This was a different styling direction for Suzuki, the big GSes had gone all swoopy for 1980, these 450 twins (400 TSCC in Canada) got this attractive look for only 2 years, after which they followed the Katana look.
paint it metal flake purple/brown and install a fancy schmancy aftermarket exhaust like you saw in the beautiful full page advertisement in Motorcyclist magazine, probably Kerker. then you ride it Kmart for the latest issue of Cycle Guide magazine and stop by the Yamaha shop looking at their massive helmet selection, they have every brand every color every style except for your size and color combination, that nearly matches your metal flake. top off the tank, pack of smokes and Popular Cycle magazine at the dirty ol Phillips 66. you ride down to the Suzuki shop and look at the raised white letter tires. you can't wait till the stock tire wear out so you can get those.
Built a club racer (AAMRR/CCS/WERA) from a crashed and burned pair of these. Next to no money in it and lots of spares, and racing skinny guys on RZ350's. I ran HOLY HELL on it in multiple classes as was allowed, rode it like I stole it from my worst enemy. Redline was 9500, would rev to 12+ and drop 4 gears at a time not backing off. Took a long long time to kill a motor and at that it was just a cam sprocket bolt came loose and jammed thing up. Gained total and absolute respect for the engineers of Japan. My Norton would not have lasted one run through the gears like that.
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paint it metal flake purple/brown and install a fancy schmancy aftermarket exhaust like you saw in the beautiful full page advertisement in Motorcyclist magazine, probably Kerker. then you ride it Kmart for the latest issue of Cycle Guide magazine and stop by the Yamaha shop looking at their massive helmet selection, they have every brand every color every style except for your size and color combination, that nearly matches your metal flake. top off the tank, pack of smokes and Popular Cycle magazine at the dirty ol Phillips 66. you ride down to the Suzuki shop and look at the raised white letter tires. you can't wait till the stock tire wear out so you can get those.
Sounds like you were there! Good times.
Built a club racer (AAMRR/CCS/WERA) from a crashed and burned pair of these. Next to no money in it and lots of spares, and racing skinny guys on RZ350's. I ran HOLY HELL on it in multiple classes as was allowed, rode it like I stole it from my worst enemy. Redline was 9500, would rev to 12+ and drop 4 gears at a time not backing off. Took a long long time to kill a motor and at that it was just a cam sprocket bolt came loose and jammed thing up. Gained total and absolute respect for the engineers of Japan. My Norton would not have lasted one run through the gears like that.
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