Suzuki GS 850GL

The end of the Seventies had some of us worried. While it was true that Japanese motorcycles were coming through with vastly improved frames and suspensions new emission and noise regulations threatened to make the bikes unpleasant to ride if not downright unrideable. The future appeared to hold nothing but flat spots, gasps and the occasional backfire from a flock of would-be wonderful engines leaned out and strangled by regulation. All mechanical forms, cars, cameras, stereos, etc. go through phases of development where progress is made slowly as people grope around for solutions, then faster as new ideas are piled one on the other, finally culminating in a phase where most of the problems are mastered and style overtakes technique. It seemed that motorcycles were to be denied this peak of mechanical development just when they had it in their collective grasp.

The Suzuki GS850, introduced in 1979, was a good example. Here was an exemplary touring machine with air-assisted forks, excellent brakes, adjustable shock damping and a marvelously slop-free shaft drive that didn't climb and dive all over itself. The transmission didn't work very well it was stiff and reluctant—but the rest of the bike was pretty good. And it was an 850, a bike of no more bulk than many 750s, but with a little more power for fully equipped two-up touring.

Unfortunately, nobody liked riding the bike very much. It was okay cruising out on the highway, but around town the coldblooded nature of the engine made short trips less than a joy. It took a full 10 min. of playing the choke against the engine to keep the thing running right, and by that time you had arrived at your destination, with a similar return trip to look forward to. Even when warm, running was not perfect. The carbs had a vague, surge-and-search feel when throttle settings were changed. We noted that other companies had to grapple with the same em-mission laws as Suzuki, and some had been able to make their own models run better.

A few years have passed since that first test, and things have changed. The entire motorcycle industry seems to have sorted out its carb and throttle response ills to the point where a new bike with running or warm-up problems is the exception rather than the rule. And few Japanese Fours have responded better to the fine touch of refinement than Suzuki's GS850. The 1982 GL model in this test runs about as well as anything on the road.

The engine in the GS850 is essentially a larger version of the old eight-valve 750, rather than a sleeved down remake of the GS1000. The engine uses the 750's roller bearing crankshaft, stroke being 56.4mm like the 750, but with a 69mm cylinder bore. The 850 uses cams from the GS1000, with more lift and less duration than those on the 750, giving the 850 better mid-range and bottom end grunt at the expense of peak power. The 850 was conceived as a touring mount rather than a road racer, so the engine and drive train were designed to be suitable for that style of riding.

The compression ratio is 8.8:1 and the cylinder head is a fairly conventional two valve per cylinder arrangement with chain driven double overhead cams and replacable shims on top of the buckets to set valve clearances. The spring-loaded chain tensioner takes up cam chain slack automatically as the chain wears, and for further maintenance-free running the ignition is breakerless transistorized.

Carburetion is by four 32mm constant velocity Mikunis, a change made last year away from the old 26mm slide throttle Mikunis. We've often lamented the passing of slide-throttle carbs on various bikes because slide throttles tend to provide a crisper, more positive response to twisting at the grip, without a lot of lunge and surge. That's when the carbs are properly jetted, of course. But in this case the new, larger CVs work infinitely better than the old carbs and are singularly responsible for the biggest improvement in the rideability of the 850. The traditional Suzuki revs-through-the-roof fast idle is still there, however, when the choke is operated. Suzuki has persisted in this set-up for so long we've decided the fast idle is set intentionally high to remind people when they're riding around with the choke on and the engine warmed up. Nothing like the roar of 5000 rpm at the stoplight to jog your memory.

There is a corelation here; as the bike warms up it runs best when the choke is adjusted to a comfortable fast idle.

Power reaches the rear wheel through a clever combination of gears and shafts. Primary drive is by helical gear to the clutch. The clutch has a spring steel wave washer behind it, to soak up both shock and slop for smoother clutch engagement. The transmission mainshaft similarly has a damping setup incorporating a shaft-within-a-shaft that absorbs shock loads by climbing cam-shaped ridges under spring load. At the other end of the shaft is a rubber cush drive in the hub. The bevel gears in the shaft drive are held in place with large tapered roller bearings, two per gear, and the swing arm/ drive shaft also pivots on heavy-duty tapered rollers.

