How "L" is the 1979 GS 425L?

[Guest]

It's my understanding that Suzuki brought the '79 GS 425L out very late in the model year. So my question is this; is there a huge difference between the frame on my '79 GS 425L and the GS 425 and 425E that came out that year, or did they use the same frame, slap on a bigger front wheel, a king and queen seat and a few other more cruiser type goodies on my "L" model?

[ikantbreave]

I dunno how much different they were but you can check out the pics in my 'Bucket to see. Pretty much from frame up on a 425E. Hope it helps. Nice bike and blog BTW. I've seen your blog before just googling GS425. I am having the same front tire fender clearance issues right now because I ordered the 100/90/18 for the front. Working on a solution and I'll let ya know what I come up with.

[pete]

The only real way to confirm short of eye balling them is to do reverse parts lookups on the parts fiche. It's not conclusive, because if Suzuki changed one minor detail the part number will change, but it could help... I haven't seen any 425's personally so I can't really comment...

[SVSooke]

Have what is left of a 79 GS400L here,Suzuki Canada has a different model line than the US.The 19 front and 18 rear says to me that not much was changed.I think it was remove the "duck tail" and a new seat.Maybe a different taillight to.

[Allie]

I believe that L bikes differ very little from the others, however I think they use slightly different frame bracing for the seat and different tank mounting points. So yes it's basically the same frame but I guess you'd have to weld to change those items. The way early Ls look like they just slapped different parts on you'd expect easy interchangeability but this is not always so.

[Midwest FZ Rider]

I dunno how much different they were but you can check out the pics in my 'Bucket to see. Pretty much from frame up on a 425E. Hope it helps. Nice bike and blog BTW. I've seen your blog before just googling GS425. I am having the same front tire fender clearance issues right now because I ordered the 100/90/18 for the front. Working on a solution and I'll let ya know what I come up with.

Your frame seems to be pretty much the same as mine as far as I can tell (eyeballing it).





My blog shows up in google?!? SWEET

[Midwest FZ Rider]

I believe that L bikes differ very little from the others, however I think they use slightly different frame bracing for the seat and different tank mounting points. So yes it's basically the same frame but I guess you'd have to weld to change those items. The way early Ls look like they just slapped different parts on you'd expect easy interchangeability but this is not always so.

Its good to hear similar sentiments to my assessment. Here is what mine looked like before I started messing with it. Definitely a different seat bullhorn bars passenger grab rail, different tail light.

I think the later ones got more cruiser-ish with front offset axles on forks and smaller rims with bigger tires etc... I've taken some straight on side shots of the bike and I want to figure out the geometry and see what I can do to make it more sporting I'll be a lot happier if I am working with the same base as all the other GS bikes of that period.

I'm not really looking to convert it to the looks of the "E" though I've got a different plan for it. I found a seat off at Suzuki T250 that was in really good shape and I am going to make mounts for that to go on my bike wo there will be no duck-tail.

[pete]

By the time they got to the 80 - 82 450E's and L's, things were very much different.

I did some measuring compared to some of the guys here with L's and T's, and the frame is actually shorter at the rear on the L's and T's. The tank mounts are very different too.

However, those two pic's you put up... I can't see a single difference!

Maybe get some various measurements taken on both to see if they line up? Did a quick reverse lookup on your L frame's part number, and it just returned the L, so there's at least one minor difference somewhere which may not matter...

[Midwest FZ Rider]

Where are you doing the reverse lookups at?

[pete]

Doing them on Alpha Sports, BassCliff just shot up a new guide the other day

[SVSooke]

OK have been looking at pics of a 76 GS400.The tank is the same.The rear fender is the same.The only things that seem to be differnt are the seat and no ducktail..Seems like a rush job + the fact they changed in 80 means they actually did very little to L the 79.

[oldrookie]

Blog is a good read.