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|front_sprocket= 16T | |front_sprocket= 16T | ||
|rear_sprocket= 40T | |rear_sprocket= 40T | ||
|frame = | |frame = Welded mild steel tubing | ||
|suspension =Front: Telehydraulic Fork <br> | |suspension =Front: Telehydraulic Fork <br> | ||
Rear: Dual Shocks Swinging Fork | Rear: Dual Shocks Swinging Fork | ||
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== Review == | |||
IT WAS Colin Curwood freelance | |||
photographer of this parish who really reminded me of the problem. Giving | |||
us some Long Distance Information on his 32.000 miles-plus GT550 Suzuki in June | |||
he observed that hurling such a machine round Silverstone and then bitching | |||
about the handling (as Bike did. many moons ago) is a pretty pointless exercise. | |||
Stick your neck, nose, elbows, bum and boots out on the street if that's where | |||
the bike belongs. I agreed; I still do. So what was I doing on a 550 in the Isle | |||
Of Man ferchrissake? | |||
It just didn't seem right, somehow. Race week in the Island without a bike may | |||
be strawberries without cream, Coburn without Hughes, but I didn't really fancy | |||
my chances of beating Mike Hailwood's angle of lean round the course on a Suzuki | |||
triple. Or rather I did, but only after visiting every Bike pub between Ramsay | |||
and Peel. Anyway, my route home across the mainland is specifically designed to | |||
test any street bike to the outer limits, so I settled for using the 550 as | |||
transport, pure 'n' simple. | |||
Until these two maniacs hustled by | |||
me one evening, going round the course. The leader was on a Trident, giving his | |||
mate on the 750 Honda behind some work to do just keeping the horizon the right | |||
way up. I'm well aware that you'd have resisted this vulgar challenge to ego and | |||
riding skill and just continued plodding on towards the Chinese meal I was | |||
headed for, but I was due on the midnight boat and it was a nice evening and I | |||
hadn't really had a good blast all week and ... I tucked in behind the Honda and | |||
soon we were cruising in the high eighties, playing tag in and out of cars, | |||
combos, tractors and packs of bikes. The 550 was keeping up on the good surface, | |||
slipstreaming the four along the straights and nudging him through the bends on | |||
braking. Then the road deteriorated with that sort of sudden unexpected | |||
brain-loosening lurch you get crossing county boundaries. Using all the 550's | |||
amazing mid-range whizz to haul down the straight from one turn to another, I | |||
felt my internal organs cannoning off each other like the BBC had decided to | |||
hold the final of Pot Black in my visceral region. Liver off kidney down the | |||
centre pocket: that sort of thing. I gave in finally cowardice is one of my more | |||
attractive attributes and let the throttle slip forward beneath a limp and | |||
unresisting wrist. Try it yourself if you don't believe me, but don't eat first, | |||
okay? | |||
Lack of rear suspension compliance | |||
must be one of the Suzuki's worst points, along with a poor riding position and | |||
inadequate fuel capacity. We've said it before about Suzuki's and it still | |||
applies. Stiffer springs do not a better handling motorcycle make. We've also | |||
moaned about footpegs mounted so far forward that you find yourself hanging your | |||
heels on the passenger's rests for some relief on motorway drags. I've seen so | |||
many other riders at the same game to know that I'm not alone, but W. Haylock of | |||
this address informs me that the new GS750 Suzuki is built to accept normal | |||
human beings in reasonable comfort. Perhaps before long Japanese manufacturers | |||
will all be building bikes with old-style European riding positions, but until | |||
then ... | |||
The GT550's thirst remains a problem | |||
in a country where since the great gas crisis of '73 garages shut up | |||
shop earlier and earlier and keep the shutters up on Sundays. Multiply 3.3 | |||