What all this means is an incredibly slack-free drive train with no delay in communication between crankshaft and rear wheel, or better yet, between twist grip and rear wheel. The Suzuki's shaft setup is also notably free from the climbing and dropping syndrome during on/off power applications, once assumed to be a troublesome but necessary evil in all shaft drive bikes. The rider is aware of the shaft most often at gas stops when he does not stoop down to oil the chain and while passing by the chain lube display at the cycle shop without buying any. Certainly, there is a weight penalty for the shaft and it is more expensive to manufacture than a chain drive arrangement, but in normal everyday riding as well as spirited canyon work, rear end movements from the physics of the shaft are scarcely noticeable, and gear noise is minimal.

Handling? There isn't any. At least not in the critical sense. One of the test riders came in after a weekend in the mountains and noted, almost with dismay, that he couldn't find anything wrong with it. The air forks were compliant and comfortable, yet suffered no diving or mushiness problems, even with the minimum recommended air pressure (8.5 psi) in each leg. The rear shocks each have a damping adjustment wheel at the top and can be set to four different degrees of damping force. The springs have a normal five-slot preload ring. The suspension works beautifully over a wide variety of road conditions and can easily be adjusted to handle passengers and luggage. The bike is dead stable in fast sweepers and slow, tight corners and the steering is nearly neutral with no tendency to fall into corners or to demand heroic measures and muscle to keep it from running wide. Very strong mid-range acceleration plus a slick-shifting transmission and excellent brakes all work together to make fast riding an easy, almost non-demanding, experience. We didn't test this bike on the racetrack, as that is not really its venue, so it is possible that minor handling problems could arise at absolute cornering limits. But within the bounds of all street riding conducive to a rider/motorcycle life span of more than 10 min., the GS850 handles very well indeed.

One of the nice parts of fast riding, or just cruising around town, is the 850's powerband. As mentioned earlier, the engine uses GS1000 cam timing and lift for good mid-range, and this it has in abundance. At a time when many bikes need a lot of revs to produce their spectacular drag strip figures, including some of the GS' stablemates, the 850 pulls like a truck from just below 3000 rpm all the way on up. You leave stoplights to the sound of the nice low, growly exhaust note and simply slingshot away without slipping the clutch or waiting for the engine to come up on cam. The five-speed gearbox can be short-shifted all over the place and still have respectable power on tap when the throttle is twisted. Two test riders mentioned that the motor feels remarkably GSlOOO-like during around town rides and during top-gear roll-ons at moderate speed. In other words, the motor has a lot of punch in the right places.

At the drag strip the GS850 ran through the quarter mile in 12.36 sec. at 107.01 mph, about 0.03 sec. quicker than the 1979 GS and 1 mph faster, a time that puts the bike at the fast end of the current crop of high performance 750s in acceleration. Not bad for a 557 lb. shaft drive bike originally designed for touring. The quarter mile doesn't tell the whole story, however, because the Suzuki's strong mid-range gives the rider better roll-on acceleration to work with in real traffic situations. The bike is what most other 850s have been in the past; a 750 with a little more.

The GS850 has the sort of brakes we've come to expect from Suzuki; powerful, easily controlled with moderate lever pressure, predictable and quiet. The bike stopped in 32 ft. from 30 mph and a commendable 127 ft. from 60 mph, without drama. The bike has triple 10.75 in. discs and sports a new rectangular aluminum front brake resevoir to replace the white plastic version of yore.

So we've got a bike that goes fast, stops well, handles, shifts smoothly, makes nice sounds and requires little maintenance. What more could you want?

Nothing, if you can live with the cruiser styling and the riding position dictated by the footpegs, seat and handlebars. For a couple of our test riders those were some fairly large ifs. The styling is a matter of personal preference; the Suzuki is painted in a tasteful gray and black and is nicely finished all around, so if you like the low-rider look this is a well done example of the genre. The pure ergonomics of the riding position are another matter.

The dual density foam seat follows another fine Suzuki tradition in being well-padded and comfortable to sit upon. But the high step between the rider and passenger portions, along with the shortness of the seat, mean you are firmly glued in one spot for the duration of the ride. The wheelbarrow-like bars extend back almost into your lap and the footpegs are moderately far forward. This seating position works all right around town, though it feels a bit posed, but out on the highway it soon becomes tiring. Test riders who live a long way from work each rode the bike home once and then switched to something else.

People in the industry tell us that the so-called cruisers are not really being ridden by people who merely cruise or go profiling around town; rather, market research shows they are being used for commuting, travel, sport riding, etc. In short, all the things "normal" bikes are used for. If that is the case, people in the market for a shaft-drive 850 may want to consider the merits of style carefully.

