What can you do? All your mates are completely mad buggers. whose idea of a standing start take off from the lights is to drop the clutch with the tacho in the red, front wheel way up in the air and back end snaking around madly. Well, yes, all you can do is join in...
That was how I broke my GS750's clutch, exactly 48 miles after taking delivery of my seven year old, 12000 mile machine. Oh hell! When I say broke I mean BROKE! The clutch basket must've exploded asunder. The engine noise of graunching metal had me kneading my prayer beads and cursing youthful high spirits. Among other things, which included kicking in the head of a stray poodle that tried to piss over the front wheel of the oh so dead machine.
Have you ever been towed behind a hot rod Z650? Probably not. The trouble was his engine didn't run below 6000rpm and then exploded into demon power. We proceeded homewards in a series of shoulder dislocating lurches. Five miles later I was back in the garage.
You probably know the scene well. it you don’t what are doing reading the UMG? Most of the sidecase screws come off easily, one or two refuse to budge despite using an impact driver in conjunction with a 10lb sledgehammer. The screw heads are a total mess. The driver slips off the edge and you scream in agony when the hammer whacks your thumb. By the way, the bruised nail took two months to grow out.
Eventually the carnage was revealed, the debris cleaned out of the motor, a few prayers said in the hope that bits didn't get circulated through the motor. A complete but secondhand clutch from a breaker cost £25 and the ever so tough DOHC engine was persuaded back into life.
For the next 250 miles I was well paranoid, imagining all kinds of engine noises and riding with my hand on the clutch in case the engine seized up solid suddenly. But it didn’t. I gave up trying to match my mates in the traffic light GPs. They eventually toned down their madness when the lead bike got it wrong, careered off at an angle, causing a mass pile up. I was the only one who didn't fall off. Laugh? I pissed myself!
The GS ran without any problems for the next 1800 miles when the rear disc locked on solid. l was doing about 50mph when it happened and slowed to a stop, doing a speedway type skid when the bike hit the grass. At least I had a soft landing. After the usual screaming of abuse and waving my scorched hand in the air, I learnt never to touch a disc after it had locked up. It was glowing red so I should have known better. Removal of the caliper, aided by a large stone, solved that problem. By the time I arrived home the hydraulic fluid had eaten its way through the rear tyre to the carcass. Perhaps me mum had been right about buying a nice little Metro! The rear disc was badly warped, whether this caused or was a result of the rear wheel lock up I don't know. The back brake had never been much use, anyway, so until I could find a cheap secondhand one I ran around without a rear brake. I was stopped by a cop once and he didn't even notice!
500 miles later the engine started making a horrible clacking noise. The automatic camchain tensioner had stuck on, a few whacks with a hammer sorted that. Performance appeared to have disappeared at the top end. Previously, 130mph was possible, now it was struggling up to 115mph. There was also a lot of blue smoke on the overrun. I was later to run into a previous owner who told me that he had 39000 miles on the clock when he sold the machine, so it had done at least 42000 if not 52000 miles!
800 miles further down the road the vibes increased markedly throughout the rev range, it felt like I was on a pile driver. Engine out, head off, after the usual curses and bruised knuckles. Fucking cheap Japanese bolts and alloy. There were a couple of cracks in the cylinder head and the top of one piston was badly pitted. The only good thing was that it didn't need a rebore.
The motor ran well after several bits had been replaced from a breaker. It cost about £80 to fix, which I suppose wasn't too bad. The front discs seized up 300 miles later. The calipers appeared to have seized together and proved impossible to strip. As the front forks were sloppy, a Katana 1100 front end was bunged on, which got rid of a hundred notes.
The handling was a bit better; it had previously shook its head viciously coming out of bends, and this now occurred at very high speeds. Stability was generally acceptable, although the bike was thrown about by large bumps.
Despite these problems, I did not hesitate to take the GS on a 2200 mile jaunt to Germany and France. My mates also rode big air-cooled fours, seven bikes roaring across the landscape on open pipes. The rear Metz only lasted 3750 miles, which meant I had to replace it in Germany. That was OK because they are cheaper over there, and the dealer even removed and refitted the wheel for no extra charge. Bikers are treated as human beings on the continent instead of scum like over here.
By the time I got back to the UK, the chain was dragging on the ground, teeth were missing off the rear sprocket and the engine was misfiring below 3000rpm. I rode it in that condition for another 400 miles as I couldn't afford to replace the chain at that time. When I finally stumped up for a new C&S set, the battery kept losing its charge and the engine cut out below 5000rpm.
The dreaded electrical demise had affected the dear old GS. I rode around on a total loss system, after disconnecting the evidently shot alternator. I had two batteries and kept switching them over. The bike would do about 50 miles on a battery if you didn't use any lights, indicators or horn. It was OK for commuting, but I couldn't go off with my mates.
A weekend on the pillion of a mate's bike frightened me so much that the next day I sent off for an exchange alternator and starting phoning around for a reg/rec unit. No change of the latter, but a Superdream item wired up OK, and 17500 miles later its still there.
I kept the bike going even after buying a Z1000. I rode the bigger bike for two years, but when I got married sold it and went back to the GS. After the Z, the GS felt agile but slow. The engine was pouring out smoke again, but not just on the overrun this time. A rebore was needed, but a GSX750 came along at just the right moment.
A brief pause here. I don't really want to talk about fitting the GSX engine in the GS frame. Suffice to say, a welding torch, access to a lathe and use of a big hammer were necessary. The bike was off the road for about three weeks. The new machine went like crazy for about 2500 miles, then seized up solid. I had stripped the GS engine down in readiness for a rebuild, so I did that as quickly as possible.
The bike felt slow and ponderous when it went back together. I had outgrown the GS750, it no longer provided me with the necessary kicks, and I had little faith left in the engine. I had put it up for sale just prior to writing this, and started looking for something faster.
Overall, it was a good introduction to big biking. I wasn't that impressed with the engine toughness, but it may just have been that I purchased an engine with a very high mileage and one that had already finished its useful life. Unfortunately, that's probably true of most GS750s these days, so buying a used one is a minefield. I have found that newer Kawasaki air-cooled fours, even the little GPz550, are a better bet as you can get lower mileage ones for the same money.
George King