I bought a newish Suzuki GT750 in 1977. An advanced piece of machinery back then, a water-cooled stroker triple that was as restrained in its performance as it was in its appearance. I kept this bike for a little under a year, impressed with its reliability and, er, its reliability. It was too heavy and too slow to keep up with my mates and I ended up buying a Z1, which handled like a real dog but kept the adrenaline going and could blow most other machines into the weeds.
In 1992 I went off to the BMF show and ended up talking to a mature chap on an immaculate GT750 with only 8500 miles on the clock. This brought back many pleasant memories, having got the speed thing out of my system I was interested when I learnt it was for sale. £2750! Crazy money, but we swapped telephone numbers and I had a good listen to the engine.
Two months later I received a phone call. I could have the GT for 2000 notes. Still too much, I offered £1500 and we agreed on £1750. He rode over the next day, I had a test ride and the bike was mine. Better than new sprang to mind when I looked over the chassis. Really immaculate.
One week and 150 miles later I was cursing the past owner. The gearbox had gone off, changes having all the precision of a meat grinder. I checked the transmission oil... nearly empty. I filled up, the gear change worked well. 150 miles later the same thing happened again. Then I began to panic, having read about blown crankshaft seals draining off the gearbox oil. Smoke out of the exhaust had always been a touch heavy but I'd believed the past owner when he said the oil pump was turned up to its highest setting for safety reasons.
Down to the local mechanic, not a bad chap who was quite sympathetic when he revealed that I'd need an exchange crankshaft. Also, that the clock didn’t match the general state of the engine that had maybe done 30-40,000 miles. About three weeks later I was given back the machine, with the warning that the gearbox bearings might go at any time... nothing like inspiring a bit of confidence. I couldn't afford to have them all replaced as well. In fact, the gear change was very smooth and precise, about the only exceptional feature that the generally bland machine could claim.
After that little adventure my joy at owning such an engineering relic was greatly diminished. I was waiting for the next disaster to happen. Had a few near misses from the chassis. The gleaming chrome and shining paint hid the fact that the front forks were softly sprung and that the back end was mushy. Not too bad up to 70mph, but thereafter weaves and wobbles set in that had my brain buzzing with possible disaster.
It wasn't, even on stock suspension, an evil handler. There was always the option of backing off the throttle or using the twin discs out front. The latter, at least, had Goodridge hose and non-standard pads. Something I knew from the way they worked in the wet without lag. My first GT had left me with a heavily creased forehead from the braking anxieties in the rain. On this one, the discs were furious enough to have the forks shaking in their yokes but sensitive enough to react predictably to a gentler caress of the lever.
The bike was too heavy and wide to be much fun in town. Many a time I came close to ripping off the ends of the crankshaft, which stuck out so far they made the bike as wide as a four. The power was OK below 5000 revs, its low state of tune and stroker nature meaning there was a steady stream of grunt. In a chassis a hundred pounds lighter, the top end power might've been impressive, as it was many a good 550 could burn me off.
A friend likened the bike to a rolling armchair on his first outing. On his second, when he’d overcooked it going into a corner, he reckoned it was a see-sawing wheelchair with a death-wish. I sort of agreed with him but to be fair to the Suzuki, once its limits were learnt, I could crack along at a reasonable 80 to 90mph pace on most main roads.
One bizarre aspect of the machine was the way side winds had the chassis all over the place. I wouldn’t have dared fit a top box! I could lean into the wind but if it varied in intensity the whole bike rolled around as if the tyres were falling off the rims. I did try some modern rubber instead of the Avons, but even expensive Pirellis didn’t make any appreciable difference, except they wore out at an incredible rate. From memory, the Avons lasted about 12000 miles, I didn’t do that kind of mileage second time round so can't confirm if modern ones are any worse or better. The Pirellis lost 2mm of tread in 1500 miles, though they did feel safer in the wet.
Another aspect of the bike that was quite horrifying was the charging circuit. Everything was fine until I did a few hours of night riding with main beam on. Then the battery drained so that the motor was stuttering away until I flicked on to the pilot light. The battery started to charge, after half an hour I could go on to dip - for a while! The lights weren't much good for more than 50mph, so I tried to avoid extended periods of night riding. I reckon that one of the alternator coils had burnt out but didn't fancy tearing it out to check. I felt lucky, given Suzuki's reputation for naff electrics, that it didn’t become any more mischievous.
Any bike this old is going to have its fair share of minor problems but, unlike many a seventies superbike, the GT750 didn’t exactly inspire much madness. The kind of bike that made you ride sanely and only break the speed limit by a sensible margin. I did try some top speed runs on a deserted bit of motorway, early in the morning The best I managed on the clock was 120mph, after that the wallowing and vibration was too much to bear, Getting past the ton was always hard work, the whole machine feeling a bit frenzied. Not to mention that fuel became really horrendous above 90mph.
Normally, I'd get a pretty pathetic 35 to 40mpg but at higher speeds it'd touch 25mpg or even 20mpg! Oil was OK at 200mpp with the oil pump on its minimum setting using modern stroker oil the pollution haze only turned noticeable after about fifteen minutes of slow town riding when the engine really needed a good dose of throttle to clean itself out.
After nine months I decided it was time to move on. There’s a whole subculture of bikers into seventies machines, partly because of cheap insurance, and the GT went for £1950, Like I said, it looked immaculate and ran impressively first time out, A lot of riders are just reliving their youth, using the bikes as a pose rather than for hard core motorcycling. Shades of the British bike scene.
If that’s all you want then the GT750's not half bad. I went for a Z1 at £2500. Another shock to the system as it was running OE suspension but it’s more fun than a night in a Brazilian brothel. Also, the motor’s much tougher than the stroker triple, something to bear in mind when paying big money for a GT.
John Draper