Page last modified: 01/04/12

It was the summer of 1993 when the girl at the office said that I looked too big for the Honda CM400T that I was riding. I decided that she was right. I had started riding again two years before at 40 and the 400 was a great place to start. As a 200 lb. meatball on a 5' 11" frame, I needed a little more beef under me as well. Of course it turned out that her boyfriend had a couple of bikes for sale. The bikes were a 1979 Suzuki GS 850 and a 1980 Honda CB750. The Honda had been customized with a full fairing, low bars, 4 into one Wolf Pack pipes and custom paint. It had also been dropped and was not running. The GS had low bars, a torn seat, 72,000 kilometers, illegal tail lights and a tick in the engine. I took the GS for a ride and as usual, logic left and impulse took over.

She needed some work but was incredibly tight for her age. We haggled and dickered for a while and I bought both bikes for $800.00. I sold the Honda 400 for $500.00 to a friend, sold the Honda 750 for $350.00 to another friend, sold the fairing for $75.00 to a neighbor and took the Suzuki home.

I cleaned and polished the GS till it shone. She was a deep burgundy red with gold pinstriping. The paint was nearly perfect under the dust. The chrome came up great with Peaks. Whoever had it before the guy I bought it from, had taken care of it. Braided stainless brakelines were an indication of that. I took it to a local Suzuki fanatic and learned a lot more about the GS line. He rode a nasty green GS1000 with all kinds of trick stuff. He had nicknamed it the Lizard and liked to terrorize the kids on their "plastic pretend race bikes"

The ticking noise on the GS850 turned out to be cam chain noise, we tightened it but it never went away completely, it also never caused any problems. The "lizard" owner tuned the bike up, put on new rubber and warned me about GS idiosyncrasies; get a fork brace if you want to do some serious cornering, keep a lively battery as the stator was flakey, get used to an electrical system lousy enough to make Lucas look good. He also told me about the good stuff. Best engine block around, bulletproof, solid comfortable cruising tourer with sport tendencies, easy to repair and cheap to maintain.

It did not take me long to come to my own conclusions about my GS. I loved the bike, it handled great and was a blast to ride. If one word described the bike it was stability. But one word did not describe it. It was fast, crack past the 6000 rpm mark and you were riding a different bike. Lizard man was right, this thing felt at home chasing plastic bikes like a dog chas es cats. It may not catch all the cats but they don't know that. There is a special joy in owning a bike that has cost under $1000.00 after repairs and new tires.

When bending the bike into a corner I am thinking about exiting the corner. When a rider on a new $10,000.00 plastic bike is bending the bike into the corner he is thinking about scratched plastic, insurance rates, repair costs, $1,000.00 leathers etc. If one adds into that a fear of road rash as well... Well suffice to say, me and old GS were having one hell of a time. My friends called me "Red Line."

The Spring of 1994 I organized a road trip with three friends. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is about as pretty a city as you will find anywhere. From here we have some of the best riding country a man (or woman) can ask for. We decided to head north to Prince Rupert via the Sunshine Coast and ferries from Powell River and Port Hardy, then inland to Prince George, south to Lillooet, west along the Duffy Lake road, then along the Sea to Sky highway from the Sky end and back to Vancouver. If you know BC then you understand already. If you don't, get a map before you read any more. The round trip would be almost exactly 2,000 kilometers of road and another 400 by ferry.

I had talked about this trip for a while and now a good friend from Idaho decided to come along. Walt rode his custom 1992 Harley Lowrider from Kooskia in central Idaho to Vancouver with hardly a stop. The other two riders were Dr. Dave (a handy ER doctor) and Dr. Tony. Dave was riding a 1991 VFR750 and Tony had a 1991 Ninja ZX-6. We intended to camp out the entire trip and so we spent some time setting the bikes up properly with tank bags, saddle bags and tail bags. I had bought a very compact two man tent that fit inside my tail bag along with a sleeping bag, a tarp and self inflating mattress. Walt had a four man tent for himself and his Harley. I was starting to realize Harley riders were different.

I had the GS checked and tuned before the trip and had added a couple of items. I had the seat redone by Granville upholstery. I had asked him to cut the seat down a little in the front but to leave the passenger area the same height and width as before. The ride was still great and the seat looked good. I had also added a little Direction 2 windscreen. This cut the wind on my chest but until I got the height adjusted right it would make my half helmet tip forward over my eyes. I raised the screen and reduced the rake to eliminate that nuisance. While it looked good I will use a larger screen next time. I took both the full face helmet and the half and was glad I did. On cold mornings in the north the full face was definitely superior also on days when we were into serious bends the full face felt a lot safer and did not move around.

The first leg of our trip was less than an hour to the Horseshoe Bay ferry. From there we enjoyed tremendous views in Howe Sound on the way to Gibsons, the site of the TV show "The Beachcomber". After a quick look at "Molly's Reach" we enjoyed the great ride through Sechelt along the well named Sunshine Coast to the next ferry ride at Irvine\rquote s Landing. The road between Sechelt and Irvine's Landing winds in and out between mountains, lakes and the ocean. It is far from straight and the tendency to "wick it up" is difficult to resist. With four bikes in our group and the competition already building between us, we occasionally degenerated into a road race. Once again the GS proved her old SuperBike breeding. It was clear that the VFR had more acceleration, the Ninja handled better and the Harley rider was crazy. But the GS usually led. Lets call it the "Red Line Factor"

Once on the ferry from Irvine's Landing there is an even more beautiful ride through Jervis inlet to Saltery Bay on the Malispina Peninsula. The Mountains fall straight into the ocean and there are waterfalls everywhere. The only blight is the logging clear cuts which look like patches of mange on a dog. Saltery Bay is a boat landing carved out of the side of a mountain. As motorcycles are the first to get of the ferry we were excited to hit the road. It was quite a road. Lots of corners and straight stretches, the road condition was uneven and inconsistent with blind corners and reverse cambers. Lots of fun. On one decreasing radius corner I looked in mirror and saw the VFR go off the road into the gravel. My first thought was that we were going to lose the doctor, he had his legs out and was wobbling at far too much speed. I still don't know how he managed to recover. I pulled over and we all stopped for a breather. We took a few moments to reassess our skills and preferred riding styles.

The Drs. had bought their bikes together and had taken several long road trips, they had logged some 20,000 kilometers together. They had not, however, really pushed the limits of their bikes and were not all that comfortable riding at speed through tight corners. Walt the Harley rider was as crazy as I was, his only problem was that he was riding a $25,000 custom Harley with a very trick motor. This bike was great for highways and boulevards or simply scaring women and children at stop lights. It was like an overpowered John Deere tractor in tight corners.

We dropped the pace a little and just enjoyed the beautiful ocean and mountain views into Powell River. Powell River is a small town that depends on the forest industry for its survival. It overlooks Malaspina Straight west towards Vancouver Island. The next leg of our journey would take us to "the Big Island" off the coast of BC.