The guy who designed the RF took ques from Italian designs, a manaray and the movie Aliens. Yes…, a manaray, hence the rear taillight section of the bike, a Ferrari Testarossa, hence the side fins of the bike and finally the front-end mimics the mother Alien from the movie Aliens. No one knows why this bike never took off. Suzuki blames the too new for its time design and the solid color scheme, which they later changed to the graphics oriented RF 900’s in the last year of production. The RF600 was always a solid color: red, blue, turquoise; although the European and South American version did get a bit of flair in their color scheme.

There was never any pre-release hype that companies are known for…. It just appeared one day on dealership floors after years of talking about prototypes. I remember there being some talk of a new hybrid bike that Suzuki was going to come out with but that was almost 2 years before the RF came out. They also never really raced the bike on the track… they were too focused on their award winning, tire melting, Gixser aka GSXR. Racing a bike on the track is what will make or break any deal…. The RF600 was faster than any 600 Yamaha and Honda had but a bit off the always faster of the class, Kawasaki ZX6. The RF900 on other hand was faster than the Kawasaki ZX-9 and the Honda CBR900. Another mistake they made was that they tried to go head to head with the proven and award winning Honda VFR 750. They should have done more R&D before they came out with the RF series. If you want to take over the already small, refined group of sport touring, you need to come out with something so drastically superior that no one will want to look at the previous titleholder. In 1994 when the RF series was introduced, they both (600 and 900) had too many little quirks with-in them that ended up leaving a bad taste in riders or new perspective owners mouths. More so in the car industry, not enough testing gets done with the release of a new model bike as was the case with the release of the new Honda VFR 800, it was plagued with fuel injection problems and a lot of weird and unwanted feedback out of the LBS (linked braking system). Granted the 1995 and on were perfected bikes; the 1995 RF’s were what the 1994 should have been. Face it people, there are really 2 groups in the ‘crotch rocket’ arena, speed or comfort. This bike had a very niche focused group, the group that demands the power and the comfort.

Another mistake Suzuki did was unintentionally putting it up against their own GSXR 750. This is the award winning, balls out power, and all out handling bike of the millennium. Suzuki is not known for their all-around cruisers…. They are known for making bullet race bikes like the Gixser. It wasn’t until the late half of 1997 – 1998 during the last production run of the RF series that the bike was finally taking off and people really wanted it. Since the previous model years were hard to sell, dealers stopped carrying them and when they finally caught on, dealers did not have them, could not get them, or just did not want to get them.

What Suzuki did not really understand is that even though the 1995 and on RF’s were better bikes than the VFR, it would take a lot if not a miracle for a loyalist of the VFR to cross over. The company Saab is yet another perfect example. They started out in the late 70’s building what is now known as the modern day 9-3. Even though in the early 70’s, mid 80’s and early 90’s when GM was tinkering with the company after it acquired 50% of its stock, was going thru problem after problem with one thing or another, owners bought one Saab after another, even though they were riddled with quality control problems. To this day, Saab owners are amongst the most loyal followers to Saab on the planet. The irony here is with Suzuki themselves; Why would bike riders year after year buy one of the most uncomfortable, wrist destroying, back breaking, colon mooshing, fastest, best handling bikes on the planet??? They should have asked the question before they decided to put it up against the loyal VFR. It gets better yet…. Just as the RF craze caught on, the VFR demand was slowly but surely going away. VFR owners were now driving the RF600 or RF900. And as Suzuki decided to kill the production of the RF since it saw less average sales rates for when the bike had first come out, they decided to collect their losses and call it quits on the bike as the much anticipated and heavily advertised and raced TL series (hmmm a twin engine like the VFR) was coming out. If you thought that was funny, wait till you get a load if this, Honda decided to do a complete re-do to the VFR 750, since the RF had finally taken away sales from the VFR. Then in 1998 Honda came out with the all new VFR 800, which, as you may have guessed was plagued with its own first time run problems that were cleared up in 1999 and newer bikes. Well enough of the side track business…. This is just some history for all you newbee’s out there.

Now….., back to the topic at hand: The beautiful RF600. Now that you know the history of the bike, lets get to know the bike. I own a 1995 RF600. This is the last bike I purchased. I have had them all, Kawasaki’s, Honda’s, Suzuki’s, and ….. well, I guess I can’t say I have had them all, I never owned a Yamaha, I have my own standards people. My RF has the following modifications:

• D&D Sho and Go exhaust custom built from Austin Texas
• Vance and Hines ignition advancer
• Phillips Lockhart smoked tilted windscreen
• Factory stage 3 jet kit
• Fender Eliminator

This bike has to be the most exotic looking bike outside of my friend, Shazad’s Ducati 916. Now some will argue that this is still a better-looking bike than the Ducati, I will have to agree, sorry Shaz. The sharp angles, inclines, vents, taillights, side profiles, etc…. are like none other. I have been stopped by the Police asking me what this bike was. Last year, the Duck, aka Ducati, and I were burning thru Chicago along Lakeshore drive when we met up with several other bikers. Although they were impressed when they saw the Duck as everyone always is, they could not stop staring at my RF. I even got stupid questions like, "Where can I get fiberglass fairings for my bike like that?" (Stupid Yamaha owner). Or, "Was that bike a Gixser before you did all the body work?" "I did not know Suzuki sold this bike, I was just at my dealer last week and never saw this on the floor" And because I am out with my Duck pal, I get the occasional, "….so why did you put a Suzuki gas tank on your Ducati?" Now comes the killer reply from me, "Sorry guys, the answer is no to all your questions and this bike is a 1995, yes I did not stutter, it is a 1995 ‘Suzuki’ RF600. People then look at it in more amazement and ask, how fast is it, how fast have you had it, was it expensive, do they still make it, is it aEuropean model, etc…

I got to admit, I love the attention. It is a very rare bike on the road. Well enough about looks, let’s talk about performance. The RF600 will beat just about any 600 out there except the Kawasaki ZX6 which will always be a class leader, the 2000 and newer Yamaha R6, the 2001 CBR 600 and finally the 1999 and newer GSXR 600. I guarantee you will smoke any other 600 off the road since the RF is easier to launch off the line and has a much higher top end than any of the above-mentioned bikes except again the Kawasaki. Real world test comparison on Elgin – O’Hare and I-55 (2 great Autobahns in Illinois) is more accurate than Mr. Professional 75 lbs Japanese Racer Joe doing his biased bought test for Cycle World. My 200 lbs of hard muscle body on the RF always beat my buddies CBR, FZR, Katana, pre 1999 GSXR 600, and the likes.

The seat height, reach to handle bars, distance to foot pegs is perfect. The bike also has this great snap closer glove box on the left side dash / fairing so to say. But make sure it snaps back in place. In the 6 years I have owned my RF, I only had a problem last year when my Nextel cell phone popped out of the glove after going over a dip in the road at about 60 MPH. The RF also has plenty of built in storage. There is plenty of room under the rear passenger seat. I always have take with me a tool case, digital camera, towel, spare sun glasses, small bike bag, luggage net, and an extra pair of gloves. The passenger seat is also just as comfortable for the passenger of any size. I never heard any complaints from riders varying 95 lbs to 275 lbs. Even under full load (me and a 275 lbs passenger) the bike is very easy to maneuver, race, ride and relax.

I’ll have another more technical long term so to say article on this excellent piece of craftsmanship. This is just to wet your appetite on this precision-engineered bike. Till then Ride Hard, Ride Smart.