GS850G tank swap and side cover question

[RustyTank]

Hello folks. This is my first official post here at GS Resources. I recently purchased a 79 GS850G, in great shape. This is my first GS. I had a couple questions, let me know if I've posted in the wrong area.

Question #1
My 79 GS850 doesn't have the letter G on the side cover emblem. Am I right in that the G showed up on the side cover emblem on the 1980 model?

Question #2
Will a 1982 GS850G tank fit directly onto my 1979 GS850G? I'm a fan of the knee dents in the 82 tank, wondering if a swap is an easy change.


Thanks in advance

 

[Burque73]

Hey Rusty.

Check out the main GS Resources page. Under GS info you'll see what the letters stand for.

The tanks unfortunately will not swap easily. The 82 and 83 tanks are different than the 79.

You can pull up a parts fiche like the one from Parts Outlaw and see some of the differences.

1979 850

1983 850

I'm not sure about the rubber stops in the front but the mounting bolt in the rear is definitely in a different location.

 

[RustyTank]

Thanks for the info Burque73. The resources page is a good...uh...resource
I know what the G stands for. I was asking if the G showed up on the side covers in 1980. From what I can tell it wasn't on the 79 side covers. Doesn't really matter, not an important question. I was just curious.

Bummer about the tank swap. I'll look into it further though and see if it can't be done. Someone's probably tried it!

 

[Steve]

The "G" is Suzuki's indication that it is a shaft-driven model. The lack of the G on the side cover only shows that it is a '79 model.

Suzuki's first shaft-driven bike was the '79 850. It was also the first year for the 850, itself. I think that Suzuki might have figured that it was not necessary to make note that the 850 was a shafty, since it was unique. However, in 1980, they came out with a 1000 shafty. They needed a way to differentiate it from the other 1000s, so they added the "G" on the side cover.

Along the same thought, it is interesting to note that the shaft-driven "L" models (the ones with the "chopper-esque" look) did not have a G on the side cover, either. Their full designation should have been GS850GL and GS1000GL, but only showed GS850L and GS1000L. It did not matter too much, as your choices for Ls were a bit limited. In any particular size bike, you would have a chain or a shaft, but never both of them in the same size engine.

.

 

[RustyTank]

Steve, I sincerely appreciate that breakdown.

 

[Steve]

Not quite the King of GS Trivia here, but I'm working toward that. :-\\\

Especially concerning 850s. :encouragement:

.

 

[Guest]

I think your only straight swap would be an early GS750 tank.