The life and death of GSX550
I stumbled back in shock. A new ignitor unit would cost me 360 quid!
How they laughed in the dealership when I explained that I’d only
paid a hundred for the complete bike a week previously, sans ignitor.
I told them I’d rather trim my pubic hairs with a Flymo than pay
that amount – and we parted ways. But following this initial
setback, my luck changed - eBay.co.uk came up with the goods for 40 notes and I
was almost on the road. I dusted down the drill, grinder and lump
hammer for some serious renovation work.
After the potential money-chasm of the ignitor, the rest of the
‘re-fabrication’ was cheap. Dump the air filter and Dremel the main
jets to 180’s. Spray it all black and stick a picture of a sexy
woman on the tank. Put a couple of the wife’s cut down stockings
over the carb intakes for good measure, after running my nose over
them first. Drain the forks of 50 percent of the oil and bodge-up
the burnt-out electrics. Free up the rear disc brake, fit a
Fiamm air horn and it was off down to the ‘Blind Man of Bolsover’ (as
he was known) for an MOT. Back on the road!!!
Following MOT success I should have left it well alone. The decision
to replace the burnt out wiring system, in retrospect, was probably
a mistake. After codging the wiring to the ignitor (so it would only
fire on 2 cylinders) I ended up asking the German GSX550 owner’s club
for help. They sent me a selection of colour photographs of key
wiring points – ignitor, coils, charging paraphenalia. Thank God for
those German bikers - what a great bunch of people! Far more useful
than the UK Suzuki owner’s club - who had just suggested buying a new
wiring loom - yeah, sure...
It didn’t have a starter solenoid on it when I bought it, so I just
wired the starter motor directly to the battery via a Halfords
automotive light switch. This works – although I got through two
(burnt out) switches during my ownership of the GSX. Security was
provided by the biggest shackle lock money could buy.
Some weeks following the rebuild a bike rally was in the offing and
the boozers from the local bike club were prepared to drag me along.
‘Late licence’ from the wife, thirty quid in my back pocket, a
healthy roll of tools from ‘Pound Shop’ and I was off.
The run to the Somerset rally wasn’t uneventful, but it was
ultimately unfulfilling. Finding it topped out at 80mph when racing
a carload of chavs was the first disappointment, closely followed by
the discovery that it couldn’t be bump started with a nearly dead
battery because the clutch slipped so badly. Luckily we jump started
it off a mate’s bike with a couple of long pieces of 17v capacity
wire. The charging system was tip top – an unusual discovery given
the GSX550’s reputation for burning the charging system out! The
battery was a bit beyond its life, though. It also sounded like a
division of tanks, because it was so rough – but I saw this as a
benefit.
After a weekend partying I felt the urge to run it up the drag strip,
but since there wasn’t one I contented myself with putting more air
in the front tyre, which was suffering with a slow puncture. Out of
sheer devilment I’d taken any reference to Suzuki off the bike (even
grinding the name off the engine cases) and sprayed it black (with no
fairing) nobody could work out what it was. Rally goers seemed more
drawn to it than a selection of more modern (and pristine) tackle
which was parked nearby. One bloke even took a picture of his
girlfriend standing next to it – although I don’t think I ever
bothered getting a picture.
The run back was surprisingly good – considering I didn’t once get
stopped by the police and also because it kept running. Sadly,
racing a mate’s BMW 800 up the bypass showed serious performance
limitations. I was sure something must be up, because these bikes
were meant to see the ton on the clock with relative ease. Probably
the state of the carbs.
300 miles after heading to the rally we were back safe at home in
Chesterfield. Friends expressed their feeling of mystery as to how
the heap had made it there and back, but I publicly put it down to my
own superior mechanical/electrical skills. It never ran so well
again. In a misguided attempt to extract more power I fiddled with
the carb needles only to end up bending one. From then on it
wouldn’t start without half a can of easy start sprayed into it.
Then the ignitor failed while I was trying to get it going. This
may have been because the ignitor was already past its best, or
because I had a car battery charger connected up to it at the time.
Perhaps I’ll never know.
Time to get rid. I didn’t dare sell it for fear of potential future
court appearances relating to the ‘sale of an unroadworthy vehicle’.
Instead I stripped off everything that could possibly be of value to
me in the future and offloaded the remnants to a mate for 25 quid. By
mutual agreement, we sent the ‘scrapped’ form into the DVLA.
Happy to get rid of the banger I returned to the comfort of my own
garage for a fiddle with a nearly new hobby lathe, when interrupted
by the sound of a large motorbike revving up outside. No sooner had
this stopped than there was a loud bang on the door. Opening the
door revealed ‘Fray’ from the local bike club, on his CBR750
streetfighter. “Can you sort my ignitor out?” he asked. Before he
could finish his next sentence I slammed the garage door in the
surprised biker’s face, locked and bolted it for good measure and
retreated into the comfortable warmth of my ‘workshop/studio area’
within. Lighting a roll-up I contemplated the years of delicious
boredom that lay ahead without the GSX – perhaps I’d have another
look at that XS250/400 project...
Fish