It was, perhaps, inevitable that I'd end up on a huge old bruiser like the GSX1100. My first big bike, a ratty old CB750 - now considered a classic - had endeared itself to me by doing 50000 miles without needing much attention. For sure, most of the chassis ended up bashed after various off-road sorties, down to the classic garden-gate handing (as in loosely hinged). I'd then traded up to a DOHC CB900, or thought I had, only to find the big engine blew its guts out 300 miles down the road. All over the road, in fact!
There followed a series of big Kawasaki fours and then a CBX750, which was a brilliant bike in its way but a bit too sophisticated for me - I like a little rawness in my motorcycles! When the Suzuki turned up in the local newspaper I tracked it down and liked what I saw. A respray and total refurbishment meant the bike looked like it'd just stepped out of the showroom. The owner had a pile of receipts and MOT's that suggested the 27000 miles was genuine. The engine sounded quiet, the acceleration made the CBX seem very tame and it even went around the bends at ridiculous angles of lean - at least from the pillion perch.
Mine for 500 notes plus the CBX750 - seems mad to have to pay more for an older bike but the Honda had done 59000 miles and was beginning to sound a little tired. My new toy was 500 plus Ibs, 100 horses of heaven on wheels. It seemed that every motorcycle dream I ever had coalesced in the GSX's presence and performance.
There were two ways to ride the big Suzuki. Conceivably, if you were close to brain dead, you could just bumble around using less than 5000 revs. This wasn't slow or even boring, the 1100cc motor having a a large excess of torque and a rather smooth running feel. The other way was to use maximum revs through the gears and see if you could push your eyeballs through the back of your head! It didn't take much effort to work out which was the preferable means of transportation.
For such a large bike, the front wheel didn't need much effort, its sixteen inch section following minor road imperfections with a fidelity that was just a bit disconcerting before I became used to it. It would also twitch when coming out of bends under heavy acceleration, the way the power seared through the back wheel causing the front end to go very light. This was all tolerable on newish Metzelers but when they got down to less than 2mm there were some quite heavy speed wobbles that had me staining my panties.
A steering damper was already fitted but the tighter it was nailed down, the harsher the wobble became at high speeds. I tried the old loose grip trick but this merely made the bars whack from stop to stop, the only way out was to ram the throttle shut and brake harshly. Momentarily, the chassis felt like it was going to break up and then it all calmed down again. The real solution was to blow a ton and a half on a decent set of tyres every 2500 miles!
I once tried running the bike with a new front tyre and worn out rear - the chassis didn't like this either, feeling as if it wanted to go in two separate directions at the same time. Nope, a set of decent rubber needed to give a semblance of stability. That done it would run up to an indicated 150mph (on degutted exhaust and airfilter) without feeling like it was about to explode into a million separate bits. It could still feel edgy, didn't like rapid changes of direction when banked over and tried to disjoint my arm sockets and neck with the wind blast, but I loved it! You could never get bored with this kind of beast!
The engine purred, growled and sang its song as if it had just been carefully run it. A wonderful mechanical rustle and only a modicum of secondary vibes when the tacho darted past the 9000rpm mark... this is a sure sign of a good motor. I tried some GSXs that didn't really want to rev and put out an awful lot of vibration for a straight four. Also no oil leaks and only moderate consumption of the lubricant between 2000 mile oil changes... The valves need to be done every 5000 miles (the four valve layout somewhat more finicky than the old two-valves in the GS series) but the carbs didn't seem to need any attention. The camchain tensioner was, thankfully, automatic and I never even thought about touching it. Over the past 11000 miles the engine, as expected, has been totally reliable.
So have the electrics. This might surprise some but then the bike's been rewired, fitted with some black boxes off a CBX750 and had the alternator rewound all done by the past owner who seems to have been some kind of fanatic. And more power to his elbow. I did have the battery die a death after about 7000 miles but I think this was just old age as it looked pretty ropey. All the cut-out switches have been taken out of the circuit, so they may've been troublesome in the past. The rest of the switches lacked feedback and it was dead easy to turn the lights out by mistake when wearing heavy gloves. Something I eventually became used to.
Apart from the tyres, I also had to spend out on swinging arm bearings, a couple of chains, front wheel bearings, front brake pads (about 3000 miles!) and fit a secondhand aftermarket rear suspension unit. When the OE shock blew its seals and lost all its damping, handling wasn't a pretty sight, sick bucket status rapidly gained!
Apart from blasting everywhere on the throttle at ten-tenths the GSX also has a serious side. It was, in many ways, an ideal cruiser able to sit at anywhere between 90 and 120mph in top gear, still with a huge wad of acceleration in hand; perfect harmony between rider and machine found. The only major hassle, if I tried to tum my head backwards to suss if any plod were about to descend, the wind would try to whip my head off my shoulders and the lid rode up so that when I snapped back frontwards I could barely see where I was going. By then, the mirrors were useless, about the only place that the secondary vibes had any real effect.
The first I knew about the plod was their quaint siren bellowing in my ears. Whack the throttle open, try to outrun the bastards. Not amused, judging by the expressions on their faces when I finally pulled over. A whole list of major offences was thrown my way, not just a ban but a probable prison sentence - don't know what the old owner thought, I gave his name having forgotten to fill in the registration document! The other altemative is to have some false plates made up. I was pulled three times, tickets in the 130 to 150mph range and they still haven't sussed what's going down! The GSX, alas, doesn't have the balls to outdrag the motorway plod - a great disappointment.
That's about the only area where the machine has let me down. It really is a dream to own and ride. The handling won't be to some tastes but I'm used to its quick turning front and edgy rear end - when you know it's not going to actually kill you it doesn't stand in the way of the fun! The motor's ballistic and ever so tough without the complexity of modern water-cooled mills. Get one while there's still good stuff out there.
JL