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.