Bandit Alley
GENERAL MOTORCYCLE FORUMS => GENERAL MOTORCYCLE => Topic started by: jbrough7 on April 10, 2006, 07:38:39 PM
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Okay - so I'm an old dude - I admit it! Almost 47 but still having fun - just wishing for ONE thing!!
Had a little accident on my Kawi 500 triple which, in hindsight, was really not that bad - but this dates back to 1976!! Kinda scared me off biking until just last year when I found a good deal on an older suzuki savage.
Now I've got a bandit and just so freakin' happy! This thing puts more smiles on my face than anything else!
So when I was out getting a mortgage, a wife, two kids and four hundred bills all those years, I coulda been riding a bike instead?!? Not fair!!
Can I dial back the clock to 1976, anybody??
:crybaby:
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Sounds like every time you swing your leg over the Bandito it automaticlly rolls you back. Its not always Miles Per Hour, but Smiles Per Hour. :banana:
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No way, man! If I can't, you can't! I hopped off my bike in 1981 to do the family/kids/home thing and didn't find my way back until summer of 2004. Didn't read bike mags...didn't look at bikes...didn't keep up with them in any way.
Imagine my surprise when I started looking around and instead of seeing these ...
(http://www.ronh.org/images/suz750e_78_2.jpg)
I saw these ...
(http://www.suzukicycles.com/images/ProductImages/colorVariations/500/GSX750FK4_blue_3333cc.jpg)
My words to the Suzuki dealer as I walked through his showroom? Don't you have any normal motorcycles? :lol:
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Hey DA, did you have one of those GS750's? What's that one, a '78?
I had a '77 GS750B. First year (in the US) Suzuki four-stroke. Mine was blue with a single disc and wire wheels. It was my first brand new motor vehicle.
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/paulweit/Personal/Suzuki_GS750_77.jpg)
Never had a Kawi triple. Had a friend with one and rode one of the wicked 750 triples. Man, those things handled like crap, but were fast and great wheelie machines. I opted for a Yamaha RD350. They were great at wheelies, too - and handled a helluva lot better than the Kawis.
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/paulweit/Personal/Yamaha_RD350_75.jpg)
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Hey DA, did you have one of those GS750's? What's that one, a '78?...
Yep. Brand new '78. Wish I had taken a few better pictures with it.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y297/DesolationAngels/1978GS750E.jpg)
Oh, I swear there are no adult beverages in that styro cooler! :beers:
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I hear ya, desolation - and I feel your pain!
It must be rose-coloured glasses but my early 70's 500 triple seemed SOOOO fast!!
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Pushin' 47 myself. (July)
Guys our age really did grow up in the hey-day of street bikes. Stuff to tell the grandchildren about. :wink:
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Yep I liked all of the late '70's 4-stroke Japanese standards and I would have to say that 78/79 GS750E was one of the nicest looking bikes ever designed. I bought my first new machine off the showroom floor - a 76 CB360T right after I turned 16 - my riding buddy at the time ran a 500 Titan stroker.
I rode a 78 GS1000 for several years - great memories that are with me to this day - and maybe one of the reasons that I had no problems whatsoever deciding on my 03 Bandit.
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I don't know why but when it came to look for a bike when I got back into it a couple of years ago, I had no prejudice and no knowledge whatsoever of the new two-wheelers. Studied and read and right away choice came down to a suzuki. had a blast for a time and then wanted something better and faster and looked all over ---and came back to suzuki - it was like nothing else even came close.
Maybe it's just due to the fact they have so many mid-sized bike priced right? Honda's are few and far between and priced out of range. kawi's ninjas are old...yamahas are expensive in Canada...what does that leave?
When I got the Bandit, I also looked at the sv650, the M50 and the c50. Glad I went with the Bandit all the way!
Go Suzuki!!
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I must be a very rare person indeed.
Everyone seems to have given up biking when they got married, got a mortage and had kids.
When I was younger, a teenager, my old man said "You'll get a bike over my dead body"
Well, at the age of 30, I year after my father died, and I'd been married 8 years, had a 6yr old and a not yet 1yr old, I got my licence....I'm 41 this year, my wife now rides a Ducati M750, my 7yr old is nearly 17 and nearly old enough to get his licence. My words to him "There is no way I'm buying you a car, you want transport, I'll help you buy a bike"
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The day I was legally able to ride a motorcycle, I went and got my learners permit, and ain't ever stopped.
Its the only thing thats kept me going, and sane.
Is all I can say is roll on the next 30 years. :beers:
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I hear ya, desolation - and I feel your pain!
It must be rose-coloured glasses but my early 70's 500 triple seemed SOOOO fast!!
It was fast! And good lookin', too. One of my friend's dad had one. I guess it would've been around 1972-ish. He'd put velocity stacks on it and done some other stuff to it and it screamed!
Now, it's been 30+ years since I've seen one, but I think it looked like this one ...
(http://home.ptd.net/~wcbarret/75H1F500.jpg)
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Hey DA, did you have one of those GS750's? What's that one, a '78?
I had a '77 GS750B. First year (in the US) Suzuki four-stroke. Mine was blue with a single disc and wire wheels. It was my first brand new motor vehicle.
Hey Paul, that looks just like the one I had. '77 GS750. IIRC I paid something like $2100 for it brand new. What a sweet bike.
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$2100 is what I paid for mine, too. :bigok:
(Got a Bell Star helmet - the orange one on the backrest in the pic above, full tank of gas and 1st service free.)
IIRC, MSRP was $100 more. When those bikes first got to SoCal, they were selling like hotcakes! I went to find one, I could only find one Suzuki dealer in the LA basin that had one, so I rushed over and bought it. I had really wanted a red one, but had to settle for blue if I was gonna get one at all. Picking up a leftover KZ900 or a new KZ1000 would have been easy, they were plentiful, but I wanted the Zook for it's better handling - and it was only a hair slower than the big KZ's. (IIRC, like 0.1 sec's in the 1/4 and 2 mph in top end difference.)
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Hey DA, did you have one of those GS750's? What's that one, a '78?...
Yep. Brand new '78. Wish I had taken a few better pictures with it.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y297/DesolationAngels/1978GS750E.jpg)
Damn. In this photo, you look just like a young version of Dean Haglund who I see you have in your avatar.
I saw him in a comedy club once in Arlington, TX. I see you live in McKinney. You're not Dean Haglund (aka Langly) are you? :grin:
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... You're not Dean Haglund (aka Langly) are you? :grin:
He he! Nope! I sure like 'im as one of the Lone Gunmen, though!
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I always thought if and when I purchased a bike it would be a Harley. Well as time went on and money got rare the Harley was out of the question. So I thought about buying a Vulcan but I just couldn't bring myself to purchase a Jap Cruiser.
Then my brother sells his Vulcan and buys a brand new 05 R1. Well I was 39 at the time and the ergos of a full blown sport bike were not for me...so where does that leave me? ZX 1200, 1200s Bandit, or a V-Max FZRs were to new to get a good price. The ZX had only 2 ugly color options and the V-Max wouldn't handle for crap. That logically only left the Bandit. Found one used for a good price and have been an extremely happy camper ever since.
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Good on ya! I looked for a good used bandit here in canada, but there are so few used bikes around, their prices are ridiculous! Almost what you would pay new! I got 2 bills off my bandit so there really wasn't any decision to be made.
Jim