The GSX550 had suffered a traumatic lifestyle. Its previous owner having been a bit of a despatching nutcase. Rear tyres were bald in 3000 miles, chains snapped on a regular basis and plastic bodywork cracked, scarred and tore whenever he felt the urge to fall off.
Its most ferocious fling took place at 90mph when the successful negotiation of a band was not viable and a swift detour into a ditch the result. This bent the forks beyond recognition and tore apart the steering head assembly. The relevant parts were replaced so that only the scratch on the owner's Boeri which had butted mother earth at an inordinate speed lay testimony to the event actually taking place.
I therefore bought the matt black hound in a fair to middling level of lack of roadworthiness. There were only two out of a possible four bolts clamping the front wheel spindle to the forks, oil leaked out of the sump plug, the crankshaft was, and still is, visibly in motion at a frantic pace due to the pick-up cover's absence.
The front master cylinder was off a GS650 and flexed when the brakes applied, whilst fluent riding is marred by second gear jumping out and third gear being a neutral - a common trait amongst high mileage GSX550s. This was made worse by tight spots in a worn chain. It is therefore totally infuriating to ride and I want to buy a new engine, but finding an honest breaker is a big problem.
Good tyres on the GSX are absolutely essential if you value both the bike’s and your own anatomy. This is because the bike forces the helpless rider to race everywhere, treating every roundabout as an opportunity to fry the tyre edges to shreds. Avon Roadrunner AM20/21s come with recommendations, as they not only keep the bike upright but also give a continuous progress report upon how far you can lean the damn thing over.
The majority of power is produced above 7000rpm but it will take less revs to slide the back end when accelerating hard in first whilst banked over on bumpy country roads. We even developed a tyre fetish and can be seen racing around Mallory park paddock examining everyone's rubber to see how much bottle they have.
It’s now got a Metz on the rear after the old one was illegal, deformed and deflating at a disconcerting rate. A burn out and doughnut session contributed to its final demise and the constant prospect of losing the back end when accelerating hard on bends due to the 18psi tyre pressure was curtailed.
The fuel consumption varies between 32 and 65mpg, depending on acceleration and speed. At 85mph it does 45mpg, at 100mph around 35mpg, 52mpg at 70mph and 65mpg at 55mph. However it's impossible to ride at the latter’s snail's pace for any distance without a dangerous boredom factor occurring, unless it's foggy, snowing, you're running out of gas or trying to attain the impossible with a girlfriend.
For some time, two cylinders have cut out erratically due to the dirt and muck in the carbs. This naturally occurred at the most inconvenient times such as when overtaking or going round complicated roundabouts.
A trip up to Northampton stretched the chain sufficiently for it to jump off the sprockets, producing a long and lurid slide, a missing chain and a five mile push home. It's after this sort of disaster that I manage to summon up the motivation to actually do some mechanical investigation and solve the problem - the bike gets wheeled into the flat and some heavy metal music accompanies the spanner wielding.
Usually, the landlord makes a surprise appearance, his superficial smile of greeting rapidly replaced by abject horror and a tirade of abuse plus a reminder of how five gallons of fuel is just waiting for the right moment to wipe out the whole tenement. The GSX had always had bad luck in Leicester, the previous owner was banned for six months after being caught without insurance. l was working there for four days with a mate on a Suzi GT750 (bloody bland, according to the Ed), cruising around wearing suits. We wandered into the centre on a Saturday night, brain fried from lack of sleep and were attacked by the savage one way system.
I pulled out without looking, after nearly entering a no entry street when a scream of skidding tyres revealed a Sierra which was on collision course but managed to grind to a halt a mere six inches away.
”I could have taken your fucking legs off you stupid cunt. All you bikers are the same, think you’re fucking super heroes.” The driver was looking for a fight but we were too tired to oblige so we all went into a Burger King where I had to listen to a diatribe as to why he could never consider slinging a leg over a bike, let alone ride one of the damn things. Finally we got shot of his harassment only to have a plod mobile follow us home and even cruise past our temporary abode a few times.
Compared with the GT750 the GSX could out brake, accelerate, handle and speed it. as well as being a good 10-15mpg better on fuel. However, the GT is far more pleasant to look at, has more character and street cred, plus it's a more comfortable high speed cruiser, as well as a sound investment.
On a road such as the A416 from Matlock to Alfreton the 550 was in its element, rocketing around all the bends, chewing rubber like a ravenous Tasmanian devil. The GT, however, would bounce off line and scare the shit out of the rider if the line had to be altered mid bend to avoid dissecting a car. On a weekend mission to St. David's in Wales, I began to understand that the amazing roads were the root cause of perhaps some of the Ed's more obscure eccentricities revealed in his ramblings.
Some of the roads were absolutely phenomenal and this was before the magic mushroom season. The B5421 from Ross to Abergavenny was bliss. The first glimpse of culture shock hit at the backward garage which was like something out of the thirties. The riding pace jumped in tune to the knackered chain and we nearly ran out of road on a blind left just escaping the edge of the ditch on the wrong side of the road.
Slightly after this heart palpitation, l vaguely remember an insect fly down my leather jacket and sink its proboscis in at 70mph. The ensuing chest cramp prompted a frantic beating of my jacket to stop the kamikaze pilot from reeking internal injury. The chain was making more noise than the engine and causing earth shuddering vibes, plus a detour to M & P in Swansea.
