2008 Suzuki B-King - First Look

Since we first laid eyes on the Suzuki B-King concept bike at its 2001 Tokyo Motor Show debut, we've been wondering if the bike would ever make it to the end of an actual production line. Well that time has finally arrived—the B-King lives!

While attending the 2007 GSX-R1000 press introduction at Phillip Island in Australia, Suzuki officials decided it was as good a time as any to spring a little surprise on attending journalists. Our group was loaded into a bus with no explanation as to our destination or purpose. We headed out of the pitlane and onto the famed circuit. Within a minute or so our mission was clear. Like fish in an aquarium, we were pressed against the glass of the bus as a pair of real live Suzuki B-Kings swept around the outside of us through PI's Southern Loop.

Details on this much-hyped motorcycle were still suppressed by our Suzuki hosts, but the bike does closely resemble the showbike that raised our temperatures in the first place, even if, as previously announced, the concept B-bike's turbocharger didn't make the translation. Not to worry: Take the 160-horsepower, torque-monster Hayabusa engine, shove it into a naked chassis fit for a superhero, dress it up as such and you get the B-King. As for the rest of the bike's features, we only know what we can see from photos.

As we pulled back into the pits after an agonizingly slow lap aboard the bus, the bikes had already been hidden under cover and away from prying eyes. Talk about a sneak peek! Actually it was more of a you-better-not-blink-peek. Stay tuned naked-bike freaks; the bike is slated to be an early-release 2008 model. We hope to get more details at the Suzuki dealer show in June. Now that we've seen it in action after six long years, we finally believe it!