Last time I bought a motorcycle sight unseen, it wasn’t fantastic. In fact it was the single sketchiest motorcycle ride of my life, thanks to that bike’s myriad problems — dead bearings, old tires, a shot battery, and plenty more. So, to replace that GS, I decided to do exactly the same thing: Buy another motorcycle sight unseen and ride it back home, only this time I did it in sub-freezing temperatures. Two hours, from north-central Jersey. At sunset. Look, no one ever said I was smart.
This time, though, I did things a little smarter than the last GS. Realistically, it was more like the prior GS — a new (or nearly new) bike, purchased from a dealer, needing nothing but a phone mount and a license plate. My shiny new-to-me GSX-8R came with just 1,000 miles on the clock, and it’s almost perfect. Almost.
I promised earlier this year to ride through the winter, but I admit I haven’t kept up with that as well as I would’ve liked. My GS’s lithium battery succumbed to the New York cold a bit ago, and I didn’t get a chance to charge it back up before that bike left my life. Knowing that riding the Suzuki home from Jersey would be a frosty endeavor, I geared up in all the kit from that blog for warmth — only to find that it didn’t all actually play nice together. I had to ration my wires, which meant only my torso and hands got heat for the trip.
Luckily, the fairing did a fair job of sheltering my lower body from highway winds. Unluckily, my feet still ended up freezing for most of the trip. Maybe I should’ve bought those Gore-Tex boots that have been staring at me from my RevZilla wish list. You live and you learn.
Reviewers have called the GSX-8R a compact sport tourer, so this ride was my chance to put that to the test. The verdict: It’s not bad! I expected the lack of a tall windscreen, like my GS had, to make hours of highway insufferable, but I was proven wrong. The 8R’s low fairing directed wind at my chest, leaving my helmet in clean air. I forgot to put in my earplugs, and my ears barely rang by the time I got home. I’m taking this as a sign of good aerodynamics, and not an ill portent of my own worsening hearing.
The riding position, while not as tucked as pure supersports, is still noticeably more hunched-over than my old GS. It’s not bad, but I’m definitely going to have to dial in the lever position — they’re a little high up right now, leaving my wrists bent oddly. Overall the ergonomics are sportier than a sport-tourer but tourier than a sportbike. That sounds just about ideal for a city runabout that I’m hoping to take to the track.
Speaking of track use, this engine will be fantastic for that. It’s an 800-ish cc parallel twin, like my GS, and it makes similar power on paper to that bike. Here, though, the 270-degree crank makes the bike feel torquier, more eager to get up and go than the BMW was. I’m sure the 50-lb weight savings doesn’t hurt either.
It will, though, need some adjustments for the track. Right now the bike is wearing some Suzuki-branded cosmetic appliques on the tank, and they’re just about the most slippery objects I’ve ever encountered. Once the weather warms up, I’ll be pulling those off and replacing them with proper tank grips. The bike also desperately needs a tail tidy, which I intend to do once my finances recover from actually buying the thing. Motorcycles should be free, I think.
After two hours of sunset-into-nighttime riding in temps that started at 33 degrees and dropped from there, I should’ve been desperate to get off the bike. Yet, by the time I reached my Brooklyn block, I considered giving it a lap just to get a few more minutes in the saddle. This GSX-8R works for me, and it’ll only work better once I take some tools and parts to it and make it my own. Sometimes, buying a bike sight unseen is good.
