BEAUTY, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. And clearly enough people in the upper echelons of Suzuki reckoned this fully-faired version of the GSF250 was pretty because the firm has launched it as a 2015 model.

At the moment, the GSR250F – which joins the naked GSR250 and half-faired GSR250S in the range – has been launched only in Japan, but given that it’s basically identical to the UK’s GW250 Inazuma but with the addition of a fairing it’s quite possible it will appear over here at some stage.

The Inazuma has got plenty of fans despite styling that even its staunchest supporters would have to admit is ‘distinctive’ at best. Sales have been impressive enough to warrant a spot on our top 10 of surprise successes from 2013. That’s because it’s a cheap, cheerful and reasonably capable bike that achieves what it sets out to do, even if it doesn’t provide many thrills in the process. The fairing on the new version no doubt adds a modicum of extra wind protection, but it would be hard to argue that it makes the bike any prettier.

Spec-wise, the GSR250F is basically identical to the naked version. That’s means 24bhp and 16lbft of torque from the 248cc parallel twin, a basic steel frame and suspension that goes up and down, but that’s about it. The extra plastic adds 6kg to the wet weight, taking it from 183kg to 189kg.