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SUZUKI B-KING

THE KING AND I... AND MICK

WORDS BY BORIS MIHAILOVIC & MICK HODGE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW "SON O' ELVIS" McCLYMONT

 

 

Bling!

The exhaust system: large and unloved

The colour in the B-King usually catches up about a minute after you park it

"it will delight you the first time you push it hard into a corner"

SOMEBODY at Suzuki is doing their homework. And whoever is checking it, should give that person a gold star and nice stamp on their hand. 

The advent of the long-awaited B-King has raised many eyebrows, not the least of them being Shaun Giles's, who got a fang on the B-King during a Hayabusa comparo (last year's versus this year's) on a Melbourne racetrack recently.

"You could race this thing," Gilesey was heard to comment upon his return to the pits.

Having put some healthy miles on a B-King in the last three weeks, I have no problem agreeing with the man.

The beast bangs and it bangs hard.

How hard?

Hard enough to shade a 2008 Hayabusa to almost 200km/h, and hard enough to reduce a 'Busa rider to anguished screams of despair in a straight-line drag race.

Why is this so?

Ken Wootton did a good job explaining it in a recent AMCN.

"At 7000rpm, the B-King is pumping out 50 per cent more power than Suzuki's GSX-R1000. Two thousand revs later, the B-King has jumped another 30kW and is now churning out over 130kW at the rear wheel. It will take the GSX-R1000 a further 3000rpm to reach its peak and, even then, it will only equal the B-King in outright power."

That's one hell of a numbers game, don't you think?

Especially when such grunt is delivered seamlessly and with such silky finesse, you'd think Suzuki had transplanted Honda's butter-smooth six-cylinder Goldwing donk into its B-King.

The bike doesn't roar, it doesn't scream, it doesn't growl -- it just hums. But it is a humming sound pregnant with inordinate promises of grunt. OK, it tops out at a shade under 280km/h, but not many riders will honestly care about that, given how much visceral pleasure is available getting to that ridiculous speed.

Nothing I've ridden delivers oomph like the B-King. Triumph's Rocket 3 is close, but tends to run out of puff just when the B-King starts to work. The litre-class of sportsbikes shade it in the frenetic ferocity of their power delivery, but can't match it in the torque department.

The motor is thus a world-beating gem of the first order, enhanced still further by seemingly ideal gear ratios delivered, as always, via one of Suzuki's glorious gearboxes. As mild-mannered as a lamb through Sydney's Freak Hour traffic, the B-King is happy to idle along seamlessly, with only the vaguest hint of tranny snatch at under 4000rpm; and it is just as happy for you to summon up all your courage and twist its throttle with meaning. Mind you don't do that in the first three gears unless you're ready for what's gonna happen. Cos it's gonna happen quick and it's gonna happen hard. Hold on, or die -- that power delivery is not a joke.

For a laugh, get to about 100km/h in third, button off quickly, then jam the throttle to the stop and marvel as the front wheel rises about half a metre off the road and stays there as you're catapulted at the horizon like an artillery round.

Wheelies are only limited by the laws of the land, the size of your cags and the limits of your skill. They are as spectacular as you can make them. 

But, as we are all adults, we know that none of this is worth a brass razoo if the handling is compromised.

At first glance, you'd think it would be. The B-King appears to be far more massive than it actually is -- sure, it's no lightweight at 230-odd-kgs dry -- but the centre of gravity is low (and you sit very much "in" the bike) and the whole package is so beautifully balanced and responsive, it will delight you the first time you push it hard into a corner. Neutral and utterly predictable in its handling, a sportsbike purist may briefly moan about how it'd be nice if there was more "feel" from the front-end, but I would counter that he's not going hard enough to warrant his desire for more feel -- or he doesn't know how to set up his front end. The inverted 49mm fully-adjustable Kayaba's do not shirk their duty and provide more than adequate feedback for 99.9 per cent of riders. Rake is 25-and-a-half degrees and trail is 107mm. This translates to a dignified steering rate. You want something that turns faster, buy a smaller, lighter and sportier bike...and then spend your days weeping as herds of B-Kings leave you for dead as they warp out of corners.

 

 

Mid-corner bumps, normally the bane of heavier bikes, are fuss-free. Sure, it won't shrug them off with the precision contempt of an MV Agusta, but nor will it pitch and yaw like a drunk coming out of a nudie bar at 5am.

Having been stretched upon the sex-rack of speed-lust that is the MV Agusta 312R for more than 10,000kms, I was overwhelmed with the comfort levels on the B-King. A wide and comfortable saddle cups your buttocks with reverence and tilts you ever so slightly forward -- probably a good thing given the velocities this thing is capable of.

