GT650R, Waiting

Speaking of ATK, Frank White informed me this evening that a shiny red GT650R sportbike is waiting for me to pick up at Orange County Harley-Davidson.

I actually had a fantastic idea, which was to see if I could get hold of a Suzuki SV650RS to test alongside the GT. After all, Hysosung, the original manufacturer of the GT650R, have had a long-standing and close relationship with Suzuki. Even though the GT is not a Suzuki design, but rather a natively-created Hyposung bike, I thought a comparison between the products of these sister companies would be quite interesting to experience, and write about. Sadly, Suzuki’s PR guys in Brea told me that, since the SV is not a current model, they don’t have access to one to loan me.

But, all may not be lost. First, I asked Suzuki if they had a GSX1250FA sitting around. I’d really like to write up a test of what seems, on paper, to be a lighter and torquier (torque-ier? Torqier?) alternative to the big sport-tourers.  We’ll see how that goes. Second, Hell For Leather’s Wes Siler has indicated he might be able to scrape up an SV from somewhere. Again, we’ll see how that goes.

In any event, I’ll be heading up to Orange County Harley-Davidson sometime this week to pick up the test bike. And then, I guess we’ll see how that goes, too.