There’s never been a shortage of Suzuki Katana specials since the radical style of the GSX1100 first appeared in 1980. The factory themselves produced the GSX1000SZ in homologation quantities for superbike racing and a small number of specials to race in New Zealand and Australia. Meanwhile racers modified their own bikes for the grid and the drag strip.
This Suzuki Katana was built to race in the 2014 Spa Classic Endurance event, but the end result is something between race practicality and a bespoke special. We’re fans of Spa, and so is friend of the website and Visorvision main main Paul Berryman. So it’s not surprising that a club racer and Haslam race school instructor might be tempted for some track action – or that our own Scottie ended up involved in supplying the original Suzuki GX1100EZ used, and various bits of helpful advice for cost-effective parts to meet the race regulations.
Despite only starting the project after a trip to the 2013 Spa event, Paul’s been carefully documenting his labour of love on his Katblog!, including a handy list of the parts, suppliers and people who have helped him on the build.
And while you might question the choice of a white seat, you can’t deny Paul’s attention to detail, which shines brighter than the powerful headlamp. The anodised fork legs, the time spent finding the ideal wheels and brakes (the best solution turned out to be Brembo calipers from a Honda NTV650V Deauville!), and plenty of other bits. It’s well worth reading the whole process from start to finish – with the risk that you might start contemplating your own classic racer.
What’s particularly brilliant is that Paul admits upfront that he wasn’t even a fan of the big Suzuki until very recently, which meant he was learning effectively from scratch about a new bike to him. And he’s also refreshingly self-critical and able to admit to the type of dilemmas and mistakes frequently encountered when you’re building some different. Go and check out the Project Spa Katana to find out if he eventually made it to Belgium, and why he’s now so attached to the bike he’s more worried about risking any damage than winning anything…
And if you want more classic Suzuki specials, check out this Suzuki GSX1100ET special we featured a while back. Or the history of the Suzuki GS1000 which preceded the Katana.
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