It also witnessed the creation of the then extremely radical and influential Suzuki Katana, a bike stylistically resembling a modern sport bike on the outside but largely built on existing technology of the day, although Suzuki were very quick to adopt the DOHC 16-valve cylinder head with their GSX 1100 range (including the Katana) in 1980.

Honda and Yamaha had engaged in a production war in order to decide who would become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, resulting in oversupply.

Building upon the Gamma's success, Suzuki introduced the four-cylinder, four-stroke, aluminum framed GSX-R400 in 1984 for the Japanese market.

The top of the shock was mounted solidly to the frame while the bottom was attached to a banana shaped linkage that housed an eccentric cam below the swing arm.

The resulting GSX-R750 was introduced in 1985 but withheld from the United States due to tariff issues which would have imposed a 39.4 percent tax on each bike because it was over 700 CC.

In the intervening year, Suzuki responded to European riders' complaints about the bike's stability by lengthening the swing arm by one inch.

The technology mirrored that of the GSX-R750 but added big bore power (137 hp (102 kW)), to the mix while keeping the bike as light as possible (434 pounds).

But today's authors who compare it against 1994's introduction of the Supersports bikes, driven by Tadao Baba's development of the Honda Fireblade,[5] can use 20/20 hindsight to be more critical.

Recent articles (some in comparison with newer sport bikes) still rave about the powerful 1100 cc engine but otherwise describe the GSX-R1100 as large, heavy, and unstable.

[6] Some of these assertions were borne out by Suzuki's year-to-year tinkering with the frame geometry in order to make the bike handle better.

The original bikes had square-section alloy frames, 18-inch wheels front and rear and a large endurance-style fairing.

The Slingshot 1100K sold in shops suffered handling problems: either as a result of changed geometry or that it was the suspension units that were improperly set up.

This opinion was reinforced with the death of Suzuki racer Phil Mellor at the Isle of Man TT in 1989 on the GSX-R-1100K race bike.

The M-model (1991) saw the addition of larger carburetors and major cosmetic changes when the fairing was reworked to place the headlights under a more aerodynamic curved cover.

The move away from oil cooling allowed an increase in power, bringing total output to 155 hp (114 kW) at the crank and introduced another very strong, reliable and extremely tunable Suzuki engine (Performance Bike in the UK reported on one taken to over 190 bhp at the wheel without the use of a turbocharger or nitrous oxide injection).

Throughout the water-cooled years (1993–1998), the GSX-R's design saw only one major revision with the launch of the 1995 "WS"; everything else on the 1996 "WT", 1997 "WV" and 1998 "WW" models were restricted to color and graphics changes.

Minor but significant changes were made to the suspension (better quality 43 mm USD forks replaced the 41 mm USD forks used on the WP and WR models), the ignition and the cams (putting back the stack of bottom end and mid range pull many believed had gone AWOL with the WP and WR models).

This was demonstrated most clearly than Suzuki's own brand-new 1996 GSX-R750WT, a return to the ultra-lightweight with a new "SRAD" beam frame, which offered approx 115 bhp at the rear wheel when coupled with the added boost from the new pressurized airbox design (always particularly efficient on Suzuki's - Fast Bikes in the UK once measured a full 10 bhp increase in power on the Crescent Racing shop's dyno and wind tunnel at 120 mph in 2003 with a GSX-R1000).