Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

rn !J IKlI I - • IKlI ..:I = g '<:l< r-- O"l l-o QJ .c 0 .... U Clear plastic d isc brake flu id reservo ir is for visu al flu id level checking. Instrument cl uster (fo regro und) reads great at night, butIdiot lights and di\lital gear indicator get lost in br ight sun glare. . 0 Three Mikuni VM24SC's in a row.,Twocable throttle contro l is sim ilar to Honda's set u p , jo inted links are rubber booted against grit . • can clear out the cob webs and the road begins to . 'cri n kle up into challenging curls. After we hi t the true mountainside, it really gets interesting narrowing down to cart-track width, clinging beside a running brook and tunneling through caverns of green. I even have to duck and weave my head to ;:I"l""lirl stuffine my ear into th- busb es, As we cli mb, the switchbacks get tighter, and in some spots the su n shines directly in my eyes while the road hides in shadow. It's nerve-wracking, hard work , yet even under these conditions, we overhau l a camper, ajeep, and about five cars, putting them all behind with relative ease . The Suzuki is q uic k and respo nsive enough to take advantage of even th e slimmest passing opport unity. Sun in t he eyes is worse on the downside, plus the grade is pretty steep. fog down below, loo ks like I' ll h ave to drop through it to reach the coast. Then the final hazard : The road changes to dirt and r em ains dirt the rest of the way down, switchbacks an d steep grade all th e way. The Suzuki is a handful. The Required maintenance was a lo o k, a lick,'and a promise most of the time. harsh forks batter my wrists sore, but the ride d o wn is without serious incident excep t fo r a hole th at almost wrenched th e bars o u t of my ha nds. Do w n, th r o ugh the grey , chilling mis t, -nd at last the botto m. Grey, wild, lon ely coast . What a road. At first , what with the chill and th e n ervou s strain fro m co ming down th e mo untain, m y heart 's no t into _th ro wing the Suzuki do wn to the pegs. But th e road pu lls an d calls to me as it scrabbles across th e r oc ky cliffs, and my only regret is that there's no one else out today o n a cafe bike. A road li ke th is shou ld be shared w ith someth ing o ther tha n turkey Oldsmobiles and campers. Now begins the lo ng grind in the da rk, over 250 m iles back to h om e base at 55 MPH or whatever the traffic will bear . The Suzuki has a comfortable sea t, one whose co rners don' t cut the inner thighs o n lon g ri des . Still, after tw elve ho urs in th e saddle, I've got wash boar d buns, stiff knees, sore wris ts, gri tty eyes and a mildly aching bac k. So soft and unobtrusive is th e Suzuki; on ly when you really grab a handful at speed does its sound intrude - a muffled Ferrari-like wail whose cadence is born of a 120-degree crankshaft. Sooth ing, mellow, inconspicuous. The miles pound past , and the bumpity-bump of tar strips transmitted / by the firm suspension is the only intrusive sensation. Personally , though my fatigue is a great nagging pain, I'll still choose the firmness; any softer and I'd have probably go ne on my head somewhere back in the mountains. Gran te d, 1 was weaned on English sports cars with th eir non-nonsense bedrock ride . So f t-f'a n n i e d bouleva rd iers probably won 't see it so favo rably . Final ly, home. All those boring freeway miles. It's over. Mileage 1056. It 's been a good weekend. Epilogue Tour ing on the Suzuki GT 380L may no t be " grand" in the purist's sense, but th e m ach in e has carefully been weaned away fro m the idiosyncracies that used Though limited in ground clearance, t he GT380 was still much at home in the twisty-loopy stuff. For a stock 380 pound Inscrutable, it was pretty f ine. Th at's o ne of the little ones. Get off in the woods and h ills if y o u really want to enjoy the Suzuki. to p lague reaso nably p riced two-s tro ke road bum ers. In 1,000 mil es, the chai n stretched enou gh to re quire tig htening (about a hal f-turn of the adjusters) th e day after. Suzuki's toolkit. is about Japanese standard ugly .. bu t at least they give you an extens ion hand le for the axle nut spanner, whic h is a welcome relief from skinned knuckles -and gouged fingers . They also bel ieve in co tter-keying the brake an d clu tch lever pivot bolts. At 1500 miles, the plugs are finally fluffed enough to affect performance and m ileage, b ut all th ree are firing regularly. None of them whiskered during the tes t. Ignition may be a bit hairy to set - they use t hree sets of points off the left crank tip, timing without a buzz box or ligh t is virtual ly -uh- pointless. All the electrics worked with only one pic ky fault. The "five" on the das hboard digit al gear-position readout failed to ligh t occasionally. Night lighting is adequate most of the time. Penetration is good, but as always, spread is lacking for seeing ahead in tight bends . The Suzuki also passed th e Cycle News Inadvertent Crash-worthiness test. We've had other bikes that sustained worse damage just falling off the side stand. Though the lens was ' shattered and the housing scra ped, the turn signal was so robust it stayed pe rfectly round and the replacement lens just dropped in. The bent lever probably could have been bent back withou t breaking, but to . play it safe we rode with it bent until it could be replaced. Six bucks for a lever - wowee ! So back to our original question: What is a GT motorcycle? Does the name fit the Suzuki GT 380L? Maybe on two of four counts. Though no racer, it is fast point-to-point, colorful if not outstandingly stylish, firm yet not uncomfortably stiff, safe if the rider is sane. Taken as a poi?t-to-point tourer, eve n co unting its faults, the Suzuki 380 is the best two-stroke in its size/price range. • Specifications Suggested retail price $1295. (west coast) Wheelbase 53 .4 in. 6 .1 in. Ground clearance (min) ENGINE (3 cvl , 2 stroke pisto n port) Displaeement 371cc Bore x str ok e 54 x 54 mm Compression (corrected) 6 .7 :1 Horsepower Iclairned, SAE NET) 37 HP @l7500 RPM Torque (elaimed) .. 27 .6 ft -lb . @l 6000 RPM Dry Weight (clalrned) •. . •. • . .. . • . : 377 lb. STEERING GEOMETRY . Rake 29 degrees T rai l Fuel Consumption • Fuel capacity 4. 6 in. best 43.2 MPG worst 37.6 MPG 4.0 gal. Touri ng ra nge (t o reserve) .. a pp rox, 120 mi. Tires Front 3.00 S 19 Rear 3.50 S 18 (note: For 1975. specs will be nearly identical except for changes in paint and styling,) 37

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