Suzuki makes a non-L model, a traditionally styled version of this bike called the GS850G. It has a longer, mildly stepped seat, a larger gas tank (by about 1.5 gal.) and more conventional handlebars. In other words, a bike that removes nearly every objection we have to the compromised usefulness of the L-model. In the L-model you have essentially a wonderful touring bike with too small a gas tank, and a useful sporting mount with an awkWard riding position, so it doesn't really work as either one. The only redeeming feature of the L's riding position is that the seat is very low, only 30 in. off the ground. This is a big help for shorter riders who don't enjoy balancing on tip-toe at stoplights. Taller riders may feel that their knees are uncomfortably close to the handlebars and their own shoulders, with feet up on the pegs.

One easy option for owners of the L-model, however, is to shorten the handlebars. Unlike some bars, which have a sharp bend very near the grips, the L bars do most of their curving near the front and come back at the rider in long, straight sections. This means several inches can be sawed off without affecting the angle or mounting of the controls. The only reservation here is that the Suzuki has 5 in. steel plugs in the ends of the bars to damp vibration. These are each held in place by a tack weld which can be drilled out, allowing the weights to slide farther down the bar where they can be soldered into place. The Suzuki's weighted bars do a good job of cutting down vibration; mirrors and grips are glassy smooth on the road. We shortened the bars on our test bike and liked the grip position a little better.

The Suzuki's gas tank holds 4 gal., 0.6 gal. of which is reserve. Our bike averaged 48 mpg on our test loop and got no worse than 42 mpg with the wick turned up for a bout of lawless mountain fun. The range to reserve is about 160 mi., which comes around a little more often than most of us like while traveling. The instrument cluster includes a fairly accurate gas gauge, so at least the tank's progress is easy to check. The fuel filler is a locking, removable cap. Fuel is fed to the carbs through a vacuum operated pet-cock with a reserve and prime position, so you can drain the tank if need be without sucking on the vacuum hose.

In addition to the gas gauge, the Suzuki has a gear position indicator and a warning light that tells you when the side-stand is down. As warning lights go, the sidestand indicator is pleasantly un-intrusive; it doesn't blink or honk or talk, it just glows red until the stand is folded up, for those occasional times we all forget and ride off grinding and sparking.

Another welcome feature on the GS is a fingertip choke lever at the left grip, rather than the previous type which was mounted in the center of the steering stem. The choke can now be eased off as you ride without taking your hands off the bars or looking for the knob. The integrated turn signal and high/low beam headlight switch is also simple and easy to use. The turn signal button is pushed upward for high beam and downward for low. Slid from side to side it acts as a normal turn signal switch and has a self cancelling circuit which shuts the signals off after 9 sec. if the bike is going more than about 9 mph, and leaves the signals blinking indefinitely if the bike is stopped or rolling below 9 mph. Sounds a little complicated, but in practice it's straightforward to operate.

The tach and speedo dials and fuel gauge glow red at night and the 55/60w quartz halogen headlight puts out a strong beam with a good balance between shoulder-scanning width and searchlight reach.

Maintenance on the GS850 should be fairly low. Ignition is breakerless, the bike is a shaftie, and our experience with Suzuki valves and shims is that they go a long time between needed adjustments. The owners manual recommends that the secondary gearbox and final drive oil (SAE 90 hypoid, GL-5) be changed at 600 mi. initially, and then every 7500 mi. thereafter. The air cleaner uses an oiled polyurethane element that can be washed in solvent and reused, 4000 mi. being the recommended interval under normal road conditions.

To make comparisons in the marketplace, probably the most similar bike and the Suzuki's strongest competition for the same buyers will come from the Honda 900 Custom. Both are large, smooth, competent bikes with a little more glitter in their styling than their sister versions of the same model. The Honda is the more complex of the two, with a four valve per cylinder head and the dual-range final drive which gives the rider, effectively, a 10-speed bike. The Honda is a peakier engine that makes its power toward the high end of the tach. The Suzuki is a simpler, more conventional design, about 0.1 sec. slower in the quarter mile, but with a little more willingness to pull at lower rpm. It has two-valves per cylinder and a five speed transmission. Official list price on the GS850L is $1 more than the Honda's; $3599 vs. $3598. The choice is largely a matter of brand loyalty and small personal preferences.

The GS850L is a good bike. It's more than a good bike; it's a living example of what attention to detail and careful refinement of a basically good design can do for a machine. In mechanical operation the GS is about as fault-free as anything we've tested. It is fast, slick, electrically smooth and almost casually competent. As mentioned, our own preferences would probably lead us to the standard GS, but those in the market for a motorcycle in cruising trim will have a hard time finding a bike with more value and all-around useable performance for the money.