Pics by Stefan van der Riet
Bud! That looks so cool! Is it a 750?
That was our security company who came dashing up the driveway because we had set the alarm off getting the bike out of the garage. Security issues forgotten, we went on to have a good long chat about motorcycles and the joys of riding and owning them. And he was also impressed that this is only a 150… “It looks like a real superbike”.
He’s correct, Suzuki dressed this bike in a cool little faring, gave it a modern looking headlight and some flowing lines. It’s a fully-faired Gixxer inspired by Suzuki’s flagship motorcycle, the GSX-R1000R.
That’s the kind of thing that young riders want. Were I a teenager again – this bike would need to be in our garage.
The red detailing on the black mags and rear shock is so cool, the digital display is proper… what’s not to like?
The little Gixxer is Powered by Suzuki’s 155cc air-and-oil cooled four stroke engine. It’s certainly no race machine, but it is a pretty comfortable, fun to ride commuter.
And did we mention that it looks great?
We used the bike for more than a week on our usual routes to visit customers, commute to the shops and all sorts – and what we found pretty interesting is that -although we had more exotic, big capacity bikes in our garage, the guys just enjoyed the simplicity of riding the Gixxer.
When Donovan from The Bike Show suggested that we pit the Gixxer against another electric bike that we had at the time in a commuter feature for TV, we joined the fun and spent a lekker afternoon hooning around – you can watch that on The Bike Show, but we did fill the tank to the brim, rode about 40 KM’s (Top speed is just over 100kph with a big guy in the saddle), filled it up with less that twenty bucks and worked out that she runs at roughly 46c to a kilometer.
That’s not bad at all.
According to Suzuki, the air-cooled, EFI, 155 cc engine mated to a 5-speed gearbox has a fuel economy rated at 50.2 kilometers per litre. We believe them!
As you’d expect from Suzuki, the chassis components are up to the task, handling and braking is excellent for a little bike like this – and the relatively long wheelbase ensures that things all point in the direction that they should. Clip-on handlebar, full-LED headlight, LED tail light, Bybre disc brakes for both the front and rear (non-ABS) and a digital panel gauge.
She’s a little bit crouchy in the comfort department, but not overly so – we each spent a lot of time on this saddle and had no complaints or untoward aches and pains.
She’s light, nimble, narrow enough to filter through the traffic and really good fun to commute with in the burbs and urban traffic.
It’s almost a shame that so many of these machines are fitted with boxes and used as commercial bikes… A bike that looks this cool deserves more.
It will cost you just on 44k. It comes with a 2-year unlimited mileage warranty.
