TL at 996cc with .a bore and stroke ratio of 0.673:1 and big valves: 40mm intake (positioned 14 degrees from vertical) and 33m exhaust (positioned 15 degrees from vertical) while the stems themselves are 5.5mm. The short-stroke design also allows for a reduced cylinder height, with connecting rods situated side by side (using only two main bearings) on a single journal. Like the new GSXRs, the TV s cy linde.rs are SCEM plated. The double-overhead cams work directly on bucket tappets and adjustablity is handled by shims which are positioned directly under those buckets. The cams are driven. by a combination of gears and chains, allowing for the shorter design of the cylinder heads. For more simplified lash adjustment, the cams can be removed without touching the cam chain. Although the design of the valvetrain is nothing new, the cam-drive system is somewhat unique. In an effort to keep the cylinder-head height and the weight low, Suzuki engineers have combined both systems of camdrive design. The cams on the TL are driven from underneath by a centered idler shaft with a chain running between each idler shaft and an intermediate shaft (gear-driven off the right side of the crankshaft). Because the idler shaft turns at half crank speed, the cam drive gear and the cam gears can be the same size and run 1:1 with a much smaller diameter than a more conventional cam sprocket. Since the gears '!re smaller, the cylinder height can be reduced. Without the cam 'chain being routed over the camshaft sprockets, cam remova I is also simplified. To help eliminate backlash and reduce mechanical noise, each camshaft gear and primary gear drive gear are split and spring loaded. Like most ram-air systems, the TL's system increases airbox inner pressure as speeds increase to improve cylinder charging and power output. At low rpm, a flapper valve (which 'opens fully from 4000 rpm up and is 70 percent closed at any rpm under that) reduces the intake area to increase air velocity, thus improving charging at low speeds and further aiding throttJe response. While the power of the TL is a direct result of the big V-twin engine, the smoothness of that power can be at least partially attributed to the Suzuki's fuel-injection system. The dualstage system is controlled by an engine-management system, working hand in hand with digitally mapped ignition timing and the aforementioned ram-air system. Thanks to sensors reading faster than Evelyn Wood, the fuel-injection system automatically compensates for cold starts, high altitude, ambIent temperature and the ram-air induction by monitoring engine coolant temperature, atmospheric pressure, intake-air temperature and intake-air pressure. A?yn-· chronous injection compensates for acceleration and deceleration. Instead of packaging the twin exhaust pipes under the seat like the Ducati V-twins, the TL's big pipes exit