If you know me, you know I have a garage full of bikes. But as one so-called friend put it, I'm not so much a collector as I am an accumulator. Yeppers, I can accept that. But everything that's in my garage came at a price that I could live with and still puts a smile on my face.
My good friend and long-time MSTA member in eastern Oklahoma, Mike Morris, knows my 1980 Suzuki GS450E quite well as I bought it from him around 2003. He found it in a state of disrepair, put it back into running condition, and advertised it in Cycle Trader. I'd see one of these bikes on ebay and liked the looks of it. I'd put in bids on two examples of this model on ebay but got shut out on both. I sent an email to the owner of this bike through Cycle Trader not knowing it was Mike. He responded, and after a period of time we came to terms on how much and where.
Suzuki had a similar model to the 450E called a 450S, and it was pretty much the same bike with some special striping, a nice little quarter fairing, and a couple of other small variations. The fairing must be made of unobtainium as when I have seen them, they were VERY expensive (either very few of them ever existed or very few survived). However, I finally managed to find one on ebay and I had the determination to purchase it. Along with the fairing, I have also acquired a tail piece AND a gas tank, ALL with the same striping as the fairing. All it needs now is a painted front fender to replace the chrome version that came on the E model and a set of bar end mirrors to really be an "S". But I'm pretty much ok with it as it is.
Right before STAR I had a flat tire on the 450E/S a short distance from my house, but I managed to ride it home. I put the bike in the garage, and there is sat until yesterday. I swapped the rear tire and tube, put the battery on a charger, and gave the bike a good rubbing (yeah, I do that once in a great while). This morning I checked the air pressure (all good), the battery (all good), and after getting the "all clear" from the young lady, I took it for a ride.
I put about 75 miles of meandering on it, and I was reminded of just how much I like this bike. It's got zero electronic aids other than a series of lights at the top of the dash to tell me what gear I'm in. The tach is mechanical and swings rather wildly at pretty much any speed. No ABS and pretty wooden at best. No traction control other than a very modest power output. No fuel gauge. However, compared to my gps, the speedometer is quite accurate. Yeah baby! All in all, I still really like this bike. I've added a bit over 25,000 miles to this bike since getting it, and other than some almost expected charging issues (it IS a Suzuki), it's been pretty trouble free. I won't win any races with its rather modest power output, and for its size, it's even a little heavy at around 435# curb weight.
Did I say how much I enjoy riding this bike? When you look up the old rider phrase "It's more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow", there is a picture of this bike right next to it. It'll run highway speeds all day long (just give it time to get there), is comfortable with an upright seating position, has more leg room than several of my other bikes, and gets 55-60 mpg. With its skinny little tires, if you think about turning, you're doing it. And yet it's quite stable, and I've done 3 or 4 thousand mile days on this bike.
All in all, I give it a big thumbs up!
So I got home around 1:30 this afternoon with plans to meet my sisters and brothers in law along with their kids for dinner tonight at 5:00. We were to meet in Dandridge, Tennessee, which is about 35 miles from my house. What to do? Why, ride something different, of course! And the choice for this evening was the '88 Honda Hawk GT. There's nothing wrong with it other than a pesky slow leak in the rear tire, but STAR got in the way of riding it regularly, and it had been sitting since late May. Thinking I might get this chance, I put a battery tender on the bike last night, and today I checked the tires. Front-good. Rear...needs air. Pump it up, hit the starter, and the bike fires right up.
I bought this bike in the summer of 1995 when it had 10,000 miles on it, and it now has ~66,400 miles. I've only ridden it to one STAR, but that one was at Lake Eufaula, OK. I took it to Barber Motorsports Park to ride in the California Superbike School that I did a few years ago. It's had, let's see, virtually nothing ever go wrong with it (please karma, don't bite me for saying that). Other than a Corbin saddle, the bike is stock. It's not a garage or trailer queen, and when I get it out, it gets ridden.
Today's ride to Dandridge was pleasant. I could have jumped on the interstate and stayed there all but a very few miles, but why? I took nearly an hour to go the 35 miles, and had a fine little jaunt on mostly little backroads. The bike seems to like that, and so do I. After a good dinner with my family, the bike brought me home with no drama on different backroads than going.
This bike is actually a little lighter than the GS450E with a curb weight of around 410-415#. With it's cooler than cool single sided swingarm, removing a rear wheel takes only marginally longer than finding the right BIG socket to remove the nut. The underslung exhaust looks just right and fits nicely with a bunch of bikes that appeared a decade or two later.
After 21 years, this bike still puts a smile on my face. I give it a big thumbs up!
Tomorrow, I think the DR650S needs some exercise. We'll see.
