Of course it didn’t look like this when I rode it. But it was my first motorcycle, so it is special. The first of the two sequential Suzuki’s that I’ve owned, this cemented the brand in my psyche (it was the Era of Kevin Schwantz). Creamy delivery of power in a nimble chassis. But what did I know. It was my first bike. I dropped it pulling away from a stop sign.

This GS was probably only seven or eight years old when I took custodianship, but they had been a hard seven or eight years. All that remained of high style Katana-inspired bodywork was the grey front fender. The tank and seat were off some generic GS, the side covers zip-tied on, all rattle-can black. Someone had put aftermarket Marzocchi shocks on the back, and I got a set of nice Dunlops spooned on. It was a fun ride, easy enough to ride for a first bike, fast enough to make it interesting. I remember one winter where I was my only transport, as part of some manly sidequest It had a shaft drive, as a result I never learned proper chain maintenance until maybe a couple weeks ago. I took it on a long ride through the Devil’s Backbone with my sister on back, following a friend on his CB750A. There’s a picture of that day somewhere.

I sold it to get another bike.

Probably should add some criteria to these entries:

Was it the right thing at the time? Yes. Absolutely

Do I wish I had it now? Maybe mint one, but that one? Probably not.

It was the gateway drug, and there have only been a couple of months that I haven’t had a motorcycle since then.