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/128080
Show (Left)Suzuki's Intruder LC Royal T.ouring - a mammoth cruiser that uses Suzuki's 1462cc three-valveper-cylinder, aircoo led V-twin powerplant. (Below) Suzuki also displayed a commuter bike called the X-8 that featured a propanepowered four-stroke engine. A can of propane can power the bike for 20 miles - and a can of propane cos ts about $2,50 in Ja pan. 10 For Suz u ki, this Tokyo Motor Show was better than man y in years past. Th e main s tars a t Su zu ki we re the upd at ed Hayabu sa blockbuster bullet bik e a n d th e sa u cy n e w GSX- R750 s u perb ike, b oth a lrea dy re vea le d a t Pa r is la s t m onth. Al so present w ere othe r ne w mod els from Paris, such as the DR-Z400 lightweight, wa ter-cooled, fo u r-s tro ke off-road en d u ro bi kes; an updated 600 Bandit universal Jap anese m otorcycl e; and th e LC250 In trud er minicruiser. Out on the main aisle - an d certainly on a reinfor ced s tage - Suzuki sho wed off th e In tru der LC Roya l To uring, a mammoth cru iser fea tu ring Su zuki' s 146 2cc th ree-valve-per-cylinder, a ircooled, V-twin eng ine and sleek, smart sty ling . The objective, according to Suzuki, was to convert the big LC cruise r into a tourin g bike in makin g it look chunky or bulk y. The end p rod uct is ma ybe the best-looking of all the big touring bikes from Jap an or elsew here. At the front are 'a fend er th at flow s around th e fr ont wheel as much as it does over the wheel, and a handlebar-mounted front fairi ng that borrows its shape from the old Wes Cooley GSI 000S su per bike. Compare the pictures of the LC Royal Touri ng motorcycle to any other tourer, and notice the petite size of the LC's winds hield vs. the p ictu re-window windshields the other manufactu re rs b race onto th e fron t of their packhorses, Su zuk i can ge t away with this design due to a very low seat height and Lazy Boy footrests , From the sea t on back, th e Intru d er LC Royal Touring has bod ylines that flow like the , back of a du ck: gracefu l, smooth , and above all else, elegant. It' s a candida te for the bes t-styled bike of the year, and wo rthy of its Royal name. In the ma ssiv e s ha dow of the LC Roya l Touring Suzu ki w as p ar ked a Despe ra do Wind er II, a 400cc cru iser that - well, just look at a Harley-Davidso n FXD and im agine "Des perado" on the gas tank. Severa l inte res tin g items w er e on Suzu ki' s side stages, su ch as the Volt y Gr ass Tracker, a sing le-cy linde r, fourstro ke street bike styl ed like an Ame rican dirt tracker (nat u ra lly, in a whiteorange -bla ck co lo r s cheme ); the nostalgic Tempter, a 400cc black Britishish street bike and possibly the lowesttech bik e a t t h e Tokyo Motor Sh ow (d o u b le le a d in g show fr ont drum brak es, an yone?), and several vari ations on th e Skywave scoo ter, a t 400cc, th e largest scooter sold in Japan. (Above) Ready for the Sacramento Mile? Not quite, but the Suzuki VoltyGrass Tracker looks the part. Lastly, a note abou t the fu ture fro m Suz uki and the end of an era . First the fu ture: Japa nese motorcycle regulations d efine a comm uter class of motorcycl es tha t a re restrict ed to 13 mph, are requ ired to have lighting and safety equipmen t that are below tha t of a Suzuka 8 Hours race b ik e, and a re genera lly either colla psible or foldable des igns . Su zuki d ispl ayed a res earchand-d evelopment commuter bike called th e X-8 tha t feat ured a propane-powe red four -s trok e e ngine . A can of propane sells for abou t $2.50 in Japan, an d can power the X-8 abo ut 20 miles. For consu mers wh o want to brin g their comm u te r b ikes in sid e an area with minimal venti lation and are concerned