Having managed to cop a load of dosh in a dubious deal and talked my way into a high paying job in the Big Apple, there seemed nothing for it but to buy some extravagant piece of highway insanity. It was about the only way of staying sane in the hectic bustle of New York. As I was allowed to work four twelve hour days and then take a long weekend off, I wanted something fast and furious that would get me away from the polluted city as quickly as possible.
When I saw the GTS I fell for it right away. Don’t ask me why but there are some bikes that gell straight off. It certainly wasn’t because the styling has echoes of the dreadful old Ariel Leader. From certain angles the GTS looks gross, it gets better the further away you stagger and from the seat it's luxury city, much more gloss than gross. The lanky Malone frame suited the riding position well, the tank and seat giving a secure, natural feel whilst pegs and bars were extremely well matched.
This instantly familiar and totally secure riding position meant I could concentrate on whatever idiosyncrasies the hub centre, single sided swinging arm might throw up. The major difficulty with such a set-up is not its engineering but its styling. The UK market, at least, was used to those feet-forward abortions which were in the Morris Marina tradition of British engineering and endowed their owners with such a feeling of security that they invariably seemed to fall off at high speeds.
The truth is that for all its possible engineering impurities, the telescopic front fork combines function with a natural grace in the same way that a Harley V-twin engine combines function and style. The best front forks are so good that the twisting, sticking and diving problems that are supposed to afflict the breed have in reality been engineered out. To make sense, any alternative would have to be cheaper, lighter and more attractive.
The GTS fails on all three counts. That's not to say it doesn’t work, because it functions jolly well for most of the time, especially as the poor overall design has pushed the mass to 540lbs (dry), which it contrives to hide well. The Omega frame concept is the kind of abortion beloved of the feet-forward brigade and negates most of the engineering sense that might have resulted from using an alternative front end.
One of the major advantages of the GTS's single sided swinging arm out front is that it feeds all the road shocks directly into the frame without the worry of having a massively braced steering head miles away from the action. Rather than design the engine to take both front and rear swinging arm mounts, Yamaha have produced what are in effect two massive engine plates to pick up all mounting points that should, in the first place, have been designed into the engine's crankcases. A pretty strange thing to do but then the Japanese are an odd lot.
Moving off on this massive piece of engineering, the first revelation is that steering is so heavy it'd give Panther thumper owners pause for thought. The steering effort is relayed by a couple of ball-joints which lacks the directness of conventional front forks. It's not a bad steering bike, but it does need a hell of a lot of attention for the first couple of weeks until the necessary moves soak into the brain.
Around New York the GTS floated like a great big whale and stung like a Panzer tank. Well, that’s how it felt on ultra wide Dunlop radials that preferred a straight ahead pose to anything else, combined with the riding position and solidly planted feel, warped my mind so much I felt like I could ride through irritating automobiles. a With a 59 inch wheelbase and excessive mass, it wasn’t the kind of bike that would bop through tiny gaps in traffic. On the crowded expressways, the impressive front end of the GTS rearing down on drivers, the cars actually veered out of the path I was trying to cut between them.
Holding the bike on the throttle in second, with minimal revs, there was no graunching from the transmission and a complete lack of vibes (something that was replicated right through the rev range). After I'd become used to the effort needed, running around the city I became enamoured of the way the GTS would run straight through pot-holes, concrete bandings and large bumps like a train on rails. Here, the separation of steering and suspension came to the fore, the bars staying steady in my hands whilst the single front shock worked frantically to absorb the road irregularities.
Brief bursts of throttle had the speedo shooting past 70mph before I'd had a chance to blink. 100mph was nothing to this motor. The steering retained its heavy feel but by then, after I'd done a 1000 miles of running in, I had adapted to the machine and everything had become second nature, The bike never became tiring even when restricted to the daily commuting session, down to one of the best riding positions in the business.
The motive power comes from a de-tuned FZR1000 mill. The GTS unit has lowered compression ratio and milder camshafts, as well as the added complexity of fuel injection. With water-cooling and five valves per cylinder it was the kind of complex unit that you just didn’t want to touch. The only thing to do if it broke down by the roadside was to summon a rescue vehicle. That's unlikely to happen, though, the FZR engine has proved extremely tough and, in its de-tuned state, likely to go all the way around the clock.
The extremely short stroke (75.5x56mm) DOHC engine developed 100 horses at 9000 revs and 75ibft at.6500rpm (the FZR develops more power and less torque, both at 1000rpm higher). The engine pulls reasonably from tickover, but the real power is in the 2500 to 8000rpm range. It’s possible to rev to ten grand in second or third but it’s really a waste of time. Faster progress is obtained by changing up between 7000 and 8000 revs, when the surge of torque is so hefty that it’s body warping.
In the States, speed testing motorcycles is frowned upon. Very few of the cages do more than 70mph, even.on near deserted freeways and every time I went over the ton I stood out like a sore thumb, feeling like there was a big arrow pointing at us. I tended to take the GTS off the main routes, using the older roads, with their long straights and neglected road surfaces. I'd ridden them before on the Norton, but the sophisticated suspension changed the character of the roads, from a back breaking experience to a smooth, secure feel that had me playing silly games with the speedo.
