Suzuki Gixxer SF Bs4 In Depth Review

  

Styling

Suzuki has finally updated the gixxer sf, which is now quite identical to it's elder sibling the sf 250. The major difference is however a different design to the alloy wheels, different style finishes to the exhaust and different colour finishes on the engine. The paint schemes are also different. The 155 only gets glossy finish paint work when compared to the matte finish on the 250.  Both of them get a limited edition blue paint scheme, which is the "Motogp" edition. The only difference in this paint scheme is that the 155 gets a black under belly cladding  compared to the blue one on the sf 250. There isn't a single 150 badging on the sf. But there are two of them hidden inside both side of the fairing. Other major visual updates are the new LED headlamp, tail light and a new clip on handle bar setup. Overall the fairing is neatly integrated and well designed which gives the bike a premium look.

Sporty looking profile with all new LED headlight

12L fuel tank with a new split seat setup 

LED tail lights, twin port exhaust and a wider section rear tyre

Features and Equipment

The 155 comes with a fully digital instrument console with white back light, which consists of all the basic informations such as ;

• A speedometer 
• Tachometer 
• Fuel gauge
• Two trip meters
• Gear position indicator
• A clock
• Shift light
• Service reminder. 

The shift light can be manually adjustable according to your riding style. The console is very easy to read even in bright sunlight.  As mentioned earlier the bike gets both LED headlights and tail units. The 155 comes with single channel ABS unit.

Fully digital instrument console

Powertrain

The sf 150 uses the same 155 cc two valve air cooled single cylinder fuel injected engine. Now it produces 14.1 bhp of max power at 8000 rpm and 14 Nm of torque at 6000 rpm. These figures may not seem very exciting. But due to the fuel injection on board the bike feels so smooth and peppy. The bike has good low end and strong mid range. Top end is a bit lacking, but the bike revs cleanly to it's redline. Keeping the specs aside the sf 155 is now even more fun to ride. Even though the low end is good, the bike comes to life after 5500rpm. After that the power band kicks in and bike just pulls so nicely. This mid range is well highlighted by the exhaust note, which sounds quite good at high rpms and so smooth and barely audible at low rpms. The sweet spot of the engine is in between 6000 to 8500 rpm range. The engine runs out of steam after 8500rpm. The gearbox is a 5 speed unit, which offers precise shift. It isn't as smooth when compared to the other contenders in this segment. There is some hardness and the tightness can be felt sometimes. There are no false neutral issues though. The clutch feels moderate, so it's easy to use in traffic conditions.

155cc, 2 valve air cooled fuel injected motor

In gear figures 

Gear                                Top Speed(KM/H)

1st                                     45 

2nd                                   66

3rd                                    87

4th                                    104

5th                                    120-130

Note:All figures shown are obtained from the speedometer of the bike

Handling and ride comfort

Suspension duties are carried out by a telescopic fork at the front and a mono shock at the rear. The suspension is well sorted out for indian road conditions. The front suspension is slightly on the stiffer side but  it's well damped, so it soaks up the rough patches very well. The rear end  is slightly softer when compared to the front in order to aid a plush ride quality. Show some corners, the 155 really shines. It has good front end feel and the bike tips into corners with ease. The revised frame gives even more confidence to push the bike further more. The only problems are the almost neutrally positioned footrests, which scraps quite fast, which sadly didn't allow to use the full potential of the bike. The tyres offer good grip. We get a 100/80-17 sections tyres up front and a 140/60-R17 radial section tyre at the back. The only problem is that we cannot use the full potential of the back tyre due to the scrapping nature of the foot rest. High speed stability is superb due to the increased wheelbase(1,340mm) and 146 kg kerb weight. On high speed runs due to the small windshield there isn't much of wind protection. This problem can be solved by using a good after market wind shield.

Braking 

The bike comes with a dual disc setup and the front end gets ABS as standard. The front brakes offer good bite and stop power. Due to the front heavy nature of the bike the front end dives considerably under hard braking. The rear brakes have good stopping power but there isn't good feel or feedback from the pedal. Due to this the rear end can be easily locked up. The ABS unit is quite sensitive for my liking, which is good for our road conditions. But some times it feels over assisted. Also there is an annoying sound some times when the ABS kicks in. But overall the braking is quite good.

266mm  front disc with ABS and 240 rear disc without ABS

Fuel efficiency and maintenance cost

The bike returns about 50 km/L in city riding conditions and almost 55 - 58 km/L on the highway,  if ridden sensibly. Maintenance wises the bike offers 4 free services which costs in between 900-1000 rupees and after that, the regular paid service costs in between 1000-1200 rupees. The bike goes to service once in 4000 km. 

 

Price

Here i'm sharing the price details of the BS4 model. It comes at a price of about 1.35 lakhs onroad in kerala for the motogp edition. For that price the bike is almost 40k cheaper than the R15 V3(which is more powerful and has more features)and almost in the same price range of some of the 200cc bikes out there. So is it really a value for money machine? definitely no. Because it's quite expensive for a basic 150cc. But keeping the spec sheets and price aside, it's a wonderful  machine which quite excites you every time when you ride it. This fun factor makes the SF stand out for me and i can surely say gixxer sf 150 is one of the best 150cc out there in the market.