gallons by 31 and you get 102.3 miles, which is the sort of distance you can | |||
easily cover in a Sunday evening without ever sighting an open petrol station. | |||
On three occasions I stretched the 550's limited reserves of fuel and my own | |||
patience to the limit, droning along in fifth gear with a handful of revs on the | |||
dial. Twice I was overtaken by mopeds in my prayerful search for hydrocarbon | |||
distillate. Oh, the humiliation. | |||
But I haven't mentioned the engine | |||
at all. Well, there's precious little to say. Mods have been so minor that it | |||
almost takes a storeman to spot them. Early electric starter motor clutches gave | |||
trouble and that's about it, because we know enough folk with high mileage | |||
examples to be sure that you'd have to be rather unlucky to cop an unreliable | |||
big triple. Most stunning internal mod on the latest A model is bores machined | |||
straight into the cylinder casting sans liners, but coated with Suzuki Composite | |||
Electro-Chemical Material (SCEM) or hard chrome time and thee. The GT250 is | |||
similarly constructed and benefits are claimed to be better heat dissipation, | |||
more constant piston tolerances and, therefore, more consistent power output. | |||
SCEM is further claimed to be ultra hard wearing and to present no problems for | |||
reboring. | |||
Since its introduction in 1972, the | |||
GT550 has changed very little. The front drum finally faded away completely in | |||
'73 to be replaced by a single disc. Along with improved ground clearance a year | |||
later, this was the most significant performance improvement, and the less said | |||
about the original front brake the better. I've yet to encounter an owner who | |||
hasn't tried to uprate it in some way. And while we still find it far too easy | |||
to knock chunks off the road with the GT380's centre stand, I never succeeded in | |||
making its bigger and much smarter brother kiss the deck. Instrumentation was | |||
'improved' for '75's M model with larger idiot lights under smoked acrylic sheet | |||
and a digital gear indicator. I found great reassurance in looking at this | |||
instrument and always discovering that the figure displayed was still the right | |||
way up: a worthwhile addition for those of a nervous disposition. | |||
Best thing about the rubber-mounted | |||
motor is its vast acreage of usable power, spread from anything over three grand | |||
right up to the 8,000 rpm redline. Maximum torque a hefty 38.7 lb-fts is | |||
developed 2.000 rpm below that figure and it shows in magnificent mid-range | |||
pzazz. Even five gears the GT 750's seem one too many on occasion, so smooth | |||
is the urgent surge of three cylinders. But you have to take the rough with the | |||
smooth. The Suzuki three may be way silkier than Honda's four most of the time, | |||
but just as you're about to sail smoothly over the legal limit at 5,000 rpm in | |||
top, an ugly patch of vibration shows up. It lasts from just below 70 mph to | |||
just over 80 and hammers through to your feet. There's no alternative to | |||
choosing either a 65 or 85 mph cruising speed. No prizes for guessing my choice. | |||
Suzuki's greatest achievement in | |||
producing the 550 was to succeed in complete understatement. Inevitably it was | |||
compared with the early Kawasaki 500 triples, whose bowel-loosening performance | |||
left a legend which has tended to rub off on all air-cooled strokcr threes. | |||
Instead the 550 looks staid, almost portly, but. nonetheless, attractive. Its | |||
frame may look just like a collection of tubes holding two wheels apart, tacked | |||
together with aesthetically repulsive gussetting, but it handles despite the | |||
rear springs' attempts to prevent it holding a line. It may not wheelie its way | |||
into your affections, but a standing quarter time in the 13 second bracket from | |||
543 cc ain't to be sniffed at. | |||
As I looped across England, the bike | |||
really began to grow in my estimation. A quick warm-up down the M6 to Knutsford | |||
