A not so new member.

Interesting stories of you and a Suzuki you have owned.

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CumbriaSuzuki
Around the block
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:23 pm
Country: England
Suzuki 2-Strokes: GT250, GT380, GT500
Location: Cumbria, UK

A not so new member.

Post by CumbriaSuzuki »

Hi,
I'm Martin, and I thought it best that I should introduce myself, although I've been a member since April.
I'm from Barrow-in-Furness, UK, which is also home to Crooks Suzuki which I'm sure lots of you are aware, and I must say that them being here has turned out to be very handy for me.
I bought my red 1976 GT500 22 years ago and rode it for about two years before she stopped charging the battery. A new rectifier then was around £80 :cry: and as the first child was on its way I decided to store it for a couple of years.
That was 20 years ago. She was in good condition when I parked her up, and I put two stroke oil down the plug holes like you should, so she's not siezed but the chrome's taken a battering with the climate here (raining quite a lot of the time and salty too as we live on the coast).
I've taken some before pictures on my dodgy camera phone as my camera was bust at the time, but I think they show the poor overall condition. Since then I've had all the black bits powder coated at 'Triple S' in Keighley, Yorkshire, which I highly recommend if you live in the UK. I'm also very proud of myself as I've relaced both wheels with NOS spokes from Crooks. I thought there was some black art to it but it turned out not too bad. I had the tank and panels resprayed 20 years ago and they have sat in a cupboard ever since, so they're looking pretty good. There's loads of shiny stuff I've got to either replace or have rechromed, and I can't decide to buy those remanufactured mufflers from Marcel in Holland or get some expansion chambers from either Titan Performance or Higgspeed. The decision would be easy to make if the Euro falls against the Pound :lol:
BTW, 20 years later and I've just bought a NOS rectifier off ebay for the princley sum of £33 :lol:

One question I have is for anyone that might know: do you think it would be okay to try and start it after such a long time or should I replace the crank seals as a matter of course before I do any damage to the bearings?

Bikes I've owned include:
1975 GT250M
1981 Yamaha RD350LC
1977 GT380
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Martin

GT500A 1976
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oldjapanesebikes
Moto GP
Posts: 3229
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:43 am
Country: Canada
Suzuki 2-Strokes: GT750(Jx3,L,M,A,B),T500
Location: Ontario
Contact:

Re: A not so new member.

Post by oldjapanesebikes »

Welcome aboard ! Looks like you have a really nice project there - on the seal question, you could give it a try and see what happens, but as you already have the engine out of the frame if it were me, I'd be inclined to pull it apart and have them done. It just comes down to cost. They could be fine - once its running you'd find out soon enough :wth: That model already has the crankcase modification for the increased oil level, so you should be good to go otherwise. 8)
Ian

If at first you don't succeed, just get a bigger hammer !
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