Any hope that Suzuki’s new-for-2017 GSX-R1000 would herald a new 2018 GSX-R600 and 750 appears to have been dashed. The firm has just certified its existing 600cc and 750cc sports bikes to be sold for another year in America.
In Europe, both the GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 are allowed to be sold only under derogation rules. They don’t meet the Euro 4 emissions rules or feature the now-mandatory ABS brakes that are supposed to be fitted to all bikes over 125cc. Only by getting special permission, aimed at allowing firms to dispose of existing stocks, can they remain on sale.
In previous generations, the launch of a new GSX-R1000 has pre-empted the reveal of updated versions of the GSX-R600 and 750 the following year. So with the new 2017 GSX-R1000 hitting dealers you might have expected its smaller sisters to be next in line for a revamp.
But now documents published by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the 2018 GSX-R600 and GSX-R750. They appear to show that the 2018-spec, American market GSX-R600 and 750 will be identical to their predecessors.
While there’s no absolute guarantee that the styling or suspension won’t be altered, the documents show that the engines are unchanged. That makes other alterations extremely unlikely, as the engines are the biggest barrier to Euro 4 compliance. According to CARB, the bikes’ hydrocarbon and CO emissions are unchanged for 2018 compared to 2017, proving there have been no tweaks to the engines.
In Europe the derogation rules allow up to two years to sell old stocks. So Suzuki is allowed to keep the old bikes in showrooms until the end of 2018 provided it doesn’t exceed certain limits on how many are sold. That means any new mid-sized GSX-R isn’t likely to appear before the 2019 model year.
Suzuki is understood to be keen to keep the GSX-R flame alive, particularly in the 750cc form that made the name so famous. However, the firm also has many other projects on the go, vying for attention and R&D budget. These include the much-heralded next-generation Hayabusa and the turbocharged, twin-cylinder Recursion. Both are expected to be revealed as 2018 models later this year, pushing back the window for launching any additional GSX-R models back to the following year.
