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Greetings from beautiful BC

  • Thread starter Thread starter nickjtc
  • Start date Start date
N

nickjtc

Guest
Hello, fellow GS owners. Nick here from Coldstream, BC.

I have a 1977 GS750 that I bought new in July 1977 in Fort McMurray, Alberta. It was my first 'big' motorcycle, having only had bikes up to 250cc before. I sold it in 1980 when the second kid was coming along, but got it back in 2013. Longish story. Anyhoo I am now 'retired' from work and finally have time to get it back on the road. It will be my grandson's inheritance ;-)

The pic shows the bike on its first long ride over the Rockies in September 1977.
 

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Hey Nick, welcome to the forum...great bike! We ride in your area a lot...as a matter of fact I'm planning a group ride to Toad Rock next summer...I'm going to move my annual Gold River Island ride over there...I have a buddy in Revelstoke that has some old Suzukis too.
Shoot me a pm if you are interested in being added to the list.

Cheers
 
Welcome Nick,

I am a new member too from Lavington. I am quite far from retirement unfortunately still at 44 but picked up a gs1100ez this fall to bring back to some semblance of its former glory. Hoping to have it road ready for the spring. But lots of work to be done.

Cool that you got your old machine back. What sort of condition is it in now?

Justin
 
Two new guys from Coldstream in one week?
What are the odds?
Welcome to the site, Nic.
Cool that you got your old bike back. Is it still in close to stock shape?
 
Welcome to the Gsr.

good story. No need to apologize for telling that. Could have been longer with more detail and would have still liked it. (Like, how did you find it after all those years)

i see some othe bc members have already found you. Good.

do introduce your self more, include some current pics.
 
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Welcome Nick, I live in BC as well.

I remember that model well as a friend of mine road raced his in the production classes and was able to beat the Kawasaki Z900's and Z1000's of the day.

Good luck on the restoration, plenty of good help here if needed.

David.
 
The Readers Digest story of the bike is that I sold it to a fellow in Vernon, who subsequently defaulted on his financing so the financial institution took it back. I had rattle can painted it brown (what was I thinking!!!) and he had it painted professionally in black. Fast forward to 2010 and I returned to work in Vernon, having left in 1981 to go back to England (another long story). I had got a permanent position as a driver examiner. My supervisor, Gary, commented that he owned a GS750 and we swapped stories about our respective bikes. Fast forward a couple of years and I was out for a ride and decided to drop in on Gary to have a look at 'his' GS750. It had not been ridden for 20+ years and was buried in his garage. I recognised it immediately as my old bike, and it turned out that he had bought it from the financial institution.

I have had it repainted back to close to the original colour red and have a few little jobs to do, like rebuilding the front brake caliper, which is proving to be a bit of a chore. The exhaust looks great but is being held together by the chrome, so I have a stainless 4 into 1 from Motad in England to put on that is 'period correct'.

This is the way the bike looked after my cr@ppy paint job. Again, what was I thinking!
 

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Here is the bike buried in Gary's garage, with an ugly windscreen fitted. The rack gave it away as my old bike.
 

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After I de-windscreened it and got rid of the dust it didn't look too bad.
 

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nickjtc said:
After I de-windscreened it and got rid of the dust it didn't look too bad.
Click to expand...

Looks great!

attachment.php
 
And here it is, repainted. Yes, the decals are not quite right and the red is not exactly as original, but I was able to get a collector plate for it. Now to finish it off.
 

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Cool history and nice bike! I think that's really neat to have found your original bike like that. I had a 79gs750 when I was a young man. Bought out of cherryville but I'm guessing/betting it's long gone. It was quite a ratter when I owned it but still holds fond memories for me. It was my first street bike. I was early 20's and honestly quite lucky to have survived it.

Jusr a heads up as I'm sure you are probably already aware of but all modifications(including period correct exhaust) done to the bike after receiving collector plates need to be documented/approved with icbc otherwise they can decline coverage. Just mentioning it as I've recently heard a horror story of a bike that lit on fire and had modified the exhaust after approval of collector status. Haven't heard the final outcome on whether they've been covered or not.
 
nickjtc said:
The exhaust looks great but is being held together by the chrome, so I have a stainless 4 into 1 from Motad in England to put on that is 'period correct'.
Click to expand...

The stainless Motad exhaust is now unobtainable unless you find some NOS hidden somewhere (I looked last year, high and low).
However, the SS Motad will last a long, long time, but it's not indestructible. It will eventually rot the downpipes after 30 years. SS != forever.
Got the t-shirt on that.
Having said that, my old system is still usable, just that the pipes are paper-thin now, even though the collector and muffler are perfectly ok.
 
nickjtc said:
And here it is, repainted. Yes, the decals are not quite right and the red is not exactly as original, but I was able to get a collector plate for it. Now to finish it off.
Click to expand...

Nice work!

gotta say remember to Watch out for salt on the roads...these bikes will rust right up through the chrome fenders so that's a place you might want to coat before spring among so many other spots- swing arm, crossover pipe...
 
I enjoyed reading this story and pics too! Glad it's back in your possession.

Ed
 
It is encouraging to read of a long lost ride returned to a grateful first owner! I bought my first bike, a 1981 GS550T black in Burnaby at Allied Cycle and sold it in Kamloops in 1988. I would love to find it and restore it as well. No luck so far in locating it. Got back into the GS bikes a few years ago and love having one ... or two once again.
 
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