The handling is often criticised for being twitchy due to the 16" front wheel, but I find it more stable and controlled than RS250s and quicker steering than the Z650, XJ550, GT750 and BSA A10. The frame must be very good, as despite all the crashes, it still banks over without trauma at ton plus speeds on fast sweepers. ln fact, the faster you go the more confidence inspiring it becomes and in bends it's a pure joy. Having said that, doing something silly like taking both hands off the bars at any speed develops a huge tankslapper!
The engine is a 16 valve four with tappets that need adjusting every 3000 miles. The 4-1 exhaust annoyingly obscures the sump plug so has to be removed every 1500 miles at the cost of exhaust gaskets and patience. It's done 70000 miles, cost me £375 and still struggles up to 120mph, two up, if it's in the mood and the chain isn't messing around. There's ample torque below 6000rpm to keep ahead of most of the traffic but always sounds frantic and urges you to thrash it faster. The addition of a passenger turns it into a slug and requires downchanges for overtaking.
Engine vibes are quite prominent at this mileage but no smoke pours out of the exhaust and bits don't fall off. The alternator is a very tight fit and tricky and expensive to rewind. It is worth putting a fuse between alternator and rectifier to stop the latter burning out, which has happened twice on mine. The first replaced with a secondhand Suzi unit and the second with a rewired Superdream item which hasn't worked successfully as the battery burns off electrolyte all too often.
The brakes have aged quite considerably since 1983. The back disc has always behaved disgracefully. At the moment it squeals so much that it sounds like feedback on a PA. If an emergency stop is in progress and the front brake is squeezing the discs enough to boil the fluid then merely dabbing the back will send it slewing to one side in full lock up mode. It's much better to keep it for special occasions like Christmas and Easter, or use it in foreign countries where the road surface is so bad that using the front stoppers will have you off. It works OK on its own but requires a lot of time and patience to bleed and clean.
Sometimes the front brake can squeal the front tyre and at others they'll struggle to clean the dust off the discs - temperamental bastards. Mine has got a GS650 master cylinder and seven year old hoses but still hauls the bike up promptly enough. Pads cost £12 a pair and seals about £3 each. When I cleaned the calipers there was a black sludge inside and a veneer of corrosion that could not easily be removed with wet and dry. I pretended the black indentation didn't exist as they're too expensive to throw in the bin and replace.
The Stockiemuir Road near Glasgow was made famous in issue 4 for its jumps, pub, scenery and high death toll for those who ride too drunk or beyond their abilities. Living in Glasgow, I often found it necessary to escape from the day to day anxieties and aggro by going for burn ups along this nice race track that passes for a road. The GSX had always been very happy leaping around the tarmac until I shoved it into the powerband in 4th just before the first hillock where you lose sight of the oncoming road.
That was the closest I've come to completely totalling the bike. At about 85mph the front wheel took off and literally leapt up into the air as the still accelerating back wheel dropped with the road. The handlebars waggled from side to side and my view of the upper atmosphere gave me a sufficient adrenalin overdose to offer a prayer book of hymns in the blink of an eye for it to return to mother earth. In this situation it is always much better to carry on at an horrendous pace than to stop and have a nervous breakdown on the verge. It is definitely for good reason that so many people have died on this road to hell.
A Highland tour in the company of a Guzzi 1000 was marred by the bike being relocated on the night that Scotland beat Costa Rica in the world cup. The previous evening we'd ridden up to Lancaster on the tedious M6, repeatedly leapfrogging to relieve the tedium. I had fallen in a cowpat underneath the GSX in a remote Lancashire lane when on a campsite recon and then been woken up by cows eating the tent at 4am in the morning - a good lesson to avoid camping out in the dark.
The Highland roads are phenomenal when dry but treacherous when wet - the prospect of flying over a hedge and laying in a cow field with a compound fracture in an arm and leg out of view of the road until the blood supply expires does not appeal.
Most riders intensely dislike the rain but when you get as much as you do in a wet and slimy autumnal Glasgow you begin to appreciate the virtuous ability to wheelspin and slide the back tyre in a controlled drift when exiting junctions. Doing a U-turn in a tight street is much easier by using an excess of revs and doughnutting the back round than struggling with the mass. I let a girlfriend loose on it in the summer only for it to collapse on her leg when it overbalanced leading to a 4am sortie to the hospital.
The bike copes with long journeys quite well. Oxford to Glasgow takes about six hours at a steady 85mph apart from when stuck behind the traffic slowing plod mobiles. Comfort is increased by a duvet on the tank and feet on the pillion's pegs. Sometimes it's better to leave the headphones at home as the music makes you all too conscious of the time. It's much better to veg out and detach oneself from reality. The next long distance sortie will be to Barcelona in March, which will really test the bike's reliability and my inability to drive on the wrong side of the road.
In short, the GSX is like most middleweights, a very practical and enjoyable means of transport. Naturally, there are other bikes I'd prefer, a Z1300 or old style GSX1100 are high up on the shopping list. If one of these was bought it would undergo weight saving surgery just leaving a huge engine, petrol tank and a couple of wheels - forget the exhaust.
The GSX's low cost permits constant facelifts - matt black, camouflage with netting, gloss black and fluorescent green - which would not be viable on a new bike. It is spoilt by rapid chain wear and rectifier demise but that fairing does aid high speed comfort. I preferred my old XJ550!
I would not buy another one as in a way it’s a bit of a plastic missile but at least the plastic supports the bike when sliding up the road. The success of the continental trip will determine whether I fall in love with it or loathe and despise it forever and a day.
Bruce Jones