For the past twelve years I have been living in Baja California. This has given some of my friends on Google the impression that I live only for older dirt bikes. In fact my mind is a bit more open as can be seen in my last post about my dormant F1. Above is one of my street bikes from the 80's and 90's.
It was a very straight forward Suzuki GS750 when I bought it in the early 80's. Since I lived in Los Angeles at the time I went over to see Racecrafters...a shop in Hollywood I believe...to see what they might like to sell me. The only thing that they had that I could afford was the GS1000 style bikini fairing. I stuck it on and happily rode the bike for the next ten years or so.
In the mid-90's I decided to do a little more. First I contacted Corbin...the maker of very nice custom seats. I sent him my seat base and a picture of Wes Cooley's GS1000 and asked him to make me a new seat just like Wes Cooley's. Obviously, they did an impressive job. Next, I picked-up some rear sets from England. Then some Progressive Shocks and a four into one header. The paint was courtesy of a custom painter who had a shop near my office. All I told him was that I wanted a GS1000 style paint job using red as the main color instead of the Suzuki blue. It worked out well. I think that at some point I installed somewhat lower bars...nicer grips, etc...
This was an amazing bike that I would be happy to build again. I used it for almost twenty years. I know that I never checked the clearances on the valves. I'm not even sure that I replaced the spark plugs. I did change the oil regularly and put in new points and a condenser from time to time. It ran like a train always.
Right now I live in a place where the roads are mediocre and drivers are just plain dangerous so I do not venture out on my street bikes very often. If/when I return to the United States I may build another one of these.
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