Suzuki 2 Strokes

In 1973 my father and his uncle started a company in North St Paul, MN called ElDorado Fairings. They went to the local Suzuki shop and picked up the 'coolest' bike at the time. A '74 GT750L to design their product around. They ran the business in a garage with 3 employees, a few fiberglass molds and a couple paint guns.

After a few months they came out with the ElDorado fairing. It came equipped with an AM/FM tape deck radio, a CB Radio, A cigarette lighter and equipped with an assortment of trailer marker lights and a couple extra bulbs up front. It was ugly as sin. As he tells the story it was the first motorcycle to ever have any of those. A major motorcycle magazine at the time reviewed the product and ripped it to shreds. The article was titled "Sometimes the Song of the Highway can be Off Key".

Taking it across the states and running it through its paces, they complained of almost anything they could think of. Calling out poor craftsmanship, bad sound quality, and the all around ugly look. A few companies caught on and made cheaper, better, and more available products. Eventually driving ElDorado Fairings into bankruptcy. They sold around 500 units (fairings, trunks, and hard bags)

My great-uncle couldn't afford to pay what he owed to my father so he gave him the great water buffalo. He passed away last fall and after the buffalo sat for 30 years I decided it was time to take it from my old mans garage and bring the seized girl back to life. I am about halfway completed. Just painted the tank this weekend and working on getting it to run right after tearing it all apart.

So according to my father, the 750 I'm working on now was the first bike to ever come fully equipped with music. To me it felt like a great tribute to my recently passed uncle to finally hear her run.

We have the old review article laying around somewhere, and when I find it I will throw some pictures up here of it. Its amusing to read how hard they were on the fairing. Once I get some good pictures of her now I will post them up too.

Here it is then, fully equipped with the complete ElDorado Golden Safari package:

Nice to see a bit of history being preserved I take a lot of ribbing for my '76A with the full fairing and bag set, but I like it - and in the end that's all that matters

If you have scans of any original brochures, I can include them in the options section of the Field Guide.

http://www.oldjapanesebikes.com/fieldgu ... cover.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i think if the trunk was a bit bigger , it would sleep 4 comfortably
nice bit of history though.

Awesome story. To the contrary, all of the fairings and saddles look god awful on these bikes. But, your El Dorado's look great. Awesome tribute. My 750 is also a tribute, somewhat. Same model year I was born.