New member - '76 GT550 among many others
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 7:34 am
I'm from Ohio, USA. I'm 65 and I've been riding and wrenching on bikes since I was 12. Raced both dirt and road courses in my youth. Now that I'm retired, I spend a lot of my time either restoring or customizing or bikes. I'll do one or the other based on the bikes condition. I currently own an '81 Honda CB650C hardtail bobber, a 79/80 Kawasaki KZ440 tracker style custom, a 1970 Triumph TR6C all original survivor, and the 1976 GT550 I'm working on. I'm also building an 81 Honda CM400T custom bobber for a high school buddy of mine at the the same time. I've restored an 79 Yamaha XS650 Special as well and built a CB350 Night Fighter. Have a well equipped shop, including a vapor blaster I built after studying numerous youtube videos.
Back in the 80's, I owned a 77 GT550 that was set up as a street racer - chambers, mild porting, air forks, rear-sets, bullet fairing, etc.. All the trick bits of the day. My neighbor and good friend owned an H1 Kawi, and another buddy had a GT550 as well both similarly set up. At least one evening a week we'd take a blast up through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, up one side of the river, then down the other, the exhaust notes from three sets of triple chambers ringing off the surrounding hills. Good times!
The GT I'm just starting on was given to me by my neighbor. Evidently he was having a bonfire / keg party back in 1982 for a bunch of his biker ( Harley) friends. Some guy shows up, well in his cups, riding this "Jap" bike. He was so drunk, he dropped the bike twice coming up the driveway. The party lasted well into the wee hours, and the next afternoon, when my neighbor was surveying the aftermath, he see the bike leaning against his shed. He didn't know the guy who rode it in, and after checking with all of his friends in the days following the party found that none of them knew the guy either. Figuring the guy would eventually show up wanting the bike, he let it sit. 40 years later it's still sitting there in the same place. Mice have made the airbox and carbs their home, and the gas in the tanks is the consistency of tar.
The bike is too far gone to be restored to stock, so I'm going to build a retro cafe racer out of it. Bought a set of Jemco chambers and some replacement carbs at Mid-Ohio swap meet. Going to bore 1mm, and shave head 1mm.
I now have the engine torn down and the cases split. I had to get creative getting the pistons out of the jugs - used a harmonic balancer puller bolted to the studs as a press. Tapping on the pullers screw while holding tension on a wrench, the slugs came out bit by bit.
I signed up here because the info available on the Suzuki triples is kind of slim, and it seems there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here that I can tap for advice as the project progresses.
Back in the 80's, I owned a 77 GT550 that was set up as a street racer - chambers, mild porting, air forks, rear-sets, bullet fairing, etc.. All the trick bits of the day. My neighbor and good friend owned an H1 Kawi, and another buddy had a GT550 as well both similarly set up. At least one evening a week we'd take a blast up through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, up one side of the river, then down the other, the exhaust notes from three sets of triple chambers ringing off the surrounding hills. Good times!
The GT I'm just starting on was given to me by my neighbor. Evidently he was having a bonfire / keg party back in 1982 for a bunch of his biker ( Harley) friends. Some guy shows up, well in his cups, riding this "Jap" bike. He was so drunk, he dropped the bike twice coming up the driveway. The party lasted well into the wee hours, and the next afternoon, when my neighbor was surveying the aftermath, he see the bike leaning against his shed. He didn't know the guy who rode it in, and after checking with all of his friends in the days following the party found that none of them knew the guy either. Figuring the guy would eventually show up wanting the bike, he let it sit. 40 years later it's still sitting there in the same place. Mice have made the airbox and carbs their home, and the gas in the tanks is the consistency of tar.
The bike is too far gone to be restored to stock, so I'm going to build a retro cafe racer out of it. Bought a set of Jemco chambers and some replacement carbs at Mid-Ohio swap meet. Going to bore 1mm, and shave head 1mm.
I now have the engine torn down and the cases split. I had to get creative getting the pistons out of the jugs - used a harmonic balancer puller bolted to the studs as a press. Tapping on the pullers screw while holding tension on a wrench, the slugs came out bit by bit.
I signed up here because the info available on the Suzuki triples is kind of slim, and it seems there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here that I can tap for advice as the project progresses.
