I bought this GS750 from a work colleague sometime in the early 80s. He was a young guy, didn't know anything about anything, never cleaned it, never serviced it, never maintained it, and when it wouldn't start, he'd punch it in the tank. Eventually, it just wouldn't start at all so he sold it to me me For $200.

Soon as I got it home I checked the chambers for fuel - empty, despite plenty of fuel in the tank. I took the vacuum line to the taps off, stuck them to my lips, blew them out, connected them again, pushed the starter - vroom, vroom.

Bike was in a terrible state, tank was beyond repair, all the chrome had surface spots of rust,, paint was terrible, so I pulled it all apart and started a rebuild. Engine was actually in very good nick, bore was fine and within spec as were the pistons. I just replaced the cam chain, replaced the rings and ground the valves, plus new seals and gaskets. Even the JIS screws were ok. Painted the lower cases, barrel, head and rockers, polished the side covers and rocker end caps and stuck it back together.

The frame and rear fairing were painted black with a little red pinstriping and GS750 stencilled on the rear fairing. Chrome pipes, bars, guards and rims were polished to remove rust and the hubs and forks polished. I recovered the seat with vinyl sewn up my Singer treadle and spruced up the instrument cluster then put it all back together, minus the tank. It stood around for a month or so while I looked around for a tank, finally found one, painted it black and started it up, synced the quad carbs and it ran nicely.

I put it over the pits and rode it to and from work for a while before selling it to bloke up the road. I'm not a fan of Jap bikes, but the GS was nice, hopped along, handled nicely, although it was damned heavy. From memory I think it was a 76 model, which would make it one of Suzuki's first 750 four stroke, streets ahead of Honda's effort, the CB750.

These are the only pictures I took of the bike, I took very few pictures back them, nothing before this one. I make up for it now, lots and lots of pictures of every thing I build. You can just see the front end of my CR250 motoxer I used to race behind it. No pics of this one either. When Young you just never think about taking photos for the future, and when you get old you regret it!

Prior to this bike I rebuilt a Triumph 650 into a cafe racer. Chrome and polished aluminium everything, except the frame and tank. Rear sets, clip ons, single seat with a bum stop, capacitor - no battery, everything hand made. I won a bike show with this one, whenever I parked it in town, I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to it. Previous to this I rebuilt an A65 Thunderbolt into a sort of cafe racer, but just bashed and crashed it, a real roughy, wouldn't have won anything with this one, except maybe 'worst bike in WA'. Nice bikes the A65s. I always lusted after the big, red tanked, Bonny killing Spitfires, worth a fortune now, but only produced for a couple of years in the mid 60s before being discontinued.

First pic is my dream bike, a BSA Spitfire, fire breathing monsters in their day, GP2 carbs able to run on alcohol. Just as well I couldn't afford one, I nearly killed myself on the A65 Thunderbolt more than a couple of times. I could have launched myself into space with a Spitfire.
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