Categories: Dream Bike

Dream bike: 2020 Suzuki Katana

Wow, this is a departure for ExhaustNotes. So far, all the dream bikes we’ve listed have been blasts from the past.

This one is and it isn’t.

I’m over here in Singapore this week on yet another secret mission, and this story floats in: Suzuki is resurrecting the Katana! Whoa!

The 2020 Suzuki Katana. 1000cc, just like the original, but with a Gixxer engine.

This is a story that has my attention. I’ve always liked Suzuki motorcycles, and I think Suzuki engineering is as good as it gets. But that’s not what attracted me to this latest development. I actually owned one of the very first Katanas, way back when they first came out in 1982…

A skinny guy with hair, a leather jacket, and a new ’82 Katana. Life was very, very good.

I still dream about that 1982 Katana. I paid over MSRP because they were so hard to find (I’ll never do that again, but the fact that I did says just how much I wanted that bike). It was fast beyond belief, and the colors just flat worked for me. It had a Joan Claybrook speedometer (remember her?) that only registered 85 mph, as if that would somehow counteract my willingness to do stupid stuff. 85 mph, my ass…that bike lived half its life with the needle buried. The instruments were cool, too…the tach and the speedometer were pivoted in a way that made them look like they were unwinding when accelerating. I hope Suzuki does something tricky like that with the new one. My ’82 Katana was so ahead of its time that I actually got pulled over twice by cops who just wanted to see the thing. And you know what? I never got a ticket on that bike. Not once. Lord knows it wasn’t because I was a good boy.

I don’t need 150 horsepower and I don’t need 1000cc. But there’s a big difference between need and want, and I want this new Katana. This just might be the dream that comes true.

Hey, there’s more!

Joe Berk