{"id":25289,"date":"2024-02-04T08:25:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T16:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=25289"},"modified":"2024-02-04T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T21:14:09","slug":"the-wayback-machine-suzuki-tl1000s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/02\/04\/the-wayback-machine-suzuki-tl1000s\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayback Machine: Suzuki TL1000S"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

The year was 1997 and the Ducati V-twins had been dominating magazine covers for years.\u00a0 Not to be outdone, two Japanese manufacturers produced similarly-configured V-twins (actually, L-twins).\u00a0 Honda had the SuperHawk, and Suzuki the TL1000S.\u00a0 I’ve always liked Suzuki better, so I went with the TL1000s.\u00a0\u00a0Suzuki offered the TL in two colors….a forest green with red accents; and bright red with yellow accents.\u00a0 For me, it had to be red.<\/p>\n

\"\"
My ’97 TL1000S, somewhere in northern Baja.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I bought my TL at Bert’s in Azusa.\u00a0 If I recall correctly, I negotiated the guys down to $8700 out the door, and part of that was a Yamaha 650 twin I traded in.\u00a0 I had bought the Yamaha used from a guy in a course I taught at McDonnell Douglas, thinking the Yamaha would be like my old Triumph Bonnevilles but reliable.\u00a0 The Yamaha was a bust. It was too heavy, it had cheap fasteners, the Hopper\/Fonda riding stance was awful, it didn’t handle, and it lacked the low-end grunt of my earlier Triumphs.<\/p>\n

I remember riding the TL home from Bert’s.\u00a0 The riding was awkward with the bike’s low bars and high footpegs, but I got used to it and I made it less punishing with a set of Heli-Bars.\u00a0 The Heli-Bars were slighly taller and wider (you got about an inch more in each dimension, which made a difference).<\/p>\n

\"\"
A stop for fuel in Catavina. The guys sell gasolina from bottles along Mexico Highway 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The TL was the fastest and hardest accelerating motorcycle I ever owned.\u00a0 It would wheelie in third gear if you weren’t paying attention, and it went from zero to 100 in a heartbeat.\u00a0 The bottom end torque was ferocious.\u00a0 Fuel economy was atrocious, and it had a tendency to stall at low rpm.\u00a0 But wow, did it ever look good.\u00a0 Did I mention it was fast?<\/p>\n

My friend Marty had an Aprilia V-twin (a Mille<\/em>, I think, or something like that), another bit of Italian exotica, that cost even more than the Ducati.\u00a0 Marty’s spaghetti-bender was more than twice what I paid for my TL.\u00a0 We swapped bikes once on a day ride and I came away unimpressed.\u00a0 My TL was faster.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Baja a few years ago.\u00a0 Younger, thinner, and hair that hadn’t turned gray yet. That motorcycle made me look good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wanted the look of a sport bike, but I’m not a canyon racer and the exotic look didn’t do anything for me once I had ridden the TL a few times.\u00a0 Then something funny happened.\u00a0 My Harley died on a Baja ride.\u00a0 I nursed my Harley home, parked it, and took the TL.\u00a0 Surprisingly, it did a good job as a touring platform.\u00a0 And I could ride at speeds the Harley couldn’t dream about.\u00a0 In those days, if there were speed limits in Baja, I didn’t know about them.<\/p>\n

That first big trip on the TL instead of the Harley cinched it for me.\u00a0 I bought sportsbike soft luggage and used the TL on many rides after that.\u00a0 700-mile days in Baja became the norm (I could make Muleg\u00e9 in a day; the TL wouldn’t break a sweat).\u00a0 The only downside was the abominable fuel economy (the fuel light would come on after 105 miles), but a one-gallon red plastic fuel container and a bungie cord fixed that.\u00a0 It was Beverly hillbillies, but it worked. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a hillbilly (somebody’s got to shoot those road signs).<\/p>\n

