The New Kat is Out of the Bog

HAD BEEN EXPECTING THE new-generation Katana to bring back a few memories, but not quite like this. Back in 1981, I was aboard the original GSX1100S Katana for one of the wettest and most uncomfortable rides of my life, perched on the rock-hard pillion seat of a mate’s brand-new Suzuki on a torrential trip through France to the Bol d’Or.

Several decades later aboard a very different but similar-looking Suzuki, I’m glad to be holding the handlebars this time, but less pleased that the rain is again pouring down, slowing my progress and making the road seriously slippery. The good news is that not only is the new Katana much more powerful than its famous forebear, it also has ABS brakes and much better tyres. A repeat of our slow-speed crash in ’81, the result of too much front