A lot of people talk about the Suzuki GT750 in awe expecting a water cooled 750cc two stroke triple to be a bit of a handful, well they are but for different reasons than you would expect. I have owned two Kettles over the years, a 1971 GT750J, a GT750M and a Spondon TR750 chassis, the engine of which had been put in a sidecar when it was no longer competitive, for about 3 days before moving it on again I should have kept that one…. when I next saw it, 20 odd years later in a Lancashire dealers, the engine had been reunited with the chassis and it was up for sale, £15000 the asking price!
My 1971 GT750J parked on the A5 at Cobdens Bridge in 2000
The bike it’s self was a bit of a revolutionary design when it was released in 1971 featuring, electric start, water-cooling, Posi-Force lubrication (automatic two stroke pump) and I think started the Japanese trend for pointless acronyms with ECTS (Exhaust Tube Coupler System), simply a tube that connected the left and right hand side exhaust systems together in order to boost low to mid-range torque. This last innovation gives you a clue that you might not be looking at a fiery beast of a motorcycle, even if it was later developed into a true racer, the Formula 750 XR11/TR750. No, the GT was exactly that, a great Grand Tourer, large comfy saddle, high ‘sit up and beg’ handle bars and a sweet torquey engine. That, when you first thumb the starter button springs to life with and unmistakably two stroke ding ding, albeit muted by the water jacket and a cloud of sweet smelling un-burnt hydrocarbons that nowadays would get environmentalist’s very hot under the collar. Engage the surprisingly light clutch and snick it into first, give it a few revs, let the clutch out and you are greeted with a smooth turbine like flood of torque that pulls you toward the horizon briskly, although not exactly quickly. The American’s called the bike the ‘Water Buffalo’ for a reason, they are a big and heavy, producing 67bhp and weighing over 500 lbs, the bike is never going to be a handful in the way the much vaunted Kawasaki H2 (of the two stroke triple variety) was. But, they are an enjoyable ride, true the handling is a bit ponderous and they have no ground clearance, and despite the massive 200mm double-sided twin leading shoe drum brake, that looks like it should stop a truck, slow to stop. Later bikes were fitted with a pair of disks up front which improves the issue, but not a lot. Another thing you will notice after just a few enjoyable miles is the GT’s prodigious thirst for not only petrol, but two stoke oil as well, ridden hard my ‘J’ returned about 20 mpg!!! Don’t forget that this bike pre-dates the 1973 oil crisis that sent the cost of petrol soaring skyward, never to come down, later bikes addressed this, to an extent, by replacing the three 32mm slide carbs with 40mm CV carbs.
So, not fast, big and heavy, no ground clearance, didn’t stop, very thirsty, with ponderous handling, you would be forgiven thinking that I hated it….wrong! Everywhere you went people looked on in awe, but you didn’t care about that, you were smiling to yourself far to much to care what others thought, yes I’d have another tomorrow…..but recent stratospheric prices, caused by ‘investment buying’ mean this is very unlikely, shame.