ZG1200 Experience 99

[Mr Jensee]

BTW Carl Leo on the home page of this site has a lot of plastic parts. He is liquidating. Call him. You will probably have to have some painted though.

[SgtSlag]

My Dad was a fan of Suzuki bikes. He had four of them, I believe. His last was a 1982 GS1100. That bike was scary as hell, when you hit 7,000 RPM! It was the fastest, scariest, bike I've ridden to date. I have a fondness for Suzuki's, due to my shared history with them. He had a 1974 %00 Titan, 2-stroker, which I rode in my tech-school days. What a legendary bike that was! Gutless; zero engine braking, and pitiful drum brakes, front and rear; top speed around 65; killed mosquitoes by the millions, every ride, spewing blue smoke like a steam locomotive engine; vibrated your hands numb in 20 minutes! My parents toured the nation on that vibration-machine, smoker! Me, I couldn't handle more than an hour of riding it.

I love vintage bikes from 1979 to the early 1980's. Those were beautiful, classic teardrop bike designs, and fun to ride. I have many fond memories of riding those now-vintage bikes. Golden memories I will always cherish.

It is a pleasure to see what you did with that Suzuki. I hope the new owner was able to fully resurrect that machine's engine so that it could be ridden for 1,000's of smiles and miles. That is a ringer for the teardrop designs that I love so much. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

[cbrfxr67]

"What a legendary bike that was! Gutless; zero engine braking, and pitiful drum brakes, front and rear; top speed around 65; killed mosquitoes by the millions, every ride, spewing blue smoke like a steam locomotive engine; vibrated your hands numb in 20 minutes"

[Mr Jensee]

Yes the guy I gave the Suzuki to tore the engine down to the casings and resurrected it. He gave to a friend who loved it so much he took to the Dragon and rode it. Glad it finally ended up in someone's hands who appreciated it. Yes I agree the 70 GS's were very fast bikes but my 2000 ZRX1100 was even scarier when it got fast, like over a hundred many times.

[triton28]

Back in the early 70s when I was a dealership for Suzuki I demo'ed one of those California Burgundy coloured 3 cylinder water cooled 2 strokes affectionately known as a GT750J, "Water buffalo". I rode that all over eastern Canada on the weekends and vacation. What a fine bike that was.
After that I demo'ed a truly unique bike: an RE-5 rotary engined Suzuki. That truly was the eeeeriest revving engine I ever had the pleasure to ride. There was NO, and I do mean NO, engine vibration at all in the chassis. The rear view mirrors were completely undistorted at 75 mph. But the poor bike had terrible gas mileage and the radical styling of the meter assembly, tail light housing and other styling areas was too avant garde and it was ahead of it's time in so far as consumer acceptance went so it bombed and only lasted 3 model years before being discontinued. Too bad as I actually liked that one.
Oh yeah, I also had several T500 Titans and everything you said was true, tons of smoke etc. although I did get them up to around 85-90 mph on a regular basis. Total hand buzz on a trip and forget about distinguishing who or what was in the rearview mirror.
Dave

[cbrfxr67]

Dave this sounds amazing,.RE5 suzuki..I need to look that up.

Great stories. I could read that stuff all day! Love me some bikelore!

Checked pick up last night and it's solid. No wires jacked up or anything. I'm down to trying out a new ignitor, then new coils & wires,...new pickup,... never had this much trouble getting fire. Always been carbs for me. I haven't even started carbs. I knew this Voyager was going to school me. Ordered that clutch switch Dave graciously explained in another thread, cause mine has issues.

[cbrfxr67]

Went and picked up this old girl on Saturday. Was in fair shape I'd say for the money ($340) and parts i need,...


and my wife pretending hahah


thought this was kind of cool






and a bit later




Found my issue with clutch switch swap and my wiring was wrong. doh Still, was great to hear it fire up if only on starter fluid. Will move to carbs now after sewing up wiring a little.

[cbrfxr67]

Thought these were kind of neat. Cranky pointed them out to me on earlier pic. Definitely going to put them on ebay unless somebody is interested in them,...

[cranky]

.... The heel toe shifter is invaluable ... can’t find‘um....

[cbrfxr67]

Pulled carbs from both bikes. Needless to say, that was fun. I found pushing the airbox boots into the airbox gave me enough room. I read all the tips and that airbox was still ruining my work zen in the garage.
I wonder why the green bike has black sticky sludge left over from the gas and the red bike has the crystalized leftovers? What would be the difference in the fuel? I see crystalization usually, not black tar sludge.





