hi from West London, England

[redliner]

Motad exhaust removed today; its in very good nick, having only been on the bike for a short period, so will be selling that one on at the Popham UK autojumble in April. Removing the 4 exhaust gaskets was another matter -- 2 easy, 2 welded in solid. Took 30-40 minutes each to finally get them out. Carbs cleaned up nicely, but a bugger to refit. Final job today was to strip the instrument console and remove the kph speedo and replace it with a mph one. All went in ok, so a fairly positive day's work. The replacement (secondhand OEM) exhaust system is now on the bench awaiting cleaning and fitting to the bike. Looking forward to getting the exhaust fitted so I can run the bike up with the overhauled carbs and see how things look from there.

[redliner]

Been a while since I posted, mainly because there have been other bikes to attend to first . Anyway, that 'fuel leaking from exhaust' problem was finally fixed by replacing the diaphragm in the petcock, even though I couldn't see or find anything wrong with the one I removed. Still, a repair for £12, that's fine by me!

The stripdown revealed even more bodges and hidden horrors, much of which was hidden by paint liberally sprayed over everything. Ahh, the perils of buying 'sight unseen' and trusting the seller's description ... I should really know better at my age.

Those standard exhaust systems proved to be a b'stard to sort out. 3 full sets purchased from the USA (none available here in the UK) and despite the 'claims' and 'descriptions' that they were all in good/very good condition (hah!), I was only able to make up one reasonable set plus one spare LH silencer from the lot. Rotten baffles and undeclared damage were the problems in all the others. The cost of purchasing these has been exhorbitant (the US to UK mail charges plus import duty are crippling) and any profit which may have been available on resale of the bike has now been well and truly lost. Still, it rides very nice despite all the hassles, so I expect it will earn its place in the garage as my runaround-town bike. And it definitely looks better with the standard bits refitted.

Running well enough now to splash out on new rubber front and rear before taking it for the MoT test. If it passes then I'm going to be getting my money's worth from it !

[redliner]

gs550.jpg

That's better - a bit more like I remember them. MoT time next week, and all being well, I'll make a start on the cosmetics. No point in paying out for that if its not good enough to ride!

[steve murdoch]

Nice looking bike.
What is the intention with the "cosmetics"? I really like that paint scheme as is.

[redliner]

No changes to the standard scheme, it will stay as is - the photo doesn't show the imperfections, and there's plenty to pick up on!

I don't know yet whether this bike will earn a permanent place in the garage. One thing I can say though is that this bike is never going to achieve a monetary value that would justify a full professional respray/frame repaint/engine blast+clean/metalwork rechroming etc, so it will just be a case of tidying up and refurbishing parts as/when I am able. In the meantime, I intend to ride it!

[Spyder]

Very nice looking bike. I really like that paint scheme. Would have loved to get my hands on the exhaust that came on it. Keep us posted.

[redliner]

What - no Motad 4-1s available over there?

[Spyder]

Id likely pay more for that exhaust than I paid for my bike. Nice exhaust for these old Suzuki's are rare, and outrageously priced... I found a decent used V&H for mine, pretty cheap, I'm happy with it. My son has an '82 650L that Motad would be perfect for. He still has the stock pipes on it, and in good shape.

[redliner]

Yeah, in a way, its a shame that the price of spares has gone up as much as it has. I had the same problem getting a set of standard pipes to replace that 4-1 Motad. At the time, the USA was the only place where a full set was on offer, and despite the exhorbitant shipping and customs charges, I went ahead and ordered a set. When they arrived, one silencer was badly damaged. Too expensive to send them back. Tried again - similar result. This time it was a good clean undented set that arrived, but with one internal baffle rotted through and happily rattling around inside. No mention of this in the sale description and denied when I went back to them for a refund. A third set was acquired here in the UK for a good price, but not in as good a condition, but at least they don't rattle! Expensive project - like I said, this bike is never going to attain anything like the value of the bike plus the sum of the parts I've bought for it. Lucky then that I like the 550 and intend to keep it !