Big Brother

Twenty five years ago, the young Rod Ker always thought the GS750 was a better bike than its 1000cc successor. Not something editor Bob would agree with mind you - he loved his! So it's with some reluctance that we have to report that this test has done nothing to change the churlish Mr. Ker's mind. What do you think readers?

STANDING and looking at the big Suzuki on a cold December day, I suddenly had one of those flashback moments. Somewhere from the back of my mind came a vision of youthful me staring wistfully at an almost-new GS1000 with the same long black petrol tank on another cold Winter day, long ago.

An even colder one in fact, because it was dark and starting to snow. Fluffy white flakes were beginning to settle on the road and the Suzuki's gleaming paintwork. Which explained the wistful stare, because the weather was really more suited to skiing than biking.
While I certainly didn't let a bit of snow put me off in those days, the Suzuki's keeper - who just happened to be the owner of the motorcycle shop where I worked - was less keen.
Usually I could borrow something from the showroom for the 30-mile trip home, but there was no way he was letting seventeen hundred quid's worth (enough to buy a small house in those days, probably) out in that sort of weather. Spoilsport.
This obviously bitter disappointment probably happened in 1979, when the GS1000 was still relatively new and generally considered to be what discerning riders chose instead of a Honda CBX1000 or Yamaha XS1100.
Launched in 1978, the GS1000 looked as though it had been developed from the previous year's GS750, which cynics suggested had been directly developed from the Kawasaki 900. Some of this may be true.
Suzuki admitted that the legendary Z1 had been an inspiration in the creation of their first ever four strokes but it seems that prototype GS fours were closer to a litre displacement, so in a sense the 750 was actually derived from the 1000.
Possibly Suzuki decided that the world wasn't ready for the ultimate in 1977 but then had to have a rethink when Honda brought out the CBX and Yamaha the XS11.
Although the GS1000 was obviously very similar to the 750, there were plenty of important differences. It definitely wasn't possible to turn one into the other just by swapping barrels and pistons. For a start, both the bore and stroke were different: 65 x 56.4mm for 748cc, 70 x 64.8mm for 997cc. This made the bigger version slightly taller, but that was only the beginning of it.

1: The bike has a new chain fitted to replace the horrible old thing it had when Mark bought it. Usually I always fit new sprockets with a new chain but in this case there's very little wear on the old sprockets which look almost new. It seems foolish to replace them for the sake of it, so I've had the old rear sprocket zinc plated to make it look as new. In fact it now looks better than new. The original sprocket bolts and nuts have also received the attentions of the zinc platers, and I can now bolt the whole thing together with a spot of blue threadlock on each bolt.

2: The rear sprocket assembly is a push fit into the rear hub and it's important not to miss out this spacer which fits between the left hand wheel bearing and the sprocket carrier bearing. Leave it out and the wheel bearings will collapse as they will be subjected to a sideways load as the wheel spindle nut is tightened up. The cush drive rubbers are in pretty good nick on Mark's bike, so I'm re-using them. A squirt of WD40 on the rubbers helps the sprocket carrier slot home.