Non FJ content. My old 1982 GS1100GLZ.

[Bones]

Interesting to see what bikes some people have stashed away. My story is a little similar to yours Leon, back in 2008 I was bikeless and wanted something to fiddle with in my spare time so I bought a 1979 Suzuki GT250 x7 in a very sad condition at an auction for $200.00.

All my spare time and cash were spent fixing it up and apart from the crank rebuild and rebore, I did all the body and mechanical work myself. It looked pretty good when finished and received regular comments and gee it felt fantasic to finally get back on two wheels, I rode that thing everywhere. Used to do regular rides with a group of assorted bikes and was never at the back of the pack, after all the x7 was the first 250 to officially top 100 mph.

Then in 2010 my brother was selling his FJ for a good price so I grabbed it and turned all my attention to it, while the Suzuki was left to sit in the shed with maybe a twice yearly blat around the block.
With the wife in my ear every year the rego was due and feeling guilty about seeing it slowly deteriorating, I decided to park it in the carport beside the FJ and take turns in riding it to work and on the weekends.

It still draws comments when people see it, and the sight, smell, and sound of a 2 stroke twin is something you don't see often these days and shouldn't be locked away, so anybody with an old bike just sitting there, do yourself and it a favour and get it out and start riding it again.

[1tinindian]

Good for you Leon!

I bet old Suzy was grinning at the thought of getting out on the highway once again. 
She sure cleans up nice!

Thanks Alan, (and everyone else), but those pictures were taken without washing. That is straight out of storage.

I have since washed it and touched up the polished metal with some Simichrome.
I'm just diving into replacing the fork seal tonight.

Leon

[1tinindian]

Interesting to see what bikes some people have stashed away. My story is a little similar to yours Leon, back in 2008 I was bikeless and wanted something to fiddle with in my spare time so I bought a 1979 Suzuki GT250 x7 in a very sad condition at an auction for $200.00.

All my spare time and cash were spent fixing it up and apart from the crank rebuild and rebore, I did all the body and mechanical work myself. It looked pretty good when finished and received regular comments and gee it felt fantasic to finally get back on two wheels, I rode that thing everywhere. Used to do regular rides with a group of assorted bikes and was never at the back of the pack, after all the x7 was the first 250 to officially top 100 mph.

Then in 2010 my brother was selling his FJ for a good price so I grabbed it and turned all my attention to it, while the Suzuki was left to sit in the shed with maybe a twice yearly blat around the block.
With the wife in my ear every year the rego was due and feeling guilty about seeing it slowly deteriorating, I decided to park it in the carport beside the FJ and take turns in riding it to work and on the weekends.

It still draws comments when people see it, and the sight, smell, and sound of a 2 stroke twin is something you don't see often these days and shouldn't be locked away, so anybody with an old bike just sitting there, do yourself and it a favour and get it out and start riding it again.

Thanks for your interest. Great looking Suzuki!

I'd love it, if we all could continue to use this thread as a source of sharing the "other" bikes we all have hiding in the shed.
This should get our blood pumping and our minds back into the riding season (for those of us in the snow belt, at least).

I will update this thread as I continue to make progress with, and riding of, the old Suzuki!, so come on guys, post away!

Leon

[ken65]

Similar story to bones except mine was a yammy 2 stroke.  Full nut and bolt, blew it up with 350k's  on it, Sat

for 3 years but bored the barrels and got some nice forged wossner piston a fortnight ago.. Waiting on a conrod from the old dart

and should be back up and running with in the month.. wanna race bones?

[giantkiller]

My wife's old rz350 would do 117mph. With me on it. That's back when I wasn't fat and weighed 285lbs. Oh yeah it was bone stock. She sold it to my friend Dave. It's still mint and completely stock. T smoke's sure are fun. Had a mildly built banshee for awhile.

[charleygofast]

Heres my '81 XS650 had since 1999 usually has a Velorex sidecar attached(family truckster) heres a pic without. Still working on the 1979 XS1100 I'll post pics of that soon.                                                  Charley.

[PaulG]

It still draws comments when people see it, and the sight, smell, and sound of a 2 stroke twin...

....that reminds me (again) ...  a few decades ago one of my former bosses told me he used to have a GT350 in the '70's.  When he would go out for a tear with his buddies, he would wrap a chicken in tin foil and and stuff it between the exhaust and the crankcase, then wrap it again in foil.  After a couple of hrs they would take it out and have lunch.  The 350 ran so hot he said, it would cook to perfection.  I don't remember if I asked him how it tasted, but it obviously didn't kill him.   

