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My love affair with the Suzuki GT250
came as a wet behind the ears, fresh off the moped
.jpg) 17 year old, I
just had to have the fastest thing I could get me hands on, so off I
went to James of Grays Suzuki dealership, dragged me Dad along with
me to stand guarantor for me and promptly signed on the dotted line,
committing meself to pay £45.00 a month for the next three years to
some finance company or another, little did I know at the time that
eighteen months later the ol' bike would be caned, dropped and sold
leaving me to still pay the finance totalling £1170.00.
BUT BOY - DID I HAVE SOME
FUN
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I never really got over the buzz
of riding the X7, whilst all my mates were on RD250's or
GT250's, the X7 I had left 'em all for dead, the first time I hit a
ton on her (according to the speedo) I pulled away from the
toll booth at the Dartford Tunnel coming northbound after paying my
20p at about midnight and just caned her through every gear. Just
about halfway through the pipe as it starts to rise into Essex I
looked down at the speedo and it was bang on 100 MPH, but hey! this
was 1980, no speed cameras, no Q.E.2 bridge, and the ol' bill were
still busy.jpg)
pounding the beat. Fortunately I never got nicked on her but my pal
Gary managed to get me an endorsement and a £40.00 fine doing 50 in
a 30, he told the ol' bill he was me because he wasn't insured to
ride it. You could do that sort of thing in 1980 because you didn't
need a full bike licence then, the X7 changed all that
forever.....................So, for the next 20 odd years I was X7
less, I have had RD's, CB400's and 750's, a GT380 etc. but I just had
to have another X7, now that I am a responsible adult !
So, on December 31st 2003 I
purchased "WUNTUN" from a guy in Southend for £250.00, she was in a
million bits at the time, the frame had been powder coated and the
front end had been built, but the rest still had to be done.
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Now I can't take all the credit for
building "WUNTUN", I was fortunate in being able to enlist the help of
Rick to help me in the task and we set about getting the top end of the
engine rebuilt with new rings and gaskets, and getting the black paint
onto the rear wheel, the front wheel had already been done, the wheels
were originally red as standard, but my first X7's wheels were black so
black it was gonna be. As you can see in the pic, the front end was
complete, and the rear mudguard and fittings were on, but the shocks
were in a bit of a state, they had to go !! |
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Once the rear wheel was painted and
polished, she was rolling, I had a good set of shocks to put on her,
although not standard, they have stabilised the back end better than
the standard shocks in my opinion, the X7 was always prone to a bit of
back end wobble in corners. So, the engine was undergoing surgery, and
the tank and side panels needed paint. There is s man who lives in the
North at a place called Wingate in County Durham called Peter Scott and
he is a wizard with a spry gun, I purchased new decals and sent Peter
the paintwork, in my opinion he done a first class job at a very
reasonable price.
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The engine casings had
already been stripped of their original grey dreary paint, so we set about polishing
the clutch cover and the flywheel casing, and getting the.jpg)
pistons and barrels on, the pistons are .75 oversize indicating that
she has been rebored at some point. We fitted her with a new set of
rings, the bores themselves look as good as new, as do the crankcase
oil seals which are a very common failure on the X7.
.jpg) Once
the cylinder head was in place fitting the engine into the frame was
easy, it is held by 4 long bolts running through the frame at the front
and the back of the engine. I bought a seat from a guy on e-bay
although it looks good, the base is rotten and will be replaced when
the right part becomes available.
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Wit the engine in, the carbs fitted
and the throttle working,
.jpg) the
next step was to get the electrics working. When I bought her the guy
had a good second hand loom to fit making wiring the ol' girl pretty
easy and
.jpg) painless,
not for me but for Rick, as wiring is not my strong point. With all the
electrics coming to life, we could now see the progress being made. I
started to rebuild the front brake calliper and managed to shear the
bleed nipple off. I bought a second hand calliper for £25.00 and
instead of painting it, I polished it, again not standard, but
effective and in keeping with the rest of the rebuild, I could now
smell the M.O.T station, I just hope she starts.... |
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At last the paint job
arrived back from Pete, I set about getting the tank sealed on the
inside with pet seal, Pete had had to do a fair repair on the bottom of
the tank which was littered with pin holes and rust. Finally she was
looking as she should, the only thing missing now were the exhaust down
pipes which were at the chrome platers in Benfleet, although they took
six weeks to do, they have come out well, the cost of £45.00 including
a CB400 chain guard was well.jpg)
reasonable. Pete has done an excellent job with the decals as well.
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After a fair bit of tinkering and
cursing and depleting the local ozone layer we got her running pretty
roughly, the reason we found was because she had 105 jets in
and was over fuelling, a standard set of jets cured the problem
immediately, a.jpg) new set of plugs and off to the MOT station where she
passed first time on Sep 15th 2004.
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She isn't completely standard.........
She isn't a concourse example..........but, she is a good looking X7,
that's still on the road at nearly 30 years old and she is mine......... |
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Special thanks go to;
Slick Bloke, Peter Scott, Chris Pryke
and Bikeybird.
Restorations Front Page
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