abo u t gasoli ne vapors , the prop an epowered X-8 is perfect. The ot he r fu tu re tech di splay from Suzuki w a s th e SC IP system, w hich stands for "Simplified Caml ess Injection assis tee Par air comprime," a d evelopment from the Institute Francais du Petrole. A techn ology aimed at little scooter eng ines, th e SC IP u ses a tw o- stro ke engine as a base and ad ds to that a poppet valve in the cylinder head . A port in th e cy lin der h ead is plumbed to th e crankc ase by a n external pip e. The poppet valve is opened when pressure in the crankc ase is greater than the pressure in th e cy li nder, and the va lve is closed when the relative pressures are reversed (and aided by a small coil spring). This a rran geme n t w as in fact co mmon on ea rly four-stroke engines at the beginning of the century. The problem is that a bi g val ve is required to flow la rge amou nts of air for high p ow er ou tpu t, but big valves are sluggish under atmosph eric control. Engine speed and, therefore, power is limited . Suzu ki used a sma ll po p pe t va lve in the SCIP en gine that is resp onsive to over 9000 rpm, and this poppet valve flows just a fraction of th e a ir needed by th e e ng ine . The remaining air demands are met by conven tional tra nsfer p o rt s . Bu t th e air delivered by the pop pe t valve contains all the fuel used by the eng ine, as Suzuki has placed a low-pressure fuel-injection nozzle in the cylinde r-hea d port. Thus the fres h-c ha rge sho rt-circuiting prob lem that has plagued two-stroke engines since their inceptio n is reduced . A Suz uki engineer claimed that specific fue l cons u mp tio n is improved 20 p ercen t, hydr ocarbon e missio ns are reduced 30 percent , and carbon-monoxid e emissions ar e red uced 70 percent. Power, though , is also less than that of the base tw o-stroke engine , but better than that of a typical four-stroke scooter engi ne . Lastly, a t th e Tok yo Motor Sh ow, Suz uki an nou nced that the 2000 mod el year would be the last for the GSXll DOS Kat ana . Largely unchanged s inc e its d ebut at 1980 Cologn e Motor Show, the Katana ha s had loyal fans in Japan for years . The Ha yabusa has now eclipsed its popularity . Kawa sa ki is an e n ig m a . Kawasaki claims to have an extensive lineup with a perfect motor cycle to su it any Ja pan-~ ese rider' s taste, but their Tokyo Motor Show display suggests oth erwi se. Jap an is sa tu ra ted with scoo ters. At ยท any urban parking area in Japa n, easily more th an half th e bik es a re scooters .. Honda s hows 15 sc oo te rs in th eir_ dom estic lineup, plu s five step-through C u bs . Ya ma ha's broch u re s hows 11 scooters and seven step-thro ug h motorcycles. One-third of Suz u ki's motorcycle produ cts offered in Japa n are scooters. In cont rast, the total nu mber of scoot-s ers an d s te p- th rough m ot orcycles in Kawasaki's prod uct line is zero . Kawasaki 's ign or ing of th e lar ges t segme nt in their ho me ma rket mea ns it is becomin g a motorcycle expo rt company. At the Tokyo Motor Show, Kawasaki bu ilt its d isplay aro und the ZX-12R b ird-hunting speedster, a mot or cycle capable of four times the national sp eed limit in Jap an . On each side of the ZX12R w as a ZX-9 R a nd a ZX-6R - a ll motorcycles w ith mor e hors epower than some au tomo biles sold in Japan. Kawa saki did show one new mod el for the Japanese market, the W650. An underwhelming mot orcycle, the W650 is a mix of Kawasaki' s 1967 X650 and the 1969 650cc WI Special. This year's Tok yo Motor Show was the fi rst where Japanes e tw o-s troke spo rt bikes cou ld n ot be found on di splay or in compan y brochures. Will Kawasaki vanis h from the Ja p a ne se t:III motorcycle market, too? --------------