Nov '09

[DangerWillRobinson]

Hi Nick,

I am the original owner of the bike.

It's nice to see you're taking such good care of it.

I bought it new in 1980 from Sheridan Suzuki Honda in Tonawanda New York where I was the service manager.

The GS1000 was not a hot seller in 79 because it was eclipsed in the superbike wars by the Yamaha XS1100, so US Suzuki had a lot of leftovers that it was letting go cheap to clear out the warehouse.

If I remember right , I paid dealer cost of around $2500. Retail in 79 was $3495. I never could resist a bargain even though my brother bought a new GS1100ET that year. No old fashioned two valve technology for him.

I put S type handle bars on it and a shoei fairing.

I remember riding the twisties in the hills south of Buffalo NY with my brother on his GS1100ET, Rob Beach of Beach's Motorcycle Adventures http://www.bmca.com/ on his BMW R100 and another friend on his brand new GS1000ST. As we came around a blind curve at a very high rate of speed we passed an oncoming unmarked NYS trooper with his radar unit on the dash. That earned us all very big tickets.

After that incident I mounted a gypsy scout radar detector on it. You may still be able to see a rub mark on the left side of the lower triple tree cover where it was mounted.

It probably accumulated about 2000 miles a year for the first few years and than may have not been ridden at all for a few more, sitting covered in my mothers garage.

I trucked it to Indiana in 93 where I would put a few hundred miles a year on it on the back roads around Bloomington.

It was always kept covered and cleaned with pledge and armoral.

After my divorce in 1998 the bike ended up in a storage unit in Dayton OH and when my brother inquired about it I sold it to him.

He put the stock handle bars back on, replaced the fork seals and than after a year or so sold it to Nick.

My current rides are a GL1800 and a Kawasaki ZG1000 concours.

Do you still have the original bill of sale and sales brochure?

Thanks for the pic.

Tom

[Dan Ruddock]

The GS1000 was not a hot seller in 79 because it was eclipsed in the superbike wars by the Yamaha XS1100, so US Suzuki had a lot of leftovers that it was letting go cheap to clear out the warehouse.

Tom

Interesting!!! Turns out that the 79 GS1000 has held the test of time much better than the POS XS1100.

The XS looks dated today and the GS is still looks beautiful. The XS has a very poorly designed shaft drive that pogo's like crazy and all that weight makes it good only at the drag strip. The GS1000 for it's time had a state of art chassis, suspension and bullet proof engine.

The GS was a well balanced do it all motorcycle and the XS's only virtue over it was HP and it was not by much. What were motorcycle shoppers thinking? Goes to show how people fall for marketing hype and the numbers race madness. Most of the motorcycle journalists of the day said buy the GS but no I want an 1100. Nuff said. Dan

PS. anybody know what current XS1100 values are? Also I wonder how much of a factor the CBX was in the mix which also was a much better bike than the XS.

[ddaniels]

A good friend of mine owns a 1980 XS1100 Special. POS is a good descriptive acronym for it in my opinion. When he bought it, it was in really good shape, but over time it has deteriorated into a very ugly sled. I've ridden it, and would take the GS1000 over it in a hearbeat. Wouldn't even have to think about it.

[DangerWillRobinson]

Also I wonder how much of a factor the CBX was in the mix which also was a much better bike than the XS.

I can remember only one CBX being sold at the dealership while I was there.

While it was technologicaly interesting and quick, the high price of acquisition and maintenance turned people off.

Can you imagine telling a customer the cost of break in service was close to $80 labor plus parts, and Oh yea, It might take up to 24 valve shims at a dollar something a piece. We'll add it all up when we're done and let you know.

Their was a new 82 CBX that languished on the showroom floor for quite a while. The dealership owner finally took it and mounted a color matched vetter side car on it. Quite a head turner.

I remember left over 79's still being available from American Honda in 1984.

The GS1100E on the other hand was a hot seller. A relative bargain, inexpensive to maintain, handled well and at 11.4 seconds in the quarter it was truly THE superbike for a couple of years.

[Zooks]

This has turned into quite an amazing thread, particularly with the input of the two Bros.

[Dan Ruddock]

Tom was the XS1100 realy that big of a seller in 79 I find it hard to believe the public was that stupid. Dan

[DangerWillRobinson]

From CYCLE magazine GS1100ET road test 1980:

"Suzuki introduced its GS1000 right after the Eleven and CBX appeared, and this third-place arrival was matched by a third-place standing in straight-line performance. The GS1000 established a new standard for Superbike handling, and was in many other ways the best thing in its class, but its 11.89-second quarter-mile time set no hearts aflutter. A CBX would run away from the GS1000 at the drags; it was outclassed by the Eleven both for sheer speed and in the touring rider's fifth-gear-grunt contest. And Americans were largely indifferent to the Suzuki's numerous other subtle virtues."

