Endurance racing has been an essential event for Suzuki. It’s the one place where the Gixxer maker has genuinely shown its mettle, taking home 17 titles in the Endurance World Championship and 18 wins at the Bol d’Or 24-hour race. This makes it one of the most successful names in long-haul racing, and the Japanese giant celebrates the feat often. Doing that yet again, the bikemaker has now whipped up a special SERT edition of its newest naked, the GSX-8S. This also marks the first special edition of the new naked bike since its debut in November 2022.
The Suzuki GSX-8S SERT Edition Adorns A Special Livery
Suzuki has dialed the 8S’ already handsome aesthetics to eleven here with a special body kit. It wraps the naked in red-blue graphics, inspired by the Yoshimura SERT GSX-R1000R race bike. These can be found on the headlight cowl, fuel tank, radiator shrouds, and the tail. It’s worth noting the fuel tank stickers possess a carbon fiber-like finish for added pizzaz.
Graphics aside, Suzuki has also thrown in some extra components. The list includes a sporty windscreen up top (with SERT’s #12 race number), a bespoke belly pan, and a seat cowl. All of these add some brawn to the otherwise sleek design. In the meantime, the final touch is a USB charging port and color-matched rim stickers.
Still think not impressed? Well, you’d be happy to know there’s a premium package too. In addition to the aforementioned bits, this one unlocks special edition crash slides (with carbon fiber inserts) and a tail tidy kit. The latter, in particular, is quite impressive since it replaces the peculiar fender-mounted tail lamp with an integrated LED.
The Suzuki GSX-8S SERT Edition Remains Unchanged Mechanically
Aesthetics aside, the GSX-8S SERT is just like its standard self. It employs Suzuki’s new 776cc, parallel-twin powerhouse that produces 82 horsepower and 57.53 pound-feet. Since this is enough power to throw some of you off, the 8S comes ripe with a handful of rider aids. Ride modes, traction control, and a bi-directional quickshifter are standard kit, all accessed by a TFT instrument cluster. There are also bits to make your life easier, such as a low RPM assist and an easy start system.
Under all of this lies a steel trellis chassis, suspended on KYB USD forks and monoshock. This is topped by 17-inch wheels, shod with 120/180-section rubber (F/R). Concurrently, braking prowess is via twin 310 mm discs up front bit by Nissin calipers.
Can You Buy The Suzuki GSX-8S SERT Edition?
Sadly, the GSX-8S meets the same fate as the Hayabusa Bol d’Or edition from 2022 and the recent Suzuki 800DE Rally edition. It’s only on sale in Europe (France in particular), with zero hopes of its American debut. To make matters worse, the SERT edition costs just $1,000 more than the STD model, which makes it excellent value. So all we can do is request Suzuki USA to come up with something similar. Get on with it in the comments!