It was a long walk to this old guy's shed. A bloody big garden, immaculately kept. A wooden shack at the end of it. Open door, one gleaming GS450 for the use of. We pulled the bike out. A flick of the choke, press of the button, the DOHC vertical twin engine purred into life. A newish exhaust, battery and tyres were already fitted. 23000 miles. 1988 model, five years old but extremely well tended. £800.
That compared with similar sums demanded for a couple of old rats I'd seen before. No comparison. I didn't even bother with the test ride. Handed over the dosh after a cursory check of the doc's. Rode off into the Sussex summer weather. Finally found me a bargain buy.
The grin that filled my helmet was shattered when the bike coughed, spluttered and died a death. Oh no! Not again! Why hadn't I done a proper check...it was only the fuel going on to reserve. Ha, ha! Should have known not to doubt the feeling of luck and joy I'd had when I'd awoken that morning.
I pushed it too far, of course. New mount, nothing for it but a bit of speed testing on the nearly deserted dual carriageway. Hammer the little vertical twin through the gears. Nice slick gearbox, plenty of punch right into the red. Carve through a couple of cagers. Impressed by the 180 degree crank's smoothness (aided by a gear driven balancer). 100mph on the clock, no great hassle. Push it some more, come on babe. 105mph...107mph...my world - and such an exhilarating and happy one at that - suddenly shattered. Mr Plod pops up out of the earth in a huge Sierra with his song of expense and doom. No way to outrun the blighter as the road's long and straight.
The usual shit follows. I agree to admit to a 90mph blast, though I haven't got any defence to even more serious traffic violations. Like no insurance. But I gave the old guy's name and address which checked out on their computer! I will have to fade into the mess that's known as London. Hope the paperwork and hassle proves too much trouble to track me down.
I continue home at a more moderate pace. A pleasant enough 70 to 80mph drone. The bike ran good old Avon's on its rims which gave fine stability. I never really had any trouble controlling its 380lbs. The worst that could be said was that it wasn't the most precise device in the world. It was wholly old-fashioned - tubular frame out of the sixties and twin shocks. Nothing revolutionary but well sorted in its evolution from the 1976 GS400.
Not even the chaos of London traffic fazed the bike. It was narrow, easy handling with ready power. I felt no qualms about riding like a mad bugger, the only way to keep ahead of the diverse psychopaths who were going berserk in the dense, slow moving traffic. The GS was just big enough to impress them with its potential for retribution. The most dangerous thing in the world, wobbling along in the gutter on some inadequate piece of shit machinery.
Compared to other twins, it was a bit ahead of a mate's CB400 Superdream up to about 80mph, where the smaller twin could actually power away from the GS - better aerodynamics from its more sporty riding position? Another friend, on a Kawasaki GPZ500S, killed us dead, however madly I wound on the throttle. The GS was a much smoother runner at lower revs than either of these two bikes, but it didn't really go to town on the power or the torque.
Combined with its superior smoothness, after a couple of weeks I began to think it a little bland. This is, of course, entirely unfair to the GS450. Having owned, and cursed at, a Triumph 500 Tiger, it's a little mad of me to complain about a bike that was both oil tight and the definition of toughness itself.
It has to be said, however, that the Tiger had more punch up to 5000 revs, somehow encapsulated the idea of moderate but fun motorcycling. Or it did on those ever so rare days when it was running well. The GS, by contrast, was rather too electric for my tastes. Though after a few months of abuse I decided I liked it after all. Any bike that can do thousands of miles with only the odd oil change necessary, and absolutely nothing going wrong, can't be all bad, can it?
My one worry was the riding position. I could see that Suzuki had got the general idea right - backward mounted pegs matched to mildly raised bars. But sitting in the machine something felt a little out of place. I'm a long legged, six foot beanpole, whereas the GS is a short, low, compact lightweight. Putting the two of us together meant I underwent mild contortions to fit the machine.
In town I was too cramped. On the open road I was too spread-eagled. On the back roads I didn't have enough leverage. Using the pillion pegs helped quite a lot when cruising at high speeds. My shoulders still ached with the 90mph cruising gait but at least my thighs didn't cramp up.
Being out of touch with the back brake lever and gearchange wasn't ideal. Something some cop pointed out, though he was more worried over the way the back tyre weaved. Luckily, there was just 2mm of tread left (about 6000 miles of life) and I got off with a warning. With good tread, the GS is a solid handler. Even on bald tyres it doesn't go into a speed wobble, or anything, just a gentle little weave.
Because my weight was poorly distributed, my backside took a battering from the saddle, which initially seemed to have more than adequate padding. A short, fat-arsed friend reckoned the bike was a bit of alright, so it's probably me just being awkward. Having said all that, I wouldn't want to do more than 250 miles in a day.
The single front disc, with EBC pads, was fine by me. It didn't twist the forks to any great extent and didn't lock the wheel up in the wet. I've ridden on bikes with much worse brakes. Pad life is around 15000 miles. The back brake didn't impress, I tended to rely on engine braking to steady the front end.
The finish was good on the tank and panels. Engine and wheel corrosion was a daily event, but cleaned up when attacked with the Solvol. Frame paint fell off in places (the swinging arm being especially naff) but responded to red oxide paint and didn't subsume the whole trellis.
The exhaust, as mentioned, was new, showed signs of rust after three years of abuse and neglect. Expect it to last no more than four years, you won't go far wrong. The engine's mildly enough tuned not to give any hassle if universal cans are fixed on to the existing downpipes - a very common mod on GS450s.
By far the best feature of the bike's its engine. Three years and 33000 miles of almost total neglect (I just did the odd oil change) have left it running as smoothly and powerfully as when I bought it. The rest of the bike is a tad old-fashioned but competently designed and implemented. After all, there's an awful lot of history behind this bike.
As to the used market, the bikes vary enormously. Because of their very toughness, they tend to be run into the ground until their crankshaft bearings start knocking! Their plain Jane looks do appeal to the odd old codger, who keeps them in immaculate trim - these are the ones to track down. A grand, or less, should buy a serious bit of machinery.
Graham Robinson