T
he quirky Yamaha
GTS1000 turned many
heads in 1992, many billing
it as the dawn of a new era in
steering and suspension setup.
We at Cycle News even said,
"The Future is Here." Perhaps
we were wrong on that one.
We throw it over to Jim Scay-
sbrook, father to our own Road
Test Editor, Rennie, and a legend
of the Australian motorcycling
and in particular, classic industry,
to tell the GTS's short-lived story.
In that hot bed era of motorcy-
cle development—the 1930s—the
twin parameters of performance,
namely power and handling,
came under equal and increas-
ing scrutiny. In the case of the
latter, there was plenty of scope
for innovation, given that the
standard designs had changed
little in several decades. The
girder fork, in its various permu-
tations, was still the accepted
standard, and had so far resisted
innovations such as leading link
and even hub-center steering.
The coming thing was the fully
telescopic fork, popularized by
several manufacturers, notably
BMW, and copied by many,
including Norton.
But "teles" came with numerous
built-in restrictions and shortcom-
CN
III ARCHIVES
P130
BY JIM SCAYSBROOK
THE YAMAHA GTS1000:
30 YEARS ON
A cult classic now, the GTS1000
failed to hit the mark when it was
released and was only sold for
two years in North America.
