Don't get me wrong. I love my 77 GS 750...the best overall bike I've owned. In fact I have enjoyed all four Suzukis from my past...and, oddly, two of the four “other” bikes I've had which I did not care for were Kawasakis.
But...in terms of sheer joy the best of the best was the X6. A post on a recent auction of a Kawasaki H2 750 on Bring a Trailer triggered my thoughts for this post. The H1 and H2 were nicknamed “The Window Maker” as they were brutally quick in a straight line but lacked any sort of real capability to turn or stop. The term “scary fast” applies.
Here's the comment that got me thinking:
“I had a 250cc 2 stroke Suzuki X6 “Hustler” with a 6 speed transmission in my late ‘teens. Very fast little bike, I could keep up with (and sometimes pass) the Triumphs and BSAs for a city block or so, when they just ran away from me. I lusted after the H2 triple a guy in my town had. That bike just seemed so exotic, so noisy and in-your-face fast that I just HAD to get one.
Cooler heads prevailed after I scared myself once too often on my X6. A lightweight 2 stroke motorcycle, even one with 250cc, is not a thing a teenager should have.”
But it was an X6 which got me back into two wheeled vehicles...though it belonged to my Grad student roommate and not me. And I was only a year past my teens myself at the time, though it was another year or two before I actually owned one (and why, oh why did I trade it for that gawdawful Kawi 350 triple?). I was no more than a year or less out of my own teens before riding and eventually owning one...and though I did not realize it at the time, my own learning curve about motorized two wheelers was already deep enough, and my maturity refined and established well enough, so that the bike was a pure joy which never scared me.
As related elsewhere in this blog, Dick Saltzman had a 64 Corvette Stingray convertible I lusted after, which he would often let me drive if I washed it for him, as he preferred the X6 for daily commutes to and from class. I could not figure that out, as I had ridden on the back a couple of times and was less than thrilled...and even a bit frightened.
I had not been on a motorized two-wheeler in years, and the idea of leaning into turns was intimidating at first. I did learn to trust Dick and the physics eventually. But riding on the back of a bike is just not the same experience as...riding.
So, one day, Dick offered to let me ride solo if I cleaned (was it the bike or the car? Don't recall). In those days Florida did not have a separate license endorsement for motorcycles. So a person could just jump on and go. While that might make little sense in terms of personal safety, at least the only person likely to suffer from lack of experience of judgment was the rider...unlike the fact that even today a 60 year old who never drove anything bigger than a Honda Civic can jump into a 40 foot, 26,000 pound motorhome and go with no certification or training required!
But I digress. I rode out to a large and ancient sinkhole outside of Gainesville called “The Devil's Millhopper”....sort of a reverse mountain as first you hiked down to a flat bottom where you could often find fossilized sharks teeth in the foliage and rocks, before climbing back out. But the road to it was two lane country and often totally empty of other traffic, as it was for this first ride.
I took it easy until I got some familiarity with the controls and responses in terms of handling, brakes, and power. Once I got to that empty road I stopped on the pavement. Making sure there was no other car, or bike (with or without motor), I wound on the throttle and dropped the clutch.
Holy crap! While the front wheel stayed firmly planted on the pavement, the first three gears came as quickly as I could move my hands and feet, and my butt slipped to the rear of the seat as the X6 threatened to come out from under me. It was all I could do to hang on. At 145 pounds soaking wet I was getting all the acceleration out of this little beast it was capable of...0 to 30 in 1.3 seconds, 6 flat to 60, and the next thing I knew the speedometer was reading 100 and I was absolutely breathless. And though the brakes were drums they were more than adequate to shut things down before I ran completely out of road.
I was totally hooked. But a new X6 was $749 and I settled instead for a one year old Yamaha 305...while not up to the specs of the X6 it had more power than anything I had driven or ridden, and was more than adequate as a first learner. And eventually I did, perhaps two years out, get my X6. By then, and drawing on my early learning about how to stay alive on two wheels from way back in Junior High , I was more than capable of managing the X6 safely while not giving anything up in terms of enthusiasm.
I still yearn for the light weight and instant response of the bike. I love the GS and would not want to part with it, but a 500+ pound 1970s four stroke is just not the same animal as the light and lithe little beast that I still believe was the best 250 ever made.
One day?....
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