had us threading in and out of the deadly day tripper traffic I hoped would be | |||
well clear of the Peak district by the time I got into the Macclesfield - Buxton | |||
- Matlock groove. It's a route well worth exploring if you want to learn | |||
something about your riding and the bike you do it on. Combined with stretches | |||
of both M6 and Ml and a final mad dash across Leicestershire and Rutland on the | |||
A606, it features everything from a series of devastating uphill and down dale | |||
hairpins, steep valley descents and climbs and finally a wide, lolloping stretch | |||
of blacktop curling over the rolling English countryside. Now that the M62 has | |||
drained it of heavy truckers, all you have to contend with are other loons who | |||
think it's a great way to go home. | |||
At first I was baulked all the way | |||
into Macclesfield by coaches and caravans, until things thinned out on the | |||
twisting climb up to the brief plateau before Buxton. Arms splayed round a | |||
bulging tank bag, I began to feel speed fever taking over easing the Suzuki into | |||
tight uphill curves, picking it up and squirting the power on simultaneously. No | |||
wriggles or twitches, just power and plenty of it whenever it was required. | |||
So far I'd failed to miss a cog in the positive, if slightly clunky, box and the | |||
brakes were holding up under a fair amount of punishment. Even my hind quarters | |||
weren't protesting: this is a road which demands total concentration or it's | |||
splat into some picturesque stone wall or a long echoing scream down into a | |||
charming roadside chasm. Heading down into hairpin after hairpin with precious | |||
little engine braking had me grasping the brake lever yet more fervently as I | |||
gave in to the tempo of a ride that was rapidly getting out of hand. Under the | |||
hypnotic effects of swinging rhythmically through bend after bend I kept on | |||
wanting to do it faster and faster and faster still. The brake pedal sagged | |||
lower and lower and the disc seemed to require more and more pressure. I'd have | |||
given all the digital gear indicators in Hammamatsu for another. | |||
Source Bike Magazine 1974 | |||
==Specifications== | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
!Make Model | |||
|Suzuki GT550K | |||
|- | |||
!Year | |||
|1974 - 75 | |||
|- | |||
!Engine Type | |||
|Two stroke, transverse three cylinder | |||
|- | |||
!Displacement | |||
|543 cc / 33.1 cu in | |||
|- | |||
!Bore X Stroke | |||
|61 x 62 mm | |||
|- | |||
!Compression | |||
|6.8:1 | |||
|- | |||
!Induction | |||
|3 x 28mm Mikuni carburetors | |||
|- | |||
!Ignition | |||
|Battery/coil with contact breakers | |||
|- | |||
!Ibattery | |||
|12V, 11Ah | |||
|- | |||
!Starting | |||
|Electric and kick | |||
|- | |||
!Max Power | |||
|40 kW / 53 hp @ 7500 rpm | |||
|- | |||
!Max Torque | |||
|53 Nm / 5.4 kgf-m / 38.8 ft-lb @ 6000 rpm | |||
|- | |||
!Frame | |||
|Welded mild steel tubing | |||
|- | |||
!Transmission | |||
|5 Speed, constant mesh | |||
|- | |||
!Final Drive | |||
|Chain, endless 530 | |||
|- | |||
!Front Suspension | |||
|Telehydraulic fork | |||
|- | |||
!Rear Suspension | |||
|Dual shocks swinging fork preload adjustable | |||
|- | |||
!Front Brakes | |||
|Drum | |||
|- | |||
!Rear Brakes | |||
|Drum | |||
|- | |||
!Front Tire | |||
|3.25-19 | |||
|- | |||
!Rear Tire | |||
|4.00-18 | |||
|- | |||
!Dimensions | |||
|Length: 2195 mm / 86.4 in Width: 815 mm / 32.1 in Height: 1160 mm / 45.7 in | |||
|- | |||
!Wheelbase | |||
|1465 mm / 57.7 in | |||
|- | |||
!Ground Clearance | |||
|145 mm / 5.7 in | |||
|- | |||
!Dry Weight | |||
|200 kg / 441 lbs | |||
|- | |||
!Fuel Capacity | |||
|12.5 Liters / 3.3 US gal / 2.7 Imp gal | |||
|} | |||
==In Media== | ==In Media== | ||
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{{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
[[Category: | {{Suzuki}} | ||
[[Category:Suzuki GT series|Suzuki GT series]] | |||
[[Category:Suzuki motorcycles|GT550]] | [[Category:Suzuki motorcycles|GT550]] | ||
[[Category:1970s motorcycles]] | [[Category:1970s motorcycles]] |