One had the stops drilled out and one didn't. Will clean these up and have more fun putting back on.

[SgtSlag]

Oxygenated, and non-oxygenated gas? Just a guess. Perhaps one had treated gas, other did not? Spit-balling. Cheers!

[cbrfxr67]

The carbs themselves aren't too complicated to clean, but they were full of black tar. Took me hours.


Ready to go back on,...


Rotor covers?


Or open rotors? Buddy wanted open rotors so that's cool,...


Pushing the boots into the airbox to get carbs off helped but then of course I couldn't get them out. lol In case any one ever wanted to see the inside of the box,.. And again Voyager schooled me with carbs. What a chore to put everything back on! Anyone that's installed an unhooked boot spring on #2 with carbs on, I salute you.


Tracking wiring and swapping parts



That's it for Memorial Day weekend. Thank you and God Bless you to all the veterans who served and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country!


Did fire up for just a moment! I only ran for a few seconds cause I need to change the oil. That was a sweet reward for hours spent on carbs. Next is more wiring and carb tuning.

[cranky]

You'da'man!!!! Outstanding!!!!

[cbrfxr67]

Somehow the idle adjuster decapitated itself which Uhm, is detrimental to dialing in everything. 16" pliers and mirrors got it off and the other installed. More lessons in patience! Hoping for first ride today,....

[ComputerGeek59]

IMHO that bike is to far gone and going to cost you a lot of time and money to make it run and drive straight. You would be much better off and money ahead using it as a parts bike and getting a running Voyager XII for $1000. There out there. My cousin got a pretty nice running 03 for $1200. He just changed all the filters and fluid and is riding it.

I agree with this post! There are too many good bikes out there for less than $2000 that in the end will cost you less than what you will have in sunk costs to fix that bike.

Brad

[ComputerGeek59]

I bought one in much better shape than this, but I could've done much, much better to wait for one in better shape. The plastics alone would cost a ton to replace. This is a parts bike, IMHO.
If you're hell-bent on starting this one, consider putting it back together as a rat commuter. There are examples on the web that look nice and functional, having minimal bodywork. Basically, strip it down to the parts you actually have, and then see what you can live without, maybe with junkyard stand-ins.
But even those rat bikes I've seen apparently are ready to ride and cost a lot less than you're going to spend.

I bought a 1998 one owner that was in great overall shape with 72,000 and I probably put another $1500 in putting it back into perfect shape including replacing the water pump, fuel pump, progressive fork springs, progressive rear shocks, new tires, brake pads, wheel bearings, windshield, and a couple of cracked panels. All of these things add up when you start replacing them. Granted I am kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my toys. It was ridable as it was but the tires were getting worn and the water pump was leaking oil on the back side. Not all of the items I replaced needed to be replaced but I wanted it to look like it did when it was new. I don't like most of the new motorcycles because they have gone to the 2 cylinder engines and figured I would make this one like brand new and keep riding it.

Brad

[cbrfxr67]

Thanks for the .02 on "should've picked up a better bike for more money"

Yesterday had some time and replaced my test spark plugs. Number 1 not as hot as the others and tested the 'open the float bowl to create turbulence' which seemed to help. Tried to do a quick ride on the street and shift into first (load) made some ugly sounds around #1. I'm not sure if it's detonating under load or what. Maybe crap gas,..

Was trying to keep from pulling the tank to clean it but the gas is coming out a nice scotch whisky color haha. The tank on parts bike is cleaner and I guess I'll pull that one, clean it all out and then swap it. Mine was full of black tar sludge that I scraped out as best I could and was hoping to run a few tanks through and it'd clear out. I guess not.

Other than that it runs, it idles, it revs up,...... Hopefully clean tank swap will help it run better and fix whatever that sound is under load.

oh & HID kit off parts bike actually worked,..woo hoo

[cbrfxr67]

For six or so bolts holding all this together it's funny you have to take so much of the bike apart to get the tank,....


had a little gas in it but came out clear and minimal rust in there,...


always fun taking stuff apart


anybody interested in a trailer hitch set up? looks like it's in good shape with some cleaning


tonight i'll clean tank out and get ready to swap them

[cbrfxr67]

So decided to swap the fuel filter,...man that's a bugger to get to! Had to take half the bike apart to get to it!


Thar it be!

haha

[cbrfxr67]

Was raining balls which is the best garage weather if you ask me,...but not when it's coming in the garage


Back together with clean tank swapped in. Now get some clean gas and back to tuning,...