2020 Suzuki Katana Arriving November 2019

The Katana has landed. Or rather, we've finally received the highly-anticipated official date of its arrival from Suzuki, along with the announcement of an additional color as well as that all-important MSRP. As it stands, the new Katana will hit US shores this November and cost $13,499. You can request one in either solid black or the throwback metallic silver we saw when Suzuki first broke news of the neo Katana way back in 2018.

Yes, it's been almost a year since that first announcement, and now that we've plowed through months of vague pronouncements and even a first ride on the retro re-invention there's finally a glimmer of hope for US customers. Our brief dalliance with the heritage-based redo resulted in a deep dive of the genesis of said model as well as the inner workings, so we won't bore you with the details yet again. Suffice it say that it had our man Jones literally fawning over the Katana 2.0's beastly—and widely respected—K5 engine. The 999cc inline four-cylinder powerplant with six-speed transmission is poached right from the 2005–2008 era GSX-R1000 (and can also be seen in the current GSX 1000), and comes with a claimed 147hp and 80 pound-feet of torque —enough to give any modern-day open-class streetbike a run for the money. And did we mention the reinvented front fairing, square headlight, angular bodywork, upright ergos and sexy lines?

Being an essentially restyled GSX-S1000 (which we haven’t seen in the 2020 lineup as yet), the Katana has technical specs that are mostly the same as that bike’s, with the long-stroke GSX-R1000 mill, twin-spar lightweight aluminum frame, and a Superbike-type braced swingarm sourced from the 2016 GSX-R1K, all rolling on a wide 190mm rear tire and six-spoke cast aluminum wheels.

As we said, the new 2020 Katana will officially arrive on American soil in two color schemes: a new Solid Black along with the Metallic Mystic Silver color that matches the look of the original 1982 version, and will be available in dealers November 2019 at a price of $13,499.