1981 Suzuki GS750L
This was first real bike. I got it for the princely sum of $650.00 from a guy I had a class with at Lakewood Community College (now called Century College). I got two helmets (old, tiny Shoeis) an intercom system that I still use, and some crappy pleather saddlebags that are moldering away in my Stepmom’s basement. It was a good deal. When I got the thing, it had a Vetter fairing with a stereo in it. I’m still using the stereo’s speakers in my garage. I drove it without a license for a couple of years, getting permits in the spring and renewing them every 45 days. Ah, the good old days. It spent every winter outside except the year I retired it. I took my road test on it, had my first two accidents on it, my wife had her first “accident” on it (it fell while she was sitting on it), and it taught me a lot about bikes. Mostly, it taught me how expensive they can be. It went through choke cables like nobody’s business. I think I must have done one a year at least. I had the stator replaced within the first year I had it. I also learned while working on it that a cheap motorcycle tire is not necessarily a good motorcycle tire. Continental crap. I bought my first replacement tire at Fleet Farm because it was cheap and it fit and it wasn’t showing cords like the tire I was currently running. The shop I took the tire to to mount it wouldn’t do it. At least at first. They said they probably wouldn't get it to balance. Eventually, I got the tire mounted and I think it lasted one summer. Crappy rubber. I virtually erased one Continental front after one summer of commuting 6 miles to work with one particularly tasty off ramp. MN highway 280 southbound to the Kasota/Energy Park Drive ramp is a long sweeping and increasing radius turn. I beveled the edge of that front tire so badly that I had to buy a new one before I could ride the next summer.
Probably the most important lesson
this bike taught me is that big, heavy, bulky fairings suck. They don’t suck for touring bikes,
but for day to day commuters, they suck ass. Big, hairy ass. A few years back I had had it with the
bike's crap handling and top-heaviness so the plan for that
spring was to dump the fairing, get lower rising handlebars, and replace the
aforementioned front tire. I was hoping for a change in handling
characteristics, because the way the stock handlebars (big buckhorns) forced me
back in the seat gave me a back ache and gave me a feeling that I wasn’t in
total control of the bike. These are not good things at all. I got a headlight
and fork ears from the boneyard, scored some turn signals from a buddy and
bought a new handlebar and grips and then set to work. It took the better part
of a sunny sunburn inducing Saturday to get the job done, but the change in handling was instant
and much, much better than I would have ever dreamed. Instead of feeling like I
was sitting on top of the bike, I was sitting in the bike. Instead of being
top-heavy and tippy, it was now much less so. I’m not saying this was a light or
spry bike, I’m just saying that it totally transformed the bikes handling.
I’ve now done this transformation to about 7 different bikes (mine and others) and the result is
always the same: a better looking and handling bike.
This bike had the
misfortune of being my first bike and being a bike I lived with while I had no
money. I neglected it, beat it, and ignored it while I got other bike-toys,
but it kept coming back for more. I finally pronounced it dead after taking the
valve cover off and seeing the huge grooves dug into the cams at 47,000 miles.
I bought it at 16,000 and had the bike for about 10 years. Most of those miles
happened in the last two years it was a runner for me. I still feel bad about
giving that one up.
Suzuki GS Series Tech Tips
