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By Charles Clayton
,
We've heard rumors for a year that"
Suzuki -was coming out with a line
of four-stroke motorcycles, so it
was no great surprise when they
invited us to fly up to Helena,
M t
- d
t
th
on ana . an
me~
e new
GS750-Four. Suzuki Motor Co.,
Ltd. has long been famous for its
12
fine two-strokes, and lately for its
fabulous three-strokes (the RE rotary).
Now all they have to do is manufacture
a canno n, an d they11 have all the
possible combinations covered fro m
'
one-stro ke to fo ur!
We were p repar ed to be astonished by
the GS750, and we were. The mach ine
is distinguished b y its close attention to
de tail finis h an d th e righ tness of its
design. If a mo to rcycle loo ks right, it
usually is right; and the GS750 loo ks so
right t hat hardly any of the bikers we
encountered in a 500-mile ride even
noticed that it was something they had
ever seen before .
The engine is a straightforward in-line
four with do uble-overhead cams ala
Kawasaki's Z-modeI. A ram air deflector
is cast into the cylinder head fmning to
keep things cooler. Its oversquare
2.56-inch bore an d 2.22-inch stroke
results in a short engine, which in tum
allows r oom for a 4.8 gall on gas tank
without spreading it out allover the ·
place .
.
Com ression ra tio is 8.7 to one and
It runs happily on regular or no-lead
gasoline., ~Ve avera~d 45.9 m~es per
gallon nding solo m up to mile-high
altitudes (on bikes jetted for sea level )
and 37 .5 to 41 mp g packing double
'!be cr~k shaft is supported in six
main bearings (fiveroller, ~me b:<\l) and
the rods have needle beanng bIg ends.
Camshafts bear directly on the head
m etal an d are co ntrolled by a
self-adjusting central cam chain. The
engine is ~esigned to last for at le~t
50,000 miles and then you throw It
away and buy a new one: I wonder
_when . ~e J apane~e ~an~facturers
(S,uz u!