\"\"
TL1000S touring. The bike was a surprisingly good touring machine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even with the TL’s mid-30-mpg fuel economy, I only ran out of fuel twice.\u00a0 Once was on the Bodfish-Caliente Road (one of California’s best kept secrets).\u00a0 I didn’t have my gas can with me; Marty rode ahead and returned with a gasoline-filled water bottle he hoped wouldn’t dissolve (it didn’t).\u00a0 The other time was on Baja’s long stretch headed south to Guerrero Negro.\u00a0 That road runs straight as an arrow, and I ran the TL at a surprisingly comfortable 145 mph (still well below the TL’s top speed).\u00a0 The TL was fuel injected and when it ran dry it was like someone shut the ignition.\u00a0 I poured my extra gallon in and made it to the next Pemex station.\u00a0 The guys I rode with were still far behind.<\/p>\n

I had fun with the TL, but I dropped it a lot more than any other bike I had ever owned.\u00a0 All the drops were my fault.\u00a0 The low-mounted sport bars restricted steering, and once when pulling into my driveway, there wasn’t enough to keep the bike upright.\u00a0 Before I realized it, the bike and I were both on the ground (my first thought was to wonder if anyone had seen me).\u00a0 The next time the bike was in my driveway, facing slightly downhill.\u00a0 I started it to let it warm up, and the bike rolled off the sidestand.\u00a0 Again, my first thought was if anyone had seen me.\u00a0 The third time was more dramatic.\u00a0 The TL had a slipper clutch; you could downshift with reckless abandon.\u00a0 The clutch would slip and not skid the rear tire.\u00a0 It was cool, until I used it diving hard into a corner.\u00a0 The curb was coming up quickly and I wasn’t slowing fast enough.\u00a0 The slipper clutch was doing its thing, but when I touched the front brake, that was enough to unload the rear wheel.\u00a0 It broke loose and I fishtailed into the curb.\u00a0 I went over the bars, executed a very clean somersault, and came to rest in the sitting position looking straight ahead.\u00a0 I had been watching the Oympics on TV the day before and I remember thinking (as I completed my dismount) I could be a competitor. A woman in a station wagon saw the whole thing.\u00a0 She rolled down her window and I half expected to see a sign with a 10 on it (like they do at the Olympics).\u00a0\u00a0“Are you okay?” she asked.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered.\u00a0 “I’m a gymnast and I’m practicing.”\u00a0\u00a0The window went up and she disappeared.<\/p>\n

I loved the looks of the TL.\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, the carbon fiber was faux, but I didn’t care.\u00a0 In those days I was running a factory that made carbon fiber aircraft stuff and I never understood the attraction.\u00a0 Even with fake carbon fiber, the TL was a motorcycle that looked fast.\u00a0 And it was.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Serious miles were easy on the TL1000S.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Suzuki only made the TL for a few years.\u00a0 Some guy in the UK killed himself in a speed wobble, the bike got an Internet rep as a tank slapper, and that killed sales worldwide.\u00a0 Suzuki had a recall to add a steering damper, but the damage had been done.\u00a0 Bert’s installed the damper on my TL, I couldn’t feel any difference , and my bike never went into a wobble (either before or after the recall).\u00a0 My hypothesis is that the UK guy rolled on too much throttle exiting a corner, lifting the front wheel with the bike leaned over.\u00a0 That will induce a wobble, you know.\u00a0 There was another recall to fix the low speed stalling issue.\u00a0 I guess it worked; my bike never had a low speed stall after that.<\/p>\n

Suzuki offered a more radical fully-faired version called the TL1000R (I didn’t like its looks), but the TL-R didn’t survive, either.\u00a0 The engine, however, proved to be a winner.\u00a0 Today, 25 years later, a detuned version is still soldiering on in the ADV-styled V-Strom.\u00a0 I never owned a V-Strom, but I should have.\u00a0 Everybody I ever talked to who owned one loved the V-Strom.\u00a0 Me, I loved my TL.<\/p>\n

\n

Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

\n