Suzuki TL1000R, Overcome its Challenging Looks, The TLR Never Really Caught On

There once was an ugly duckling, as the song goes and if you're looking for the motorcycling equivalent, you really don't need to look much further than 1998's Suzuki TL 1000 R. It's almost as though Suzuki's stylists thought We have to design something to compete visually with the Ducati 916, universally acclaimed as the most beautiful motorcycle on the market. Its going to be tough, but let's give it a shot, Then after a few days of focus groups and abortive styling exercises, they sat down and said You know what, Buggerit it's just not possible, so let's go the other way instead. Well they succeeded with its beaky nose, wide mouth frog headlight, bulky front fairing and that bulbous and strangely extended tail, few bikes divide opinions like a parked up TLR. On the road it had more power and torque than the Duke and could grunt its way clear on every corner exit, but the engine proved hard to tune for racing, and although Suzuki produced a hugely expensive race kit they never fielded a TLR in World Superbikes, preferring to stay with their proven GSX R750 inline four. So without the racing kudos to overcome its challenging looks, the TLR never really caught on. It didn't help that it was launched at the same time as Yamaha's game changing R1, and suddenly inline fours were fashionable again. Colours schemes apart, the R was never updated and was quietly dropped from the range at the end of 2002.
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