Suzuki RF600

The early RF600 was on offer for 1600 quid in a private deal. I was expecting a bit of a wreck, a four year old bike with 48000 miles under its wheels. Turned out to only have one owner who'd done a lot of touring but had a great deal of respect for the machine. He reckoned he'd never been over a 100mph. As the RF600 had a potential top speed not far short of 150mph, I figured I was in for the bargain of century. Not that it stopped me offering 1200 notes. Rock bottom price, for cash, there and then, turned out to be 1500 sovs. I went for it before someone else turned up with a better offer.

Except for the latest GSXR series, Suzuki had lost their styling edge when applied to the plastic swathed fours, all manner of mediocre machinery on offer, admittedly at bargain prices compared to rival Jap's. Only with the naked Bandit series did they manage to break the stranglehold of Honda on the motorcycle marketplace. That means that bikes like the RF are available really cheaply on the used bike circuit.

Okay, the RF600's not cutting edge but it's not that far off. Packing close to a 100 horses from its watercooled four cylinder engine into a chassis that weighs in at a reasonable 430lbs. Sitting on the bike, first impressions were of excessive girth and a heavy feel on the bars, that didn't magically disappear once underway. Despite the mildness of the styling, the RF needed some serious revs to shift off rapidly from a standing start but throttle madness was aided by a nicely slick gearbox, the like of which I'd never come across before. Get seven grand on the tacho, power exploded out of the motor and acceleration was close to causing a blackout. A bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing was my first impression, then, something which time did little to diminish.

Many thought the plastic ugly but at least it provided a useful amount of high speed protection. Not up to a Goldwing, maybe, but I could glide through a rainstorm at 100mph on the motorway, wearing fairly minimal motorcycle clothing. As usual, the screen could have been higher but the crouch wasn't that uncomfortable and I even managed half an hour at an indicated 150mph on a German autobahn.

At such velocities the wheels wander about a little and it doesn't feel too solidly planted on the tarmac. A different motorcycle emerges at speeds below 130mph, when the steering feels like it's able to cope with the end of the world and I have no qualms about shooting along some quite rough roads. The suspension, still stock, soaks up most of the bumps and can take on some quite deep pot-holes without throwing the machine into a trauma. In 17000 miles I never came close to experiencing the dreaded speed wobble.

Handling wasn't exactly light, but that was a reasonable price to pay for the generally reassuring stability on Metz tyres (about 6000 miles a set). A bit of muscle went a long way through the tighter bends, ground clearance occasionally stopping me from getting the tyres down on their edges - mostly when the suspension was under attack from some bumps. I had absolutely no trouble taking my friend on a Z1000 (my foot action on the gearchange was, admittedly, blurred), could whip the 400 replica's but had trouble with the hotter 600's when they were ridden by someone who'd left their brains at home. Given that my comfort levels were much greater than most, and that the RF was a highly versatile machine, I could find little to complain about.

Well, there was the braking. The past owner had warned me that the discs could be a bit temperamental in the wet. The calipers were well worn which explained much of their nastiness. I kept phoning up breakers until one admitted to having a low mileage if crashed RF he was stripping down. I hurried along, bought a complete set of calipers for sixty notes.

Along with Goodridge hose and Ferodo pads, these got the brakes working in a predictable manner but hammering on the stoppers from 130mph-plus speeds didn't offer profound braking. A few times I had to deal with errant cars on the autobahn (usually with UK plates - surprise, surprise), the retardation wasn't sufficient to get me out of trouble, had to put in a desperate body shuffle to get us on to a safe trajectory. A brief blast on a new RF revealed the same problem; using the brakes on a GSXR750 for the first time almost threw me over the handlebars - so I wasn't imagining things. Of course, if you never go over 100mph it probably wouldn't be a problem.

As well as the brakes I found the lighting wasn't really up to spec. Fine if you were going to potter along but given the bike's blistering speed potential, I found night work quite precarious. I mentioned this to a fellow RF owner who had a bit of a shaking fit. He'd tried a higher powered front light only to have his electrical system go into melt-down! All the old GS series electrical nastiness is still there in the RF if you try to overload the system with non-standard components. I put up with the poor high speed illumination rather than risk setting alight a machine that I had a lot of time for.

One breaker I visited, looking for a new lower fairing as the old one had cracked up - it was a difficult bugger to put back on - showed me the remains of a '94 RF that had caught alight. The melted plastic was deeply impacted into the engine alloy! The only likely good parts, the internal engine components. He also warned me that my future was likely to be blighted by rotting insulation on the wiring. Less than reassured, I left with an armful of plastic (from another RF, I hasten to add).

The plastic has to come off for engine maintenance every 5000 miles - valves, carb balance and engine oil change. I saved a bit of money by stripping the stuff off the bike, draining the oil and getting it ready for the local mechanic to do the business - forty quid rather than ninety. A reflection of the hassle involved in fitting the fairing back on.

The only time I had any trouble from the engine was when it kept cutting down on to three cylinders. Mostly in the wet but sometimes in the dry. All kinds of disaster scenarios ran through my mind, but talking to several RF owners (there are quite a lot of us around, y'know) revealed that it was best to change the spark plugs every 10,000 miles. That done, running returned to its smooth, civilised yet immensely powerful norm.

Those who need to impress with macho looks will not have much luck with the RF. As to the rest of the game - power, speed, handling, etc - it has lots going for it and must be the cheapest hardcore 600 on offer on the used circuit. Even dealers are flogging them off dead cheap. One nice point, such is their lack of reputation that there's no real downside to racing the more prestigious tackle - if you lose that's expected, if you win you're a real hero. I use my RF for everything - commuting, autobahn cruising and back road hustling and my only real complaints are a lack of braking and lighting. One of the great bargains.

F.G.