LondonClassic
Retro Guru
I became the proud owner of this 1979 Suzuki GS750E recently.
A mostly complete bike that turned over on the kickstart and had a tax disc present from 1996. The seller had bought a batch of bikes at auction to get to one specific bike and was offloading the other 5. In his brief time with the bike he'd had her running by hot wiring the igniton...for about 10 seconds until petrol streamed from the carbs onto the engine casing. The bike was very much billed as a project, which is a polite and glass half full way of saying its saveable with some work and money.
Heres a summary of the condition found:
Good
22K on clock
Aftermarket electronic ignition fitted
Laser 4-1 pipe
Tank had no rust inside
Koni shocks
Not so good
No history so no way of knowing if the 22K is genuine.
No ignition key
points cover missing and some minor chewing of the R side crankcase where somebody seems to have knocked it off
Brakes totally non functional.
4-1 pipe means no centrestand which will make no sense, practically
small oil leak where tachometer drive exits rocker cover
Stock airbox gone and replaced with pod filters
Wiring a bit of a rats nest and several bodges appear to be in place.
I could have adressed some of the intrinsic issues - like the brakes - and got her back on the road fairly sharpish. Cosmetically though the bikes needs a going over as she is now 45 years old and deserves some mid life love. So the decision was taken after getting the bike to run to go deep. The bike is getting a full strip and refurb (but not the motor if I can help it). Not to show level but to a usuable, safe state with some 70s patina.
I've owned some 'big' bikes but the only bike I ever full dissassembed was a Honda CG125 aeons ago. So this should be fun. I'll detail my progress here!
GS750 background (skip if you find tech bits boring).
The GS750 was Suzuki's first large capacity 4 stroke and was responsible for saving the company after the twin disasters of the RE5 rotary engined bike and stringent US emissions regs which sounded the death knell for their fun but entirely two stroke model line up in the 70s. Because it had to sell and save their bacon they took no chances. They were heavily inspired (copied) a lot of the bulletproof engineering in the Kawasaki Z1 but made the GS the best handling big bike of the 70s (a Z1 weak point). Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have been proud of the massive crank roller bearings and gear primary drive in the bottom end. Its so over engineered it can take around 450bhp in stock trim (accoridng to drag racers!). It only has to handle 72. This does make the motor heavy and expensive to make, however - but its reliability was legend. And they sold truckloads.
As well as making 550 and 1000 versions, this unit was the basis for all Suzuki four strokes going forward. The motor got 16 valves and became the GSX series from 1980. In 1985 they went to oil cooling and the GSXR series was born - and continues today.
A mostly complete bike that turned over on the kickstart and had a tax disc present from 1996. The seller had bought a batch of bikes at auction to get to one specific bike and was offloading the other 5. In his brief time with the bike he'd had her running by hot wiring the igniton...for about 10 seconds until petrol streamed from the carbs onto the engine casing. The bike was very much billed as a project, which is a polite and glass half full way of saying its saveable with some work and money.
Heres a summary of the condition found:
Good
22K on clock
Aftermarket electronic ignition fitted
Laser 4-1 pipe
Tank had no rust inside
Koni shocks
Not so good
No history so no way of knowing if the 22K is genuine.
No ignition key
points cover missing and some minor chewing of the R side crankcase where somebody seems to have knocked it off
Brakes totally non functional.
4-1 pipe means no centrestand which will make no sense, practically
small oil leak where tachometer drive exits rocker cover
Stock airbox gone and replaced with pod filters
Wiring a bit of a rats nest and several bodges appear to be in place.
I could have adressed some of the intrinsic issues - like the brakes - and got her back on the road fairly sharpish. Cosmetically though the bikes needs a going over as she is now 45 years old and deserves some mid life love. So the decision was taken after getting the bike to run to go deep. The bike is getting a full strip and refurb (but not the motor if I can help it). Not to show level but to a usuable, safe state with some 70s patina.
I've owned some 'big' bikes but the only bike I ever full dissassembed was a Honda CG125 aeons ago. So this should be fun. I'll detail my progress here!
GS750 background (skip if you find tech bits boring).
The GS750 was Suzuki's first large capacity 4 stroke and was responsible for saving the company after the twin disasters of the RE5 rotary engined bike and stringent US emissions regs which sounded the death knell for their fun but entirely two stroke model line up in the 70s. Because it had to sell and save their bacon they took no chances. They were heavily inspired (copied) a lot of the bulletproof engineering in the Kawasaki Z1 but made the GS the best handling big bike of the 70s (a Z1 weak point). Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have been proud of the massive crank roller bearings and gear primary drive in the bottom end. Its so over engineered it can take around 450bhp in stock trim (accoridng to drag racers!). It only has to handle 72. This does make the motor heavy and expensive to make, however - but its reliability was legend. And they sold truckloads.
As well as making 550 and 1000 versions, this unit was the basis for all Suzuki four strokes going forward. The motor got 16 valves and became the GSX series from 1980. In 1985 they went to oil cooling and the GSXR series was born - and continues today.
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