Hi all,  a while ago I bought 2 GS500's, an '02 that had been dropped, have now repaired and am using as my daily ride, leaving my GSX1100FJ in the shed for weekends, the other is a "89 which I picked up very cheap as a tidy rolling bike with no motor. About the same time I also picked up a GR650, scruffy condition but with a real sweet motor, Wandering around bored one day I threw a tape measure over the GR motor and the GS frame, decided that it was doable, thus the GSR650 was born. It is not quite finished yet, still have to build and exhaust for it, oh and replace the stator, as per usual with any early '80's GS, the GR has the same stator problems as them all.Attached is a photo of job in progress. I rode it up and down my street today, only headers on it, but it proved to me that it worked, can not wait to finish it, should be a cool bike to ride

Me likey.  Suzuki, are you listening?

sweet!  Tell me about the GR650, I'm not familiar with that model.  Is it a p-twin like the GS or a v-twin like the SV?  Did the motor bolt right up or did you have to fab some mounts? 

looks good
gr head or gs?
looks like the gr head
tho only downsides will be the 5 speed tranny
and
the fact that the red line will be lower....8500-9000 i think.


hey Dgyver.....lookie lookie

franken-rat...  I love it.   

Plus, the GS looks cooler than the GR.

Glad to see it fits without any real issues. That is a GR head. The GS tranny will drop in but the actuating arms are different. I have a complete GR motor and another bottom end (thanks to werase643) that I am going to do the same transplant but with a twist. I am going to be using a GSXR 4-valve head and FJ1200 pistons. Looked at putting the GR crank in the GS but the GS cases are wider at the outer journels by about 5mm per side, the middle journels are in the same location. The crank has larger diameter bearings as well.

The GR was only available in the US in '83 but it was fairly popular overseas, not sure of the years it was available in other markets. The GR650 motor is basically the same as the GS, a parallel twin.....except 77mm bore x 70mm stroke with a 8.7:1 compression and puts out 50hp. Top speed of 110 @ 8500 rpms. Odd that it has 36mm carbs but only 33mm (or 34mm) intake ports.

Hi all,
That is definitely an interesting project.
Making things work when it doesn't seem possible is always fun.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
yours,
Todd

Man, I like your work; now I'm going to have to think about doing something similar, probably a cross between your project and the one dgyver is going to build... GSR650CR (cafe racer) modeled after the original Harley-Davidson XLCR of 1977...

IMO, the original Suzuki GR650 Tempter of 1983 had to be one of the UGLIEST motorcycles ever produced. Think of a "big" Brit parallel twin, as produced by Japan, Inc., "updated" for the eighties to some type of bizarro modern-traditional amalgamation; OK stop thinking of it, or you'll vomit all night. All the motorcycle magazines raved about it, especially the engine, but no one with functional eyeballs would buy it, which is why it died so quickly in the US market. IIRC (I might be wrong about this), at least one of the national magazines here in the US voted it "Motorcycle of the Year" (retch), in the SAME year that Honda introduced the VF750F Interceptor, which was truly a motorcycle that changed motorcycling. No accounting for taste, or the lack thereof...

1983 Suzuki GR650 Tempter

The exact same type of tragic comittee-think design decisions produced the Suzuki 1200 Madura (and subsequent variants), another tragic abomination highly offensive to the human eye. Seems like every single component was styled by a different department, and none of them discussed integrating their designs to match any other component before the thing was cobbled together on the factory floor. Of course, there were probably people who thought of those rolling nightmares as works of art, but their cataracts have probably blinded them completely by now. I'd consider them lucky not to be able to see it anymore...

1985 Suzuki GV1200 Madura

Two ass-ugly motorcycles from Suzuki, just a few years after they introduced the futuristic Hans Muth-designed Katana... what the hell were they smoking?

1980 Suzuki GSX1100 Katana

Count yourself fortunate if you've never seen a Tempter (or a Madura, for that matter); if you're brave, click those links and get an eyeful of design malpractice in action...

I've seen Maduras in person. They're ugly. Somehow the one you posted is even uglier.

Quote from: Cal Amari on March 04, 2006, 05:41:44 PM
IMO, the original Suzuki GR650 Tempter of 1983 had to be one of the UGLIEST motorcycles ever produced. Think of a "big" Brit parallel twin, as produced by Japan, Inc., "updated" for the eighties to some type of bizarro modern-traditional amalgamation; OK stop thinking of it, or you'll vomit all night. All the motorcycle magazines raved about it, especially the engine, but no one with functional eyeballs would buy it, which is why it died so quickly in the US market. IIRC (I might be wrong about this), at least one of the national magazines here in the US voted it "Motorcycle of the Year" (retch), in the SAME year that Honda introduced the VF750F Interceptor, which was truly a motorcycle that changed motorcycling. No accounting for taste, or the lack thereof...

Well, I think the fate of the GR650 Tempter was comparable to that of Kawasaki's recent W650--which is to say retro motorcycles have very limited appeal in the marketplace--the exception, of course, being the American cruiser niche. 

