We’ve just come back from the launch of the Suzuki GSX-S1000 GX in Portugal, which may or may not have involved eating copious amounts of pastel de nata pastries. While perhaps lacking a little in character compared to other road-biased adventure tourers, the GX is impressive overall, particularly in terms of value - you get a lot of tech for the £14,449 asking price.
That’s still a chunky figure for a lot of bikers, though. And if you’re not bothered about the enormously complex semi-active suspension system and its extra travel, you can buy the mechanically very similar GSX-S1000 GT for a lot less.
How much less? Well, the general starting point for a GT is £10,000, so still quite a lot of money, owing to the fact the bike hasn’t been around long enough for serious depreciation to take hold. We did manage to find an outlier, though, in the form of the Glass Sparkle Black example pictured here. It’s £7,995, which makes it only a little more than half the price of a brand, spanking GX.
The reason it’s cheaper is the mileage - despite only being registered in April 2022, the original owner managed to clock nearly 20,000 miles. That’s heroic mileage for a motorcycle in such a short amount of time, confirming the GT’s touring credentials.
As a reminder, the bike uses Suzuki's same twin-spar aluminium frame as the GX and the GSX-S1000 super naked, along with the legendary ‘K5’ 999cc inline-four found in both of those bikes. Named after the K5-generation GSX-R1000, it’s an icon of superbike lore, and while not exactly the freshest engine, it still thrills in 2023, putting out 150bhp and 11,000rpm.
That engine and frame combination are packaged in a fully faired, reasonably traditional sports tourer setting, albeit with a one-piece handlebar featuring a slight rise, so you shouldn’t get backache after a long jaunt.
Tempted?
