Suzuki GSX750F

Owner - Steve Harrison
Bike - Suzi
Details - 750cc 4cyl 4 stroke sports tourer. First introduced in the late '80's the GSXF is often slagged off by the press cos it's not a race rep, often called the "Teapot".

Right, Me and my GSXF, right, Andy B and his GPz750

I got my GSXF in '94 and was my first "proper" bike. I paid £3100 for her with 9800 miles on the clock and was a happy man from the word go, fast and comfortable.
They are not as quick as the modern tackle but capable of showing 155mph on the clock, which ain't to be complained about - hell of a sight both clocks right round to the right. She averaged 45mpg when touring two up with tents, throughovers, tankbag etc and did more or less the same during solo thrashing sessions.

Over the years I tried various tyres;
Perelli Match - safe but a bit boring, good mileage though
Perelli Dragon GT's - good mileage and grip, feel better than the Match's
Metzler MEZ1 front, MEZ2 rear.- The best setup, tend to last about 6000 miles front and rear and stick brilliantly. After 6000 miles the handling starts to go off, nothing scary but cornering isn't as much fun.

The only other modifications I made where; a back rack for touring and braided hoses which really sorted the braking. The original exhausts eventually got replaced with a motad nexxus which bolts straight on without screwing up the carburation.

Servicing is 3000 miles (oil and filter) and 6000 miles (oil, filter, carb balance, valve check etc). Don't skimp on the major services because valves can close up and burn out and the carbs go out of balance which causes poor starting and no power at low revs.
Other servicing hints are to change the fork oil at 10K (if not before), once it goes off the handling suffers. The rear shock on mine gave up the ghost at about 25K miles after which cornering became, er, interesting. Changing it is a doddle thanks to the main stand, but been a skinflint I put a £200 Hagon unit on. OK for touring but crap for scratching, you have been warned.
Legends abound about camchain tensioners on all of these engines (GSX's, GSXR's and GSF's) abound. The problem is that the tensioner runs in steps and needs to get pretty rattly before stepping up a notch. The end result is you set off with the bike sounding like a bag of nails and all your mates sucking their gums and pronouncing imminent demise, by the time you stop the tensioner has stepped and everything is quiet again. So check this out carefully before someone charges you a packet to "fix" it.

Eventually I sold the her in late '97 to a friend for £2000 with 36000 miles on the clock. She had never missed a beat and provided she is serviced on time and not thrashed from cold will no doubt run for ever.