The five speed gearbox was mostly redundant once out of town, it was dead easy to dump in fifth, just using the compulsive torque of the motor to blitz away the miles. Top speed was around 150mph, although that was hard to achieve, needing a couple of miles of straight road. It'd hold 130mph come what may and go to 140mph without too much trouble.
At these insane speeds, the GTS was very securely planted on the tarmac even over road surfaces so nasty that many a bike would be thrown into wobbles at a mere 70mph. I was even tempted to lose my misgivings over its massive bulk, as this was surely aiding the way it stuck to the road at excessive speeds; it'd be interesting to see how the bike would run on the same front suspension if it weighed 150lbs less.
The front end never lost its slightly vague feel, there was a remoteness between the tyre’s interaction with the tarmac and the bars that could leave me wondering when, or if, the tyre was going to let loose. The large section radials on 17 inch wheels had prodigious grip that combined with excessive clearance and the lack of weaves and wobbles, allowed me to lean over at crazy angles for what was reputedly a sports tourer.
As in town, it wasn't the kind of machine that you daydream on, especially when running through fast corners. On a neutral throttle it'd try to run on to the other side of the road, needing a bit of counter-steering or body movement to keep it on line. Backing off the throttle didn’t help and charging out of bends on the throttle needed quite a lot of effort on the bars to keep the steed under control. However, because its reactions were entirely predictable, after a time the high speed idiosyncrasies faded into the background. Someone taking one for a short test tide might well end up with dirty underwear.
High speed riding was made all the more fun by the excellent fairing that defied its lack of excess by giving good protection. The faster I went the better it worked, the screen perfectly placed to put a 100mph breeze or bout of rain over the top of my helmet. There was certainly no need to put my head in the excellent clocks and the rain swirled past my visor, not needing constant cleaning.
Out in the backwoods I tied the helmet down on the pillion perch and rode helmetless for half an hour. With just shades for protection I felt quite capable of coasting along at 100mph with none of the glass warping effect found on a naked bike, just a great rustling of clean air through my hair. I bumbled past a cop lounging against his patrol car, left him gawping as I put 120mph on the clock to make sure he wasn’t going to catch up.
I had a few other encounters with the pigs. On one occasion I had two cop cars on my tail and had to do 145mph to see them off. Under that kind of duress, when the bike has to be cut and thrust through the bends like an RD350LC, the GTS turned out quite surprising. The adrenalin high of the chase had my muscles all pumped up which helped me throw the whale from side to side. It was damn hard work but the suspension never seemed to tie itself up in knots, although the roads were three or four cars wide and I had to use the whole width of the highway to power through.
I eventually lost the two cars by slamming on the brakes and shooting down a tiny track that was barely able to take a car. The surface was loose gravel which the front wheel scrunched over, leaving me at a complete loss as to what-it was going to do. Which was how I ended up almost breaking a leg when it suddenly let loose. Trying to hold up nigh on 600lbs of metal as the front wheel slides from under you sure sorts the men from the boys. I saved the bugger and had to proceed at 5mph in first with the clutch fully home, both feet skimming along the gravel.
The track turned into a very minor road with a proper surface but it wound back and forth on itself. The GTS was not very happy, the front end seeming to lock up solid as I tried to heel the bike over sharply at 10mph. It was a weird sensation, not having the faintest idea what the front end was going to do and how far the bike was off flopping over. I had to put my foot down twice to save the plot from an expensive meeting with the hard tarmac. The brakes at low speed were incredibly powerful but the front single disc was rather remote, only when more than 50mph was achieved did I begin to feel more secure with its action. It's a massive 12.5 inch single disc with a high tech six piston caliper.
I didn’t miss the lack of twin discs, something made impossible by the single sided swinging arm and hub steering, for there was never a hint of fade or lack of power despite the excessive speeds and mass. The remoteness of the front tyre in the wet meant it was hard to tell how close the disc was to locking up the front wheel, something emphasized by the natural anti-dive properties of the front suspension. I certainly would not like to have to brake harshly and change direction in a fast, wet bend but, on the other hand, I never fell off despite rather a lot of highway madness.
Comfort was brilliant on the GTS, even after a full day in the saddle I was keen for more. Sometimes I'd head for home and decide to extend the run for another couple of hundred miles just for the sheer kick of it. About the only thing that was able to drag me off the GTS, was a sublimely beautiful American woman who I'd somehow scored.
She found the pillion comfortable for about a 150 miles then started squirming around, complaining about cramped legs and a dead bum. Range was about 150 miles at around 40mpg (corrected for UK gallons), the lower state of tune and fuel injection not doing very much for fuel efficiency. I felt I could've done 500 miles in one sitting and after a mere 150 miles of fun and games felt like I'd just leapt out of my favourite armchair!
I was initially attracted by the GTS's lines and after 4000 miles have come to a deeper appreciation of the machine. Sure, it's way too heavy, hasn't been designed as a whole and isn't the fastest piece of kit in the but on the road it has massive power exactly where you need it, superb comfort and enough high-tech features to stay ahead of the game for a few years. I bought mine with 200 miles on the clock, expect the ultra-tough motor to go for ages without serious maintenance and look forward to some really crazed riding in the states.
Johnny Malone