For four years I had endured the impoverished lot of a student biker - you know the kind of thing, buying old rats from auctions for a hundred quid, compulsory dieting so that the bike can have drinking money, agonising over whether to get a gallon of petrol or a packet of fags. Then in October 1985 it all came blissfully to an end when I obtained a job. A round of the Glasgow dealers for decent wheels was disappointing - nothing within my budget of £1300 that wasn’t in some way shagged. In Glasgow the private second hand market is pretty minimal so it had to be a dealer.
And then I found it. As the ad on the telly says, you can tell instinctively when something is right. A Suzuki GSX1100ET - the exhaust was a bit rusty and it had 22000 miles on the clock, but it was the soundest thing I’d seen. A talk with the bank manager, an exchange of £1275 and the deed was done.
It was the first bike I’d ever owned that had limitless power, to someone used to knackered middleweights, this beast was astoundingly quick. Right through the winter I was rather in awe of the power, I rarely went over eighty on A roads and ninety on the motorways. Because of this restraint I held the general impression that the handling was basically sound, if a bit on the ponderous side. Then I teamed up with a mate who had armed himself with an FJ1100. Because he is mentally unsound, he speeds everywhere and it was thus that I found out how unpleasant the handling can become on an ageing but still potent bike.
We were returning from an ace weekend in the West Country (why can’t all of England be like that?), when the FJ rider became bored with a mere ton and opened up to around twice the legal limit. I gamely blasted after him, flat on the tank with the throttle wide open and the induction howling. The needle was just sweeping by 120mph when suddenly the motorway was waggling from side to side as the handlebars flapped evilly and the bike weaved just like a rabbit before it goes under a car. I had a momentary but vivid mental image of a young man’s untimely funeral, then I slammed off the gas and locked my arms on the handlebars.
At this point the wise-arses amongst you are no doubt muttering about just accelerating through it, mate, but I’ve never met anyone who accelerated out of a weave at 120, and personally I’d doubt there are many about. After a terrifying three or four seconds the motion died out, at around 105, as I recall.
To be fair to the bike, a close inspection of the suspension revealed much greater decay than I had realised. Without the support of the shocks the swing arm suddenly developed a quarter of inch of play. The shocks were not so much tired as exhausted. The forks were also worn from a combination of old age and too many winters.
Newish forks were £70 from a breaker, Marzocchi Stradas were another £70 and swinging arm bearings were £35 yes, £35; you can’t get pattern ones and they are unique to the Suzi so you can’t buy the things from a bearing pan These new bits had a marvellous effect on the handling. All of a sudden I was taking long sweepers at the ton, hitting 135mph now and again.
Don’t get me wrong, even at its best, the handling was never better than a dullish average, but it had at least progressed from the hazardous to competent. At low speeds the steering was awkward and ponderous, at high speed it was rather vague and twitchy, it was hard to feel that the bike was ever totally settled.
Enough of the bad points, now some good ones. A regular journey of mine is the 300 miles between Lincoln and Glasgow. On this trip the range of the bike is most welcome. It has a 5.25 gallon tank, so with steady cruising you can cover 250 miles between drinks - most useful if it’s a Sunday and you're in the middle of the Pennines. The fuel consumption ranged from 55mpg at a steady seventy to about 40mpg on quick runs.
Mention of the run to Glasgow recalls a nasty surprise the weather threw at me in the Spring of ’86 and highlights another useful attribute of the bike. I was riding over the Pennines on the meandering and beautiful A684 when I was caught in a flash snow storm. In twenty minutes there was a couple of inches of snow on the road. Considerate motorists were continually churning this up into something akin to a ploughed field - very tricky. I was sure it was only a matter of moments before I dumped the bike. Then I began to notice how unaffected the GSX was by the slush. It didn’t even slide once. I can only assume that the considerable mass of the bike combined with the narrow tyres to produce an icebreaker effect, with the tyres chopping through the snow. I arrived home safe that day.
The strongest asset the bike has is definitely the engine. It shrugged off the 16000 miles I did without even asking for a change of valve clearance. It really grinds out torque at low revs, very useful when leap frogging a slumbering crocodile of four wheel shit trundling along at the standard British cruising speed of 40mph.
I once had a top gear roll on race from 30mph against my mate’s FJ1100. My good old Suzi pulled out a 25 yard lead by 90mph. His bike has a 15mph top speed advantage, not to mention vastly superior handling, but it doesn’t have the low speed grunt in the 40-80mph bracket, which on our roads is a very useful thing to have. So far as vibration goes, there is no rubber mounting, so inevitably there is a patch of buzzing (around four grand) and there is always a slight tingle that blurs the mirrors, but it’s perfectly acceptable.
Now for some more bad points. The pegs are too high and too far forward, so you get cramped knees and a sore back. The seat feels OK for the first 80 miles, but after that the pain starts and after 300 miles your backside feels like you’ve been on a soiree in Castro. Many are the times I’ve parked the bike after a long run and dismounted like a geriatric, wincing at the pain as the circulation comes back. Fitting ace bars didn’t help comfort much, but at least I could cruise at ninety without being blown off.
General running costs are not too bad. For such a heavy and powerful bike it is fairly easy on tyres and chains. I fitted an O-ring chain when I bought the bike and it lasted the full 16000 miles with no problems. The only tyres worth bothering with are Metzelers. Put a 3.50x19 on the front and 4.50x17 on the back - they cost slightly more than others but the handling and wear is the best combination you'll find. I got about 10000 from the front and 6000 miles at the back. Brake pads last over 15000 miles. Bear in mind that I’m a high speed tourer rather than a thrasher; if that’s your ballgame, wear will be about 30% greater.
I went through two exhausts. The Motad was competent but split at the silencer after 14 months. The Lazer Performance was much better, it was more accurately made and gave significantly more torque below 3500rpm. I don’t think either affected top whack, although at those speeds many other factors come into play, so it’s hard to be certain, particularly as I never had the stock pipes on the bike.
So, on balance, what’s the verdict? Well, it was highly dependable, even after two winters it never let me down. The engine was very powerful and had bags of torque. In fact, it was a very sound and competent bike only let down by twitchy handling and lack of ergonomics. I think the styling reflects the general character of the bike - not pretty, rather angular and crude, in fact quite blunt and unrefined.
I suppose the best tribute I can pay to it is that now I have sold it, I find it bloody hard to find anything else that matches it in terms of general value for money. Most other good bikes have been overpriced by their sickening and disgusting elevation to classic status. I doubt if the GSX will make such status as it’s in the shadow of the Katana and GS1000, so prices should remain sensible and it should remain a cheap way into megabiking.
Malcolm Wardlaw