VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P125
accelerating out and no surges.
The first reaction of those
who rode it, even around the
block, was inevitably 'it sure is
smooth.'" The staff went on to
write that it had "a neat feeling of
controllable power."
Not that there's anything
wrong with that. But 550cc isn't
a small bike, then or now, yet the
GT "would barely turn an honest
100 mph and anything above
85 you had to reach for." Three
years earlier, Kawasaki's 500
Mach III reportedly hit 120 mph
and could reel off 12.4-second
quarter-mile times.
So maybe it
wasn't bad-boy
quick, but the GT
550 had plenty of
"pleasantness." This motorcycle
was as polite as Eddie Haskell,
and the staff handed out nice
compliments like Mrs. Cleaver
handed out chocolate chip
cookies. "Everything on it works
and everything an increasingly
demanding bike-buying public
has come to expect is on it."
For 1973, that meant things like
an electric starter, easy-to-read
instrumentation and a front disc
brake, which was effective, but
noisy when hot ("it squeaked
like a castrated mouse," wrote
CN). The clutch feel was light; no
hydraulics needed. Shifting was
as smooth as warm pudding.
The Suzuki GT 550 handled
well, even with its wet weight of
nearly 500 pounds. It had some
wobbles, but in 1973 that was
common on many motorcycles,
and while it may have wobbled, it
didn't fall down. "It didn't get out
of hand or feel particularly scary,
so you just wobble through the
high-speed corners. The staff
added in the usual gripe about
the motorcycle's lack of ground
clearance, stating that "there
wasn't hardly any of it…chief of-
fenders seemed to be the center-
stand, the inside pair of the four
split pipes, and the pegs. It was
kind of unnerving to find out how
quickly all metal would ground
in the corners." After years of
whining about centerstands,
manufacturers dropped them
as standard equipment on most
machines. The next time you
need to adjust your chain, pause
to wish any surviving magazine
staffers a robust evening of ir-
ritable bowel syndrome. And yes,
this three-cylinder machine had
four exhausts.
For $1265, CN called the Su-
zuki GT 550 a "bike whose time
has come. The cc displacement
race has got to end soon before
reaching totally insane propor-
tions and the big bikes can be
very expensive not only to buy
but to keep running. On a little
scooter, you're nothing more
than a moving target on the high-
way." Civilized and pleasant, this
middleweight machine was the
right bike at the right time. The
Mustang II of motorcycles.
CN
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(Left) The 1973
Suzuki GT 550 was
a great motorcycle
but perhaps for all
the wrong reasons.
(Below) If you count
the GT's mufflers,
you'll discover they
don't match the
number of cylinders.