The 16.5 litre tank is flanked by large plastic flangey bits (which serve a very important purpose as we shall see) and there have been complaints from some very long-legged riders that their knees don't fit under them. I'm six-feet tall and Mick is six-feet-four and neither of us had the slightest problem. Of course, this may be because our knee-to-ankle measurement is comfortably relative to the rest of our bodies. If you're some kind of giant monster freakazoid, with hugely disproportionate shin-bones, you may have an issue. Likewise if you're a seriously big bloke, ie. over six-and-a-half feet tall. But then, they can do wonderful things in a Thai surgery thesedays.

Now, about them flangey things on the tank...

 

Consider, if you will, that a naked motorcycle capable of very high speeds can be a chore to ride if one is buffeted brutally by the wind.

Now consider that Suzuki cured just this problem on their stunning Boulevarde by cleverly shaping the headlight cowling into a wind-deflecting device.

The B-King and its tank flanges, in concert with its oddly shaped headlight, are but extensions of this aerodynamic wizardry. There is surprisingly little wind buffeting... up until you start approaching the 250km/h mark -- and even then it's not bad at all. If you want to note how effective the aerodynamics are, stick your head out of the soft-air bubble that is formed by the tank/headlight combo.

Obviously someone at Suzuki has access to a wind tunnel and knows how to use it. I tips me hat to them in gratitude.

Right then...um, what's left? Erm...yep, brakes. Radial-mounted, four piston Nissens up front offer lots of feel with a serious bite for when you decide that entering a 55km/h bend at 220km/h is still too quick. The rear unit is a single-piston Tokico that feels a little wooden (like nearly all back brakes), but certainly has more than enough grab to lock it all up in the wink of an eye if you get too enthusiastic. Hopefully, if you buy a B-King, you'll be grown-up enough to leave the back brake alone and only use if for doing low-speed U-turns as the Road Gods intended you to.

 

The computer age has come with a vengeance and the B-King can wear its little propeller hat with the best of them. It boasts a 32-bit computer somewhere in its guts, and this allows you to push one of the buttons on the tank and instantly know all about oil pressure, coolant temperature, service interval, running time, average speed, and what time it is -- as well as the usual really-need-to-know stuff. I actually suspect all that computer power is there because of the other button on the tank. The button that allows you to shift between A mode and B mode.

This is a direct link from the three-mode engine power thingo the Gixxer has. I do not understand this system, having always believed that one manages the motor's performance with the tubular black thing on the right handlebar. And thus I only ensured it said "A" (cos that's the one that brings all the horsies out to play) and then ignored it.

Visually (and yes, we were gonna come to that), it seems to polarise people. Some think it stunning. Some think it not so stunning. And most of the fuss seems to be centred around the back-end and the wacky looking exhaust system that lives there.

 

 

I was nonplussed upon first beholding it. But in the ensuing weeks, it has grown on me until I quite like its unique Optimus Prime headlight treatment and its massive flanged tank.

I do not like the exhaust system. And I like that I don't like it.

I am uncomfortable with bikes that spring fully formed from the manufacturer, ie. so complete that anything you do to it will only make it less than what it was. I must always customise a bike to my taste and the B-King is very fertile ground indeed. Taken in isolation, its ducktail is a very sexy unit, and is only brought undone by the pipes and the number-plate/blinker set-up that hovers beneath it.

There are already kits available for fixing this, and I predict that many more will become available as time goes by. And only an idiot would dismiss this bike because of its looks.

Looks aside, the B-King is a very difficult bike to fault. I've spent the last week or so wondering why I WOULDN'T buy one. There really isn't a reason I wouldn't.

It is supremely easy to ride. It is comfortable and mind-bendingly fast. It corners as well as I need it to, and it stops hard and comes off the line and out of corners harder than just about anything I've ever ridden. It does it all with such a smooth, fuss-free insouciance, the only "moment" you'll ever have on it is when you glance at the speedo and see numbers on it that will horrify the local Highway Patrol.

 

I understand that test-rides are a bit thin on the ground at the moment. This is a tragedy, because there is a lot of interest for the beast among the masses -- most of which comes from us middle-aged dinosaurs who see the B-King as the apotheosis of our riding youth. A youth where there were no "naked" bikes, 'cos you had to be a racer or a serious tourer to bother with fairings.

What we wouldn't have given to ride a bike this powerful, this smooth and this sweet-handling? Yes, that's right, complete free access to our sisters and mothers.

As it turns out, we can now have the bike we dreamed of as feckless youths. And we can have it for less than $20,000.

See?

I told you the Road Gods love us.

 

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