Suzuki Madura 1200

[fltinstructor]

Has anyone on the forum had any experience to own, see, or run against one. It was supposed to be Suzuki's answer to the Vmax and Honda's V65. There is one locally, a project, for sale at $750. It has a butt ugly taillight!!

 

[texas-ss-tornado]

I test rode one a few years back and wasn't impressed. It had a "buzzing" vibration in the bars that I just couldn't get past, along with those notoriously ugly spoked wheels. Did some research and came to find out that since Honda have a patent on the V4 configuration at 90 degrees, Suzuki had to use something like 86 degrees instead, which throws off the internal balancing. I think they tried to disguise it with rubber motor mounts, but it was definitely noticable in my test ride. Just not as smooth as a V65 or VMAX, and in most of the muscle bike shootouts in the day, it usually came in 3rd or 4th, depending on who was judging that day. Just a good idea that didn't really work out well for Suzuki. I also know that parts are EXTREMELY hard to find, and resale value isn't very high at all, you can find nice ones in the 2K range all day long. I personally just think they are butt ugly, and unless somebody is giving one away for dirt cheap, I wouldn't even consider one!!!!

 

[VMax-Mike]

I think the tail light would look alot better if it was removed. Thats one ugly bike.

 

[maxcruiser]

There's two of these up my way. A lady owns one and it is in mint condition with less than 10,000kms. I talked with the guy that owns the other one. His is in decent shape and he thought he could kick my Vmax's ass with it, so we went against each other and he was wrong. From take off to 100mph, he was behind me. before I let off, he was atleast 6 to 8 bike lengths behind.

Mike

 

[cgswss]

When I was Racing Suzukis the Dealership had a few. They didn't sell well at all. They were supposed to be 11.50 bikes but a good 750 could beat them at the strip. Most of the ones the Dealership sold where sold after they were discontinued- like '85 bikes in '87 type of thing. I never worked on one (I only did major work on inline 4s- but the guys that did hated the bikes and that rubbed off on the sales guys. They had hydraulic-lifters and a self-adjusting clutch. They had a mono shock which made the handeling very poor (comfortable on Woodward but don't try to keep up when the road got twisty). as I remember they had forward set pegs which I was very uncomfortable with.

I had a guy on one try to race my street bike once. He wasn't very good at launching so we did a 10 mph roll on. I let him call it so he got a big jump, but I passed him before I shifted into second. I pulled him so bad that he shut off very early and when I talked to him a week later he told me he wasn't really racing, he just wanted to see my bike go.

I haven't seen any on the street for a long time. If I got one, I would never ride it hard because your not going to find parts like you can for the MAX

 

[dwarf717]

he was atleast 6 to 8 bike lengths behind.
Mike

Your Max needs some serious tuning

 

[fltinstructor]

There's two of these up my way. A lady owns one and it is in mint condition with less than 10,000kms. I talked with the guy that owns the other one. His is in decent shape and he thought he could kick my Vmax's ass with it, so we went against each other and he was wrong. From take off to 100mph, he was behind me. before I let off, he was atleast 6 to 8 bike lengths behind.

Most of the info I've read about them claim they are high 11 second bikes. I did hear a U-Tube on one running. It didn't sound too bad.

Mike

Your Max needs some serious tuning

That's what I was thinking. :ummm:

 

[maxcruiser]

That's what I was thinking. :ummm:

Seriously? How bad do you need to beat a guy? Do you think I was pounding my max to beat him in the first place?

 

[maxcruiser]

Your Max needs some serious tuning

Or maybe i need you to show me how to ride it :rofl_200:

 

[marsmax85]

I thought the gs 1150 was compared to the max back in 85'

 

[rusty]

Suzuki also made something called a Cavalcade. Like the Yamaha Venture:biglaugh:http://www.suzukicycles.org/Cavalcade-series/GV1400-Cavalcade.shtml

 

[reddobie0]

The Suzuki Madura was a cruiser motorcycle sold by Suzuki in 1985 and 1986. It was available with either 1200 cc or 700 cc V4 engines. It was created as a response to Honda's Magna V4 muscle cruiser and was a direct competitor with Yamaha's V-Max power cruiser, also released in 1985

I also thought the GS was their competitor.

 

[frank5079]

I think Suzuki tried to make a muscle bike with the introduction of the GSX1100G....

which really wasn't a bad bike. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark...

 

[cgswss]

When the Madura came out my street bike was a '83 GS1100 ES. Mine shared parts with my Drag bike and had an extended swing arm. in '84 they brought out the GS1150. THis was a totally new bike with a square tube frame and mono shock. They were long but heavy and there was not much that came out of a showroom that could beat them on the street. In '86 they brought out the GSX-R1100. A totally different bike. This was really their 750 road race bike punched out to 1100. It was wonderfully fast, but most guys couldn't get them out of the hole well with the short wheelbase. With all these performance bikes, few customers looked at the Madura as a performance bike. While I heard a lot of customer stories about GS1100 v V-Max, I never heard and Madura vs any bike.

 

[Fire-medic]

I think Suzuki tried to make a muscle bike with the introduction of the GSX1100G....

which really wasn't a bad bike. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark...

Which in-itself was a repop of the GS1100 & GS1150E and ES. The same guy that did the Katana influenced the GS Suzukis, Hans Muth. They are still tearing-up the dragstrips as engine-donors.

Included is a pic of my friend Steve, of Under Pressure, Dania Beach FL prepping an old Vance & Hines Suzuki 1150 engine for its next role as a drag-racing terror at 1700+ cc! B-I-G reliefs for the cylinder and the cylinder will be notched for the conn rod throws.

 

[m-cman]

I bought this exact model in 1985. (GS1150E) Added a Rifle Superbike fairing and took it to the Florida Keys from Dallas, including stops in Clearwater (visit friend), Indiantown (visit relatives) and Everglades City (airboat trip). Great bike. Had it for 6 years with no problems. Should have kept it.

 

[frank5079]

Before I bought my Max, I almost bought a 1994 GSX1100G similar to this one for $2000....

 

[VMAX1260]

I think Suzuki tried to make a muscle bike with the introduction of the GSX1100G....

which really wasn't a bad bike. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark...

my first big bike looked like this ... but it was missing 2 cylinders . it was a decent bike though. i liked it a lot for a first bike