Is the New Suzuki Katana Motociclismo’s Concept?

Is the new Suzuki Katana Motociclismo's concept? 1

The newest Suzuki Katana teaser shows a fuel tank that’s way too similar to the one Italian magazine Motociclismo revealed last year

Suzuki delivers the third installment of their upcoming Katana teaser, but this time we get a glimpse of the bike’s fuel tank.  Not too much to gaze upon, as Hamamatsu is still secretive to the point of being annoying, but all will be over soon at the beginning of October, at Intermot in Cologne, where Suzuki is set to reveal the new machine.

Even so, the lines of that tank bear a strange and strong similarity to the concept the Italian magazine Motociclismo built and took to the road this year. Taking a closer look at the picture of the Italian Suzuki concept and the Youtube video, it’s easy to figure out why so many people are convinced that the bike Motociclismo showed is the upcoming Katana.

A conclusion in full certainty is, of course, premature, but the two tanks are undeniably almost identical, at least as far as the skimpy teaser reveals. Suzuki relying on Italian designers for their Katana revival is not a far-fetched idea, anyway. Suzuki has a strong presence in Italy, with their MotoGP operations, and using local resources for a new Katana wouldn’t be surprising at all.

New Katana.png

However, we doubt that Suzuki will go to such lengths to tease a bike that’s been already showed at the beginning of the year. Hence we might assume that there will be changes made to Motociclismo’s concept, albeit the similarities between the two reach a point where the front section of the seat in the video looks the same with that of the concept.

Is Suzuki only using parts of the concept? Maybe. But we dare say that the looks of the new Katana will be rather close to those of the Motociclismo machine. The Italian Katana has decent amount of retro vibe, and this may be exactly what Suzuki is after. A new bike using modern technology and sporting lines that hark back to the days of yore is what pretty much all the other manufacturers have been making in the past years.

As to the platform that will be used, this is still a mystery. Most rumors indicate a GSX-R1000-based bike, even though there are voices that also include “hyperbike” in the equation, as well as a turbocharged version derived from the Recursion concept.

We just wonder how many teasers Suzuki has in store ahead of Intermot. Kawasaki played this card really well before launching the Ninja H2 and H2R…

READ MORE on Suzuki motorcycles: Are we in for a new Hayabusa?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *