28 TEST RIDE But despite all this, I can’t get that motor and the sheer coolness of this bike out of my head. I mean, look at those classic clocks… 190mph on one and the 11,500rpm redline on the other. The very layout with the tachometer dominant: then, like a racing afterthought, the black-box square containing the idiot lights, including neutral lamp, fuel warning light, high-beam and indicators. Love it… so many good memories looking at clocks like this, while the scenery rushes by at warp speed. Prices for GSX-Rs have been traditionally low, but they’re heading north now. Even as recently as five or six years ago you could get a useable 1100 for a couple of grand, now prices are firming up big time. It’s strange that there are some low-ish milers out there, let’s say sub 25k. We’ve seen some half-decent last of the air/oil-cooled big GSX-Rs with 30,000 miles on them for around £2500-3000. We’ve spotted mint 1100Ks with 15,000 on the clocks for £4000, and then the water-cooled models for around £4000-£4500. As for the L, we’ve seen them for between £3000-5000, but it’s still the early slab-siders that are generally the most sought-after and therefore the ones that command the biggest prices. Motors are generally bulletproof,
How does your garden grow? Back in 2014 CMM was approached by the Suzuki Apprentice Centre in Doncaster. They asked us to follow their restoration on a 1990 GSX-R1100L, which would eventually result in a full road-test in this very organ. This would be a strip-down and restoration of this legendary machine, the aim of which was to teach the young apprentices all about sorting out ‘old’ rather than ‘new’ bikes – after all, many would go to their Suzuki dealerships and never see a bike this old and quite this tarnished! The finished machine would be road-tested in CMM and raise some money for charity – more of which later. Tim Davies from Suzuki GB’s Vintage Parts Programme knows the bike as it belonged to his brother Howard Davies before being sold to his friend Stuart Baker, who rode it until 2003 when he left it in his garden, before sadly passing away in 2013 from Marfan Syndrome. The bike was salvaged from the garden after a decade (literally) in the wilderness and with flora and fauna growing through and in it. With the blessing of Stuart’s wife Tracie it was bought and restored, and has since raised a fair few quid in memory of Stuart, while also highlighting the brilliant job that the Vintage Parts Programme does with selling parts for our favourite old Suzuki classics.
Interestingly, for such a hefty lump of a bike, this GSX-R1100L had even been club raced back in the early 1990s, before going on the road and then being left in the garden. Tim Davies explains: “When we went to collect the bike we couldn’t even find it. It was completely overgrown with foliage and so much of it had rotted away!” The bike, rusted and covered in moss and mould, was given to Suzuki’s Apprentice Centre in Doncaster as a perfect restoration project and has since been brought back to its former glory with a lot of help from the Vintage Parts team. It’s now a stunning example of a 1990 model. Tim adds: “This bike has been a great tool for us to show how many parts are available for various Suzuki classic motorcycles and it was a great learning process for the many young apprentices who worked on the bike over the course of a year or so. “We took the bike to the Motorcycle LIVE event, as well as classic shows and, of course, the recent Sywell Pistons and Props weekend.” It is hoped the completed bike will be sold or raffled in aid of the Marfan Trust, so if you want to make a donation to the Marfan Foundation go to: www.marfantrust.org
while the ancillaries are all about how well they’ve been looked after… sadly the GSX-R range from small to the 1100 were generally used and abused, and often wore a wide range of tasteless tat. Thankfully, in recent years – and thanks to the Suzuki Vintage Parts Programme – many old mighty machines with the oil/air-cooled lump in are back in favour and being returned to standard. For me, the GSX-R1100 in all its forms is a big part of my life; I’ve ridden loads and owned one. And, while I feel my battered body may not be best suited to its ergonomics any more, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a good thrash on one. Those of a more flexible nature could do worse than bag an oil/aircooled biggie soon… ■ Thanks to: Front-of-camera stuntman Stuart Barker
