Poor Shaftmanship - SUZUKI GS850 Review

The argument is eternal. Chains or shafts? One of them promises efficiency. The other promises freedom from grime, from maintenance, from thinking about it at all. For decades, chains went by default. They're faster, lighter, and more efficient. Whereas shafts were more niche, reserved for Italian tooling bikes, British pace bikes, and German motors for those that alphabetize their tools. But then in the 1970s, something changed. Comfort became fashionable, maintenance became optional, and suddenly everyone wanted a shaft, including Suzuki. And they wanted one badly enough that they were willing to shaft their own existing lineup to conceive this fat bastard. Come on. This video is sponsored by Squarespace, the website builder with all the tools you need to make your own headlines, like Squarespace Blueprint, an AI generator that can pre-fill a fully custom site in just a few clicks. Of course, you'll want to tune it, but having everything built in seconds and pre-optimized for laptops, phones, big screens, that saves days of time. Squarespace also has SEO tools so you can tweak searchability to ensure your brand gets found. Clicking on squarespace. com/fort will save you 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the coupon code fort9. Shaft drives sell peace of mind. This bottle of 90 weightight gear oil and a bit of Molly grease is the only maintenance this drivetrain's going to see for the next 12,000ks. And this can't stretch, so you never have to adjust the wheel to compensate. There's no sprockets to wear out. But when the whole assembly is sealed from the element so it stays clean and it doesn't fling lubricant all over your pants like a territorial animal. And bonus, in the case that you do break a drive shaft, it's very undramatic. Whereas a broken drive chain, it's liable to blow a hole in your crank case. BMW believed in the shaft since the beginning. Honda recognized its benefits in 1975 with the release of the Gold Wing. And because trends spread faster than good ideas, other brands followed suit, including Suzuki. Except they went about it a little differently. See, shaft driven bikes usually designed around the shaft. Their crankshafts run in line with the bike. That way, power is sent directly from the engine to the rear wheel where it makes one right angle turn at the final drive. Power, unlike your uncle after last call, likes to travel in a straight line. Every time you ask it to turn a corner, some of it stays behind, loss of friction, and the resistance of 90 weight. Suzuki looked at this sensible straight line of power layout and ignored it. They already had the GS750 — magazine called the best motorcycle in the 750 class. a transverse inline 4 built for chain drive, but proven, reliable, and most importantly, paid for. Designing a new shaft drive engine would have been expensive. So instead, they did the most unapologetically Suzuki thing possible and added an additional gearbox to their existing mill. Right where the output sprocket used to be, they cast an entirely separate bevel gearbox complete with its own oil with the sole purpose of turning power 90° only so that it can be turned 90° again 24 in down the swing arm. Shaft driven motorcycles with one bevel gear already lose at minimum 15% of their engine's output, which is a difference between winning a drag race and explaining why you did that. The GS850 has two bevel gears. So although this engine's rated at more than 80 horsepower, it feels like 60. Seriously, the shaft tax takes 25%. It's almost as bad as the CRA. And that explains why this shisty shafter is an unusual 850cc. See, Suzuki started with the 750, but had to bore it out, install larger pistons, and swipe the cams from the GS1000 just to make up for the huge inefficiency. And ironically, despite all that, the GS750 with its chain drive is still quicker. Suzuki did stumble into some serendipity. However, the GS1000 cams have shorter duration than those on the 750, and the outcome is an engine with its power more prevalent in the mid-range than in the high RPMs. I can short shift 850 in the fifth at 50 and it'll happily chug along all day. V twin lugability with inline four smoothness is a compelling package. But you see, this pig needs all the grunt it can get because the extra bevel gearbox, drive shaft, final drive, and touring hardware added mass so enthusiastically that the GS750 frame wasn't strong enough to carry it. So Suzuki used the GS1000 frame instead. and while they were there copped the suspension, too. Ironically, by the time the 850 hit showroom floors, it wasn't only slower than its 750 cc little brother, but also heavier than its 1,00 bigger brother. Suzuki didn't just build a middle child, they made a mechanical paradox, a bike that's somehow less than the sum of its parts, yet more weight. In a final effort to compensate for this afterineered project, Suzuki adorned it with every luxury feature they could. The 850G was the first from the brand to come with tubeless wheels, a gear indicator, a fuel gauge, and even automatic cancelling turn signal. These ones don't work anymore. And maybe that's a good thing. See, the system either waited 9 seconds or tracked 500 ft before killing the lights, which is perfect for a lane change in rural Saskatchewan. But in a busy city, that's just long enough for another driver to think you've changed

mind, pull it in front of you, and then turn your convenience feature into a local news headline. Ironically, the JSA50's best feature is not any of these tech gizmos. It's actually the aforementioned excessive weight. See, everyone always poo poos heavy bikes, myself included, rightfully so, because weight is the antithesis of performance. We need to remember Suzuki wasn't chasing performance. This was their touring bike. And in that context, the weight is more of a benefit than a hindrance. Fat bikes have road hugging stability and smooth jentler momentum. So strong crosswinds be damned. This purple big stays in its lane. — The GS850 is a compromising motorbike politely dragged into the shaft drive era. And somehow, despite the losses, the weight, the mechanical audacity, it works. And not because it's particularly fast or efficient, but because it's smooth, plush, and honest. See, I actually like the GS850. It's aesthetically timeless, lowmaintenance, sufficiently powerful, and comfortable. It's not a triumph of engineering purity. It's a triumph of stubborn compromise and luck. Band-aid cams and undesired weight make for a surprisingly pleasant ride. Thanks for watching. Oh, were my arm were my sleeves rolled up earlier or not? — I'm not sure. — Oh, no. There might be a continuity error. — It's fine. It's off to the archives, right? — Yeah. — It's okay. Trust me, it's fine. — Okay. — I wonder if there is one though. — Yeah. But no one would care if your students are up or down. — Okay. — It's not doesn't change the context of the video. Yeah, you're right. — Okay. Ready? — Yeah. — And action.