Design
Simply put, the Slingshot’s design looks too good for a 125cc commuter. Like its predecessor, the Zeus, the Slingshot doesn’t try to blend its own recipe of the Hero Honda ingredients to give the commuters a Suzuki badged Splendor Pro. Instead, it uses some new age design language like a floating crown, minimal bikini fibre, a rakish headlight, sculpted and meaty fenders etc. The side and tail panels gel seamlessly with each other and add to the muscular avatar of the Slingshot. The tail with the large panels and a tiny taillight in the centre is reminiscent of some of the older and bigger Suzuki motorcycles sold abroad. Suzuki has paid attention to detail with body coloured plates on the grab-rail, a rakish belly pan under the engine and a designer heat guard for the exhaust muffler.
The engine, which is the exact mill as the Zeus, right down to the engine casing, is finished in gloss black to match the equally glossy chassis elements and the matte black alloy wheels. Speaking of which, we were pretty excited about the design of these alloys when we first got the spy shots over a year ago and today we love it even more, to see the entire bike balancing itself on them. However, the lack of a disc brake hampers the overall look of the Slingshot.
The Slingshot’s tank is muscular, like the bigger GS150R, but the knee recesses are totally pointless considering the hardcore commuter seating posture. Suzuki could have instead given a bigger tank and increased the range of the vehicle – even with its current design it looks disproportionate as compared to the skinny front end anyway, so a fatter tank wouldn’t have made it worse. Oh sorry, I promised I would only say good things about the Slingshot. The Slingshot offers a simple console with analogue read-outs for the speedometer, odometer and fuel gauge. Like the Zeus, the Slingshot too gets a gear indicator which tells you which gear the bike is currently running in. Now generally bike makers incorporate a bright LED for the reserve fuel indication and it is pointed right at your eyes to attract your attention and tell you that the bike is running low on fuel. For some odd reason, Suzuki has done the similar thing with the gear indicator as well –why?? Oh, sorry again.
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There is a Disc Brake option.
There is a Disc Brake option.
There is a Disc Brake option.
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