Plus, bad timing compounded Tempter problems as 1983 was near the peak of the Great Japanese Motorcycle Glut in which warehouses were overstocked with steeply discounted carry-over models from previous years.  For example, GS450T models ("T" for Triumph clone) could be had for a paltry $899 (ironically the Tempter itself became advertised as a discounted carry-over model a couple years later).

And,  then as now, sizzle sells and the GR650 lacked bang for the buck every which way you can imagine (magazines had it topping out at 102 MPH--slower than a GS500).    But it was relatively light and the 651 mill was tractable and quite compact with modern looking engine covers. 

I'm sure the Tempter was never a candidate for Motorcycle of the Year, though.  The GR650 was a nice bike--basically the kiss of death in any motorcycle showroom. 

Quote from: Cal Amari on March 04, 2006, 05:41:44 PM
1983 Suzuki GR650 Tempter

Sh*t, that's a hot-looking customized bike!    

Quote from: Cal Amari on March 04, 2006, 05:41:44 PM

pics

oh man, now I won't be able to sleep tonight.  That Madura is horrific!

Freakin Sweet! You always hear about people wanting to put bigger motors in their GS but no one ever does it. Way to go!!

Quote from: Gisser on March 04, 2006, 10:58:31 PM
Well, I think the fate of the GR650 Tempter was comparable to that of Kawasaki's recent W650--which is to say retro motorcycles have very limited appeal in the marketplace--the exception, of course, being the American cruiser niche. 

Plus, bad timing compounded Tempter problems as 1983 was near the peak of the Great Japanese Motorcycle Glut in which warehouses were overstocked with steeply discounted carry-over models from previous years.  For example, GS450T models ("T" for Triumph clone) could be had for a paltry $899 (ironically the Tempter itself became advertised as a discounted carry-over model a couple years later).

And,  then as now, sizzle sells and the GR650 lacked bang for the buck every which way you can imagine (magazines had it topping out at 102 MPH--slower than a GS500).    But it was relatively light and the 651 mill was tractable and quite compact with modern looking engine covers. 

I'm sure the Tempter was never a candidate for Motorcycle of the Year, though.  The GR650 was a nice bike--basically the kiss of death in any motorcycle showroom. 

Sh*t, that's a hot-looking customized bike!    

I'm well aware of the debacle the Japanese manufacturers faced in '83; warehouses jammed to the rafters with unsold models didn't help the GR650 (or Yamaha's 1983 Vision 550, or dozens of other models) to compete in the marketplace, but that doesn't invalidate my previous post in any way. The Tempter (which clearly didn't tempt many people at all) didn't sell very well even when it was heavily discounted; ugly is as ugly does, and few were willing to open their wallets for the chance to own one.

OK, so my faulty memory let me down more than 20 years after the fact; I did a little research and discovered that Motorcyclist magazine named the Tempter "Best Buy" for 1983 (NOT the coveted MotY); even THAT didn't help sales! My local Suzuki dealer had two of them on the showroom floor, with three others still in the crates. He didn't sell a single one...

Another middleweight that failed miserably in '83 (though it sold much better than the GR650) was the Honda 550 Nighthawk. That thing had so many problems Honda should have bought them all back and crushed them; instead, the poor buyers were left to fend for themselves. I suppose Honda figured they'd eventually work the bugs out through warranty repairs, but that didn't happen. Once the warranty expired, the people unlucky enough to own a Chickenhawk (as they were known) soon listed them for sale, so someone else could deal with the unsolvable problems. One unfortunate co-worker bought a 550 'Hawk the same week they arrived at the dealership; in the first year he owned it, his C-Hawk spent FIVE MONTHS in the shop. Sometime during the second year he had it (1984), he gave it to a soon-to-be-ex son-in-law he didn't like, and neither the Chickenhawk nor the disliked S-I-L was ever heard from again.

Bottom line is, those motorcycles (among others) were eyesores and/or rolling headaches. You might recall that Honda didn't have ANY problems selling the CB650SC Nighthawk, the VF1100C Magna, or the legendary VF750F Interceptor in 1983, glut of unsold motorcycles stacked in warehouses be damned... give the people what they want, then stand back and watch them spend.

Quote from: Cal Amari on March 05, 2006, 03:21:44 AMBottom line is, those motorcycles (among others) were eyesores and/or rolling headaches. You might recall that Honda didn't have ANY problems selling the CB650SC Nighthawk, the VF1100C Magna, or the legendary VF750F Interceptor in 1983, glut of unsold motorcycles stacked in warehouses be damned... give the people what they want, then stand back and watch them spend.

Problem is, history teaches that what enthusiasts say they want does not necessarily equate to what they will actually lay down their money on.  For example, the lovely Hawk GT tanked big time for Honda.  The cry went out in forums like this to give us a litre version!   Then came the VTR1000 Superhawk...and it tanked too!