New/Old GS owner

[Don R]

I'm 71 and recently bought an 81 gs1100e. I always wanted one, and one day a friend sent me a picture of one that was parked in an attached garage for a long stretch. A fellow drag racer had it and due to health can't ride, although it wasn't running anyway. Anyway, my brother and I towed it home. I've owned every year and model of cb750 SOHC, a couple gl1000's, a KZ1000 and KZ1100 Spectre. This is the first Suzuki since my brothers 250. Location, Galesburg Illinois.

 

[dorkburger]

Hey Don. Welcome.

 

[Burque73]

Good morning, Don.
I hope you enjoy the GS as much as the other bikes you've owned.

 

[Don R]

Thanks, the other bikes were practice for getting this one running, I've enjoyed learning its differences and similarities to other bikes I've had. We have more snow this morning, tomorrow I'm going to work in a motorcycle shop for the first time ever, trading labor for tire mounting.

 

[Don R]

I assumed it would take a thousand getting the 1100 going again, it's gone a little past that and did all the work myself. So far it has new BT46 tires an AGM battery, wheel bearings, regulator/rectifier, it has a short swingarm pivot bolt (earlier model?) and someone butchered the left aluminum footpeg bracket to make it work. I bought a pair of peg brackets and a new bolt for too much money. Alas, the new bolt is also too short. I rebuilt the rear brake with new pistons and pads, cleaned and flushed the front calipers and M/C. I cleaned the 28smoothbore carbs and put on new air filters. I replaced some of the 3mm bullet connectors in the wiring, they were wrapped with melted tape and were badly corroded and new Denso plugs.
The gas cap was stuck on and a gallon of evaporust poured through the petcock hole a few times did the trick. Then the tank got filled to the top and a few day soak with warm evaporust. After I cleaned it and put it back on, the petcock leaked through and filled the crankcase with gas, fortunately I was repairing the stripped oil drain plug at the time, so I caught it while it was happening. It got a K&L petcock next, and I ended up jb welding the oil plug thread insert in because it already had an oversize plug that was also stripped so it needed a new plug. I may need a new oil pan. The oil and filter change finally got done.
I got a new DID Professional o ring 630 chain from summit racing for $40. No idea why except it was 150 links and may have had a long shelf wait, other lengths of the same chain were $100 more.
Future plans include a polaris shindengen reg/rec, the next chain will be a 530 conversion, I adjusted the valves and put on a new gasket, I plan to check them again. I want to rack up a few miles on it and maybe a ride-along to the drag strip with our Super Comp Dragster.

 

[storm 64]

Pictures of the Super Comp Dragster are mandatory!
If you get your 1100 running good. You'd might want to make a few passes down the strip.
​Caution though, it's addicting. But you already know that.

 

[Don R]

Here is the dragster at Joliet, my daughter drives and was pregnant last summer and had cylinder head cracks the season before so we haven't raced much the last couple seasons. The last time we raced full time we finished second in the Midwest Super comp Association. The purple Camaro owners are Honorary team purple members. I do plan to make a couple runs on the drag strip, I have an old cb750 drag bike with a bunch of RC engineering parts that also needs a run just to see if it's as fast as it once was.