Suzuki introduced the GS1000S in 1979 and also continued it in 1980. It is believed that they built around 7,000 of them worldwide, but actual figures are hard to come by. Often referred to as the Wes Cooley Replica, because of the white/blue race paint scheme and bikini fairing, it looked a little like the AMA super star’s race bike.
Many standard GS1000s were treated to the paint job and had a replica fairing attached, but there are many other subtle differences. The GS1000S came with its own consul in the handle bar fairing which includes speedo, tacho, quartz clock, oil temperature gauge and fuel gauge. It has air assisted forