Riding Style Alert : I recently picked up a sharp yellow and black Suzuki GSX-8R to replace my stolen F800GS. This new bike is my first non-ADV since 2019 or so, and it’s made me realize a thing: My riding style is full-on geared around narrow bikes with wide bars. Jumping on a sportbike after all these ADVs is absolutely insane.
A couple of previous bike experiences have reawakened in me how strange it is that my manner of motorcycling is to literally be to have fallen off a bicycle and just sort of forget to stop. Honda’s CRF300L felt as natural to me as track riding didn’t, my two-wheeled experience having long predated my M endorsement. I grew up riding bicycles, mostly mountain bikes, so I’m so used to hanging my body over the frame while the machine leans, bounces and sometimes crashes underneath me.
This is probably how I ride motorcycles. At least, it was, back when I was riding narrow bikes with upright seating positions and wide handlebars for leverage. Now and then it feels strange to lean the bike under me for a slow-speed corner in an intersection. With levies at the front end, I’m pitched over the clipons.
For the record, the bike rides beautifully. I’m enjoying myself on it. But it’s taught me I need to reconsider how I’m riding — I’m no longer barreling down hills at speeds that are ill advised given the design of my open-face bicycle helmet, trusting a 30-lb bike on 29-inch wheels to get me through the terrain for me. I learned that different riding style to my own at Champ School, and the Suzuki is going to hammer it home.