February 2026 Bike Of The Month
1982 Suzuki GS1100GK2
Owner: Danny Fortier
danielafortier@icloud.com
ID #436
A Note From The Owner...
Here’s my ’82 GK. After years of window-shopping and a lucky string of events, I pulled the trigger and ended up with the exact bike I was looking for. I drove 13 hours one way and had to arrange a third-party purchase and temporary storage to make it happen, but it was worth it. It had 31k original miles when I bought it, and I’ve put about 7,500 more on it in the last year or so that I've had it.
The previous owner did all of the stripping down of the bike but it still needed a good bit of work. Most of the mods I’ve done have been focused on rideability since this is a daily rider. Beyond the café styling, I swapped the old air shocks for Progressive suspension front and rear, replaced the rectifier, rebuilt the rear hub spline, installed a 4-into-1 exhaust, and converted all the turn signals to LED with a custom self-canceling flasher. The crash bars are from another vintage GS, and the seat was shaved down by the previous owner. Not the most comfortable, but it looks nice. It also needed a ton of maintenance and carb work but now it runs like a dream.
I ride mostly on country back roads, with the occasional 2–3 hour ride and short trips around town. It’s a literal café racer as I’m often picking coffee shops as destinations and choosing the best back road routes to get there. It’s not set up for long highway miles any more, but on back roads and twisties, it absolutely rips.