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Difference between revisions of "Suzuki Katana"
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The design team of the Katana was the southern Bavarian firm of [http://www.target-design.com Target Design] and consisted of Hans Muth, Jan Fellstrom and Hans-Georg Kasten; Muth is still active in the motorcycle industry, building custom motorcycles under his own name, as well as have done design work for the likes of BMW motorcycles (such as the R90S, R100, R35 and R65 models) among others and the original BMW 2002 model. | The design team of the Katana was the southern Bavarian firm of [http://www.target-design.com Target Design] and consisted of Hans Muth, Jan Fellstrom and Hans-Georg Kasten; Muth is still active in the motorcycle industry, building custom motorcycles under his own name, as well as have done design work for the likes of BMW motorcycles (such as the R90S, R100, R35 and R65 models) among others and the original BMW 2002 model. | ||
The Katana design was a radical departure from the production designs at that time, incorporating the forward nose and a shaped, blended fuel tank with a merged fuel tank-to-seat arrangement at a time when squared off fuel tanks and flat-faced fairings were the norm. The design also incorporates favorable aerodynamics, with emphasis placed on high-speed stability. The same generalized design had already been used in 1979 for a one-off MV Augusta from the same design team, but which never saw production (source: Target Design). When the first production Katana hit the street, it was the fastest mass-production motorcycle on the planet, ensuring the new looks were matched by unprecedented performance levels. So radical was the design departure from previous mass-market cycles that most major motorcycle magazines of the era thought the design wouldn’t fly and that it wouldn’t appeal to the masses. So little they knew — by the mid 1980’s, all the Japanese powerhouses were trying to copy the design to some degree or other, and it can be seen in such bikes as the ‘85 [[Kawasaki motorcycles|Kawasaki]] GPZ 1100. Portions of the design ethos are still visible in some current motorcycles. | The Katana design was a radical departure from the production designs at that time, incorporating the forward nose and a shaped, blended fuel tank with a merged fuel tank-to-seat arrangement at a time when squared off fuel tanks and flat-faced fairings were the norm. The design also incorporates favorable [[aerodynamics]], with emphasis placed on high-speed stability. The same generalized design had already been used in 1979 for a one-off MV Augusta from the same design team, but which never saw production (source: Target Design). When the first production Katana hit the street, it was the fastest mass-production motorcycle on the planet, ensuring the new looks were matched by unprecedented performance levels. So radical was the design departure from previous mass-market cycles that most major motorcycle magazines of the era thought the design wouldn’t fly and that it wouldn’t appeal to the masses. So little they knew — by the mid 1980’s, all the Japanese powerhouses were trying to copy the design to some degree or other, and it can be seen in such bikes as the ‘85 [[Kawasaki motorcycles|Kawasaki]] GPZ 1100. Portions of the design ethos are still visible in some current motorcycles. | ||
This original design was a 650cc model called the ED-1 (European Design 1). | This original design was a 650cc model called the ED-1 (European Design 1). | ||