It’s not every day you get to see a new 2020 Suzuki Katana for the first time, and it’s certainly not every day you get living legend and motojournalist extraordinaire Kevin Duke to take a photo of you standing next to it. Yesterday was that day for me, and the photo you see above was a shot Kevin grabbed of yours truly with the new Katana. I was visiting with the boys at CSC Motorcycles, Kevin was there, and he volunteered to let me take a ride on the Katana. I took a pass on that, but when he asked me to pose with the bike, hey, I figured Suzuki needs all the help they can get. Not that they need any from me. The new Katana is a stunning motorcycle. Visually arresting, I would call it.
We wrote about the 2020 Katana in our Dream Bikes series last year, and at that time, I mentioned that I owned one of the original Katanas in 1982. Mine was Serial Number 241 of the first batch of 500 Suzuki built.
There’s 38 years between those two photos. Wow, that’s a scary thought. I think me and my good buddy Jack Daniel’s will have a talk about that later tonight.
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I had a look at the new 2020 Katana last week. At first I was not really all that excited about it but on first look I was impressed. It has a nice modern yet retro look and I thought it looked fantastic. You can certainly say its definitely different. I sat on it and I thought it was fairly comfortable for that type of bike and even though its not the lightest bike but it carries the weight well. I declined a test ride but I bet its really strong with that detuned GSXR motor. I think Suzuki might have a winner on its hands but it may take a while to catch on and the market is not exactly gang busters. I also thought it was a little pricy for what it is as is a lot of bikes now days. Probably be a hit and find its place when the heavy discounts hit!
Your comments mirror my thoughts exactly, Chris. Kevin Duke told me it was surprisingly comfortable.