Love the GT185 #1!
On my current holiday to Dublin I popped into a local magazine purveyor and spied your mag. What a great articleon one of Suzuki’ s best, least respected motorcycles: thegt185.I bought a similar 1976 model in the early 1990s and had to find a second for a good motor. The first one had duff crank seals and spat roostertails ofoil through both pipesas it pumped the oil out of the gearbox! Luckily, the second one hadgood seals and ran like a charm.it was metal flake goldin colour and had a dealer accessory-installed luggagerack jutting out just behind theseat. Perhaps it is just the fact that I only had a GT550 andagt750 to compare the ride to at the time, but I found it handled extremelywell and had the best ‘big bike’ feel of any sub-250cc motorcyclei have everridden. The other amazingtrait was (with my 230lb weight on the saddle) the bike would easily maintain 70mph in freeway traffic and do 85 without breathing too hard. You could wring it if youwantedto, but it was completely tractable and tuned with torque in mind. Compared to other small bikesi had ridden it was, in twowords, very impressive! I should have kept the little wonder, but in a moment of weakness I sold it. I almost wept when Isawitagain about a year later: right turn signal broken and seat torn. It is the only bike of small displacement I have everregretted selling. Thanks again for a fine magazine and a great reminder of a solid sub 250cc touring motorcycle that should have been given more respect! Christopherbarta
Bertie says: “Glad you liked the article and it brought back the memories!” Bertie says: “Pete – I’ve ridden the Gladius (not your Gladys, I hasten to add) and loved it! Great bikes and a future classic…”
Loved the article on the Suzuki GT185. I bought my blue one from new in 1977. I worked in a motorcycle shop at the time and got to remove my bike from the crate, assemble and PDI it. Like a lot of people, I bought it as I couldn’t afford the 250, but never regretted it as it was a cracking little bike. As your article says, they were sadly overlooked in favour of the 250s, as was the RD200 (another great bike). They both had electric start, something 250s didn’t have then for some reason. My only advice for the owner of this bike would be to move the pillion foot-rests to the silencer mounts. The foot-rests mounted to the swingarm would hit the silencers and knock out the inner baffles. Mine went through two sets until I moved the foot-rests to the silencer brackets, asimple, but effective cure. Sadly, I can’t find any pictures of the old girl. Loving the magazine as it has bikes from my past, so keep up the good work. I’ve just got back into bikes after 20 years and have got an eight-year-old Suzuki SFV650 Gladius (called Gladys), which is ideal as it is so easy to ride and looks good. Pete Matthews