My Suzuki GSX-R 750, a complete history: Colorado back to Texas

The trip report continues:

Did some more around-town riding. Took a jaunt down to Pueblo to visit some of Lorie's friends. Noteable on the ride back (aside from the rainstorm) was the 41.93 MPG the old girl got! Also started having taillight issues. Found out that it was due to a loose bulb. Tightened it up at a truck stop and kept rolling.

After a couple of more days visiting with friends and a high-school reunion, we started making the long trip back. Luckily for us, the weather started out great, was nice and cool and the miles just rolled on like nobody's business. When we got down to Wichita, it looked like we were heading into a rainstorm. We donned the rain gear, but somehow managed to miss it. We rode until it was dark, stopping in northern Oklahoma just in time to catch an episode of Top Shot. My brakes were acting kind of odd, gripping weird, but I later attributed that to the water we rode through after the storm.

Next day started out just fine, if not a bit on the hot side. Rolled through Oklahoma City, stopped in Norman for some gas. Made it into Texas then the heat started to set in. We both were getting overheated a bit. We stopped in Waco and again north of Austin. Heading into Austin the temps started dropping a lot, and we saw a huge rainstorm on the horizon. We hit the storm HARD rolling into Austin, just at rush-hour. We were stuck underneath the dual-lane highway downtown when I decided to pull off and we stopped at a 7-11 over by University of Texas.




After riding in 50+ miles of massive rain.

I did have a taillight failure north of Austin Was trying to troubleshoot it in the parking lot of that 7-11 to no avail. Couldn't tell if it was the lamp, the fuse, or the connector. Lorie said that the light was acting funny for 100's of miles. She decided to follow me and we would see what happened. The rain let up on the way into San Antonio. But on the horizon ANOTHER storm. We were almost home. We should have stopped in New Braunfels and donned raingear. We did not. After riding in 50+ miles of deluge "build the ark" blinding rainfall to wind up the 2908-mile Denver trip, I wish we had. Even riding during that storm, the old 750 did not stutter, not once. Visibility was down to 25 - 50 yds most times, and water more than a foot high in spots. This was after batting the same thing in Austin. Lorie rode directly behind me with her flashers on when the deluge hit. Thank goodness or I might have been hit. it turns out that later on it WAS the bulb. I should have just changed it out, but was real tired and not thinking clearly.

After the trip I did a servicing once over, and cleaned her up along with an oil change. For the rest of 2010 and the first part of 2011, the bike was sidelined mainly due to other commitments and work that I had to do, but there were occasional rides and of course my annual turkey day ride on Thanksgiving. But really not a lot of news nor changes.

UPDATE September 2011: it has now been 20-years that I have owned this bike. WOW time flies. Seems like yesterday I was a wide-eyed young man dreaming of owning one of these. I do plan on starting a restoration of sorts this year in honor of the 20-years. I have squirreled away some NOS parts, and want to get some of the original bodywork I do have repaired. Luckily some of the resto work was done for the trip in 2010, so there won't be quite as much work to do. It has been a real fun ride, and it's not over yet.

Original seat. As you can see, it is starting to fall apart.

The seat had been worn a lot and started deteriorating rapidly. I knew I needed to just go ahead and recover it. I contacted B&H Specialties in Houston, TX. They supplied me with a precut cover for my GSX-R. The blue was more of a "Scot Blue" (like the '86 750) instead of the darker Royal Blue of the '87. But, they were about the only company I could find that made a cover for this bike. Shipping was fast and they sent me a cover for the seat and the rear-seat cover pad. I had removed the pad and put it in the 1100 racebike for a few years because it was literally falling apart.

Seat stripped of worn cover.

It was a time-consuming process, but I got the seat stripped and the cover ready to replace. Looks like it was just in time too as you can see the foam starting to fall apart. I bought an electric staple gun to use to reattach the cover, but eventually ended up using a manual staple gun. It took a couple of hours from start to finish, but turned out great.

New seat cover installed.

Now the seat and pad are recovered and ready to ride for another 20-years. I admit I did try and find an original seat for a couple of years, but one never became available on eBay or other sites. Even my motorcycle industry connections couldn't help me find anything.

Old girl loaded and ready to head to Maryland Dec. 2012.

My Suzuki GSX-R 750, a complete history: Moving across the country . . . again . . . Parts in the Hotel. Why I'm saving all these 18-inch hoops I dunno . . . In the course of job hunting and new challenges, I accepted a slot out in Lexington Park, MD working for the U.S. Navy. I knew it would be a lot of work packing up years of items for the trip out there. In preparation for the move, I essentially sold ALL my remaining GSX-R 1100 parts from the racing and street days. I was left still with many, many bins of 750 parts. I had to go through them and sell or toss out items to make more room. Cold drivin' in central Tennessee. I loaded up the bike in my old S-10 along with spare parts, generator and leathers and hit the road. This would be the last trip for the truck and bike. I got lucky and the drive out there was uneventful and kind of fun. Once I arrived I had to put all the gear and bike into a storage unit for about a month while finishing moving. Bike in new garage on the charger. Well, all the cold and lack of starting just crushed the Yuasa batery I had installed only a few months before. I tried and tried to get her started and running smoothly but it just wasn't happening. It was looking like some serious servicing was going to be needed soon. Torn down and ready for servicing plus other fun stuff. It took me a few months to try and make some time and get the parts together for the work that needed to be done. It started warming up a bit at the end of March 2013. I got the itch and started getting her torn down. She was running horribly and definitely needed some help. Carb clean for sure. I also had this sweet, spankingly clean tank I bought off eBay lying around for about three-years. Next Page GSX-R Home | GSX-R Links GSX-R index: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13