Read the whole article here;http://motorbikearchives.com/Bike-Te...980-Cycle.html

[Dan Ruddock]

I guess the biggest problem I have with the XS is with all that torque and the not so well sorted shaft drive made for a rear end jacking effect that was more than I could live with (hence my POS comment).

The suzuki shaft drive's were much better as all the magazines of that time confirmed. If yamaha made a chain version I would have a different altitude.

Funny the modern day comparison between the B-king and the new V-max is like history repeating it self except both of them are butt fugly and the GS1000 is still beautiful.

I don't like wacky in your face look at me styling now or then and felt the same way about the first katana, yuck. My favorite bikes are the 77-79 GS 400-550-750 and the 1000 standard and E models no L's in my garage. Dan

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25330

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Beautiful example of a GS. Probably the nicest of the lot, but then I'm kind of biased when it comes to a black '79 GS1000. Sure wish mine was that nice.

Well Sandy, if you'd stop riding yours long enough to shine her up you wouldn't wish yours was that nice.

[doubleblue]

not many like that.......

This has turned into quite an amazing thread, particularly with the input of the two Bros.

Yup, a great story.
In the past.....Have any other original owners chimed in on present owners BOM's ?

[KEITH KRAUSE]

I wanted an XS1100 and was close to getting one back in '79. The best price I could get here was approx' $3600. They wouldn't come down a dime and I was just 22 at the time so every dollar was a bigger deal then.
I don't know how I had passed up the GS1000E the whole time but I read a road test in Motorcyclist (?) and it was good. This bike was to be for my 23rd birthday.
I started calling the dealers and wouldn't you know nobody had a black one, only the red. I had to have black. My wife found a dealer with one black one left and they even put a sold sign on it even though we only talked to them on the phone.
When I went into the dealer, there it was, freshly waxed. It said "Keith" on it and it had a bit of dried wax they missed here and there. One of the great moments in my life. I can't begin to tell you how on top of the world I felt as I drove her home. So smooth and powerful...and at $2749 it was way less than the Yamaha.
When I look back now I can't imagine how things would turn out if I'd stuck with the XS1100. It really does look dated now and there's no arguing how me and the GS have gotten along all these years. Just a great bike.
As for performance, the mags said the XS1100 would chase her down but the GS was quicker off the line. Didn't really matter because the GS1100 came out the next month and of course the CBX was around.
Sorry about the story. The XS1100 came up and it brought back memories of how I ended up with my bike.

[Mysuzyq]

Sorry about the story. The XS1100 came up and it brought back memories of how I ended up with my bike.

Great story....I love hearing these from the guys who were riding these bikes when they were current, and the baddest on the planet. Happy Birthday, BTW!!
Tony.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Great story....I love hearing these from the guys who were riding these bikes when they were current, and the baddest on the planet. Happy Birthday, BTW!!
Tony.

Thanks for the happy birthday. I can't tell you how difficult it was to break her in as the dealer suggested. "Don't take her over 4 grand on the way home" he says. The first miles are so important and you need to change rpm's regularly. All agree, the worst thing you can do is a steady rpm at first. I had 22 miles of freeway to get home but I was so worried about cruising along and it was too hard to change rpm's like I wanted, so I pulled off and took mostly surface streets home so I could vary the throttle.
I must have done something right because I put 106,000 on her before I decided to do the restoration. Even then, she ran fine and didn't need any engine work. Only thing going on at that time was some clutch rattle. I just decided the time was right so I took her apart.

[DangerWillRobinson]

...and at $2749 it was way less than the Yamaha.

$2749 for a GS1000E in 79 would be quite a bargain.

Are you sure you didn't buy the standard model?

The E was about four or five hundred bucks more than the standard.

For that extra money you got cast wheels, a stepped seat and dual front disc brakes.

I think any buyer savvy enough to appreciate the virtues of the GS1000 over the XS1100 also new that with its lower unsprung weight, the standard was the better handling Suzuki. All the 1979 leftovers available in 1980 were E models.

If it was a leftover in 1980 as this bike was, than $2749 would be about right.

[Dan Ruddock]

Oh I did it now!! Trying to find out why the guys at the XS1100 site like their brute Yamaha so much did not sit well with them so they banned me for stirring the pot.

The first link is where I posted an answer to their question of why don't our glorious XS1100's fetch much coin. They then banned me and moved my answer to a new thread in the hot button/off topic. The fist link has the question of why no coin and the second is my reply. Kind of funny.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25330

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25375

Oh bye the way, Keith loved your story. I think if you bought the Yamaha it would of been gone a long time ago and you would of got a 1100E, just a guess. Dan