The chassis was in too dangerous a state to consider test riding. The brakes, for instance, were seized solid! I said I'd think about it but the owner wanted shot of the wreck, agreed on a hundred notes and delivering it to my house. No real reason to refuse the deal.
Where to start? Well, what was left of the silencers were kicked off, then the bike planted on a beer crate. Almost every bolt was seized in, a diabolical struggle to free off. I gave up on the engine mounting bolts impossible to shift without breaking them off. After a day's work I had the bike down to the frame and engine.
The frame was wire-brushed and Hammerited before the pub beckoned. Most of the rust was surface stuff, made it surprisingly easy to get down to bare metal. The engine alloy so far gone in the white rot that I couldn't be bothered doing anything for it.
The next day, the heavily corroded cast wheels were inspected. Both they and the triple discs were cracking up! Not surprising when considering the depth of corrosion. The front wheel's a nineteen incher, the rear an eighteen incher, not too easy to replace. In the end, alloy welding sorted the wheels and some used discs and calipers the brakes. More wire-brushing and Hammerite sorted the wheels out.
At some point, the forks had been rebuilt and the shocks replaced with Girlings. They weren't too generous in travel but taut enough and had plenty of damping. Just needed cleaning up and a set of seals for the forks, a pair of gaiters added as a final touch.
That just left the tank, exhaust, saddle and mudguards. Replacements found in the breakers for next to nowt, including a joyously noisy four into one. They went on without much trauma, nothing a few blows from the hammer couldn't sort. Most of the wiring had been done previously, the airfilter was missing and the battery looked OK. A new chain and sprocket set a finishing touch.
Total cost, so far, 240 quid. To the road, then. The mass was around 450lbs, the power 55 horses, a combination that didn't exactly startle but the motor was amazingly smooth and it growled up to a ton-ten without that much hassle. Thereafter it went dead but I didn't expect it to do the ton, so I was a happy boy.
The handling was a curious affair. Basically, had a huge amount of inbuilt stability, a certain reluctance to flip from side to side. It hated use of the front brake in comers, fast and slow alike. Would flip the front wheel upwards, altering the trajectory to a dangerous degree! However, it didn't mind the throttle being snapped shut - in fact, it would tighten up its line. Nor did it object to use of the back brake.
Once I learnt its limitations, I began to push the bike harder and harder, finding that the ground clearance was the final limit on handling. Even then, it just ground away the undercarriage rather than digging in furiously. Stability was good at all speeds, large bumps not really intruding. Given the bike's mileage, pretty good going.
I certainly didn't much like the triple discs. Let's be fair, they were old and renovated numerous times, bore little relationship to the stuff that came out of the crate. Lack of feedback my. biggest complaint - it was never too clear just how they were reacting until the tyres started squealing in protest! Not much pressure was needed but they would fade a bit from ton plus stops, making me somewhat nervous about motorway speeding through masses of cages.
Wet weather lag was also a problem but only on the front discs, easily sorted by keeping a minor amount of pressure on the lever to clear off the water. They were all like that in the seventies, someone going down-market from modem machinery would doubtless describe them as deathtraps but I soon learnt to live with them. All depends what you're used to. Brake pads last about 6000 miles but the calipers need a clean up when they are replaced.
Another annoyance was the way the chain wore rapidly despite its newness. This down to the tiny 15 tooth engine sprocket and long swinging arm. Turned out to have a life of only 4000 miles, though another 1000 miles could be obtained by taking out links. The chain runs very close to the clutch pushrod, not much hope of fitting a bigger sprocket (you can get away with a 16 tooth sprocket, just - Ed).
The front light was adequate rather than startling, the horn a hopeless croak (maybe down to its great age) and the switches difficult to master. It was quite easy to turn the lights off by accident! Electrics on this era of Suzuki were always a bit dubious, the generator burning out or the rectifier/regulator failing. No doubt mine was running a rebuilt alternator, the Superdream rectifier/regulator evidence of an electrical rebuild in the past.
The only trouble I had was batteries that were reluctant to last for more than 10000 miles. The one the bike came with failed after 1500 miles, spraying battery acid all over its compartment. The breather tended to fall off and white crud built up on the battery's screws. I was always a bit doubtful about the electrics but didn't experience any actual on the road failures.
Tyres were old-fashioned Avons, lasted for about 15000 miles before they became dangerous. This was actually longer than the replacement exhaust system, which should really be considered as a consumable! What else went wrong? Not much, really, quite an amazing old dear for its age and mileage. After about 23000 miles the bike was looking a bit rough again, so I did a respray to the cycle parts and polished up what little alloy and chrome that was salvageable.
The motor was becoming more and more rattly at the top end, though it didn't seem to affect the performance or economy, which was a reasonable 50-55mpg. The camchain tensioner is automatic, at least in theory - the plunger can stick. The only problem with mucking around with things on these ancient Japs, it's dead easy to strip threads. Sure enough, I ended up with a couple of dead threads. At least I managed to put some grease on the plunger and fix it all back together, satisfaction given to the shareholders of Araldite.
That quietened down the motor for a while. The next 6000 miles rolled along nicely enough but a relatively long trip meant I left the oil change for 1500 miles rather than the usual 750 miles. By the way, the gearchange action on the ancient Suzuki wasn't that dependant on the freshness of the lube, was better than many a modem Honda! Anyway, a few miles later the bottom end started knocking! Ooops!
The crankshaft's a rather massive construction, built around hefty roller-bearings, can survive forever given good oil. However, I had only done one oil filter change which along with the untoward length between oil changes meant it was finally a goner. Mind, the bike had done a very credible mileage, close to 150000 miles. I finally had the excuse to drill out the seized in engine bolts. The motor's internals were revealed to be in a very sad state, indeed, just about every component ready for the scrappie.
Oddly, some GS550 fanatic insisted on giving me 200 notes for the bike! I immediately started looking for a lower mileage example but no luck so far. A brilliant bike, as tough as they come and easy to ride and tide... Alas, most of the bikes now on offer are woefully overpriced, much more than a grand. Anything under that tends to be rapidly running towards rat status but they can be renovated as long as the frame and engine still have some life left in them.
Harry