[ribbert]

Aaaaah, 2 stroke memories. I've had some great 2 strokes. My first new bike was a drum brake Suzuki 500 twin in the early 70's (after a '56 BSA 650 Golden Flash!), an H2 Kawasaki, an RD and of the 30 or so bikes I've had, the one I did the most miles on before the FJ, a twin disc water bottle (a water cooled Suzuki 750 triple for you youngsters), the first production bike with twin discs. There were many other less significant ones in between, Bridgestone, Jawa, Yamahas even a BSA Bantam and probably others. I found something to love about all of them.

After 20,000 miles I had the Suzuki engine mods done by the top bloke in the country, an absolute wizard with 2 strokes, Peter Van Meurs. Porting, squish heads, Wiseco pistons, chambers and Dell'Orto pumpers.

Anyone with a knowledge of 2 strokes will know how hard that thing went, it was absolutely wild, but the multi piece splined crankshaft was the weak spot and was only good for about 2000 miles before chewing the seals out.
Pressing it apart and back together again for seals, halved that.
After putting a few new crankshafts through it, I returned the engine to standard with new barrels and sold all the hot stuff to a bloke in QL for a speedway outfit.

I continued to ride it for a while longer and then bought my first GSX 1100.

The Suzuki 750's were a bit of an enigma, heaps of torque and smooth, great touring machines that more than held their own amongst the competition of the day.

It's not lurking in the garage but I wish it was, along the CBX1000, the H2, the CB1100R, the ............... if only we'd had that crystal ball!

Good on you guys that have hung on to some of these classics. Forget about what they'll be worth in a few years time, it's all about owning a piece of motorcycling history and fun to ride to boot.

Noel

[TexasDave]

Fond memories of the Suzuki GT750 two stroke triple. A bike introduced in 1972 and well ahead of its time. Started at the touch of the button. Would cruise all day long at 90+mph. Extremely smooth and  stable highway mile eater. I had two. Like Noel said the weak spot was the crankshaft seals. The seals went out on my first one and I just parked it and bought a second very cheap at the time. They were large bikes and heavy. Did I say heavy? They were also tall. With a 32 inch inseam I could just flat foot it. Spare engine parts were available for years. Suzuki turned that engine on its side and used it in their 180 outboards for years after the bike was discontinued. Sold both 1975s a few years ago and wished I hadn't.  Dave

[giantkiller]

My brother had an H2. Had all the good stuff done to it expansions, Ported, bored over, flatslide.
I remember following him when he pulled out to pass a couple of cars. Probably 65-70. He pulled a wheelie and road away. Took me a while to catch up to him on my dads cb750
My dad took it for a ride once. He came back looked at my brother and said "your fucking crazy" and walked away.

[aviationfred]

Your old bike looks awesome Leon.   It is nice and refreshing to see yours and others that have these old bikes stashed away.

My stashed bike is a bit of a different story.

I am but a youngster compared to you guys that talk about buying and riding the old 2 strokes in the '70's. 

As an 18 year old graduating high school.....Yamaha introduced the Vmax. A rip roaring beast of a motorcycle. Able to intimidate a normal man. Could eat about any other bike or car for lunch in a straight line....I knew that I would never have one or even need a bike like that.

Fast forward 30 years. Last April, I purchased a friends 1985 Vmax as a project bike. I have been told that it had been sitting for about 4 years, but that it ran like a scalded cat before it was parked. The notorious 2nd gear issue also plagued the early Vmaxes. About 2 years before it was parked, the 2nd gear issue was repaired.

My No. 1 project over this winter was rebuilding the engine on the FJ. The FJ is my pride and joy ....i think moditus is going to slow up on the FJ for awhile and my energy will now be focused on getting the Vmax running and modified to more current standards.

Fred

[TexasDave]

 

[/quote]I am but a youngster compared to you guys that talk about buying and riding the old 2 strokes [/quote]


Sorry Fred but I felt I needed to correct the  word order in your sentence.  It should read "I am but a youngster compared to you old guys that talk about buying and riding the 2 strokes."       Dave

[fj johnnie]

 We called the two stroke three cylinder Suzuki's Water Buffalo's.  ( Canada ) No idea why.

[TexasDave]

We called the two stroke three cylinder Suzuki's Water Buffalo's.  ( Canada ) No idea why.

Yes they are water buffalo's in the US also. In the UK they are called "kettles". I think they are "water bottles" in OZ. No matter what they are called they were damn fine bikes. Only sold in the US 72-76.   Dave

[rktmanfj]

One of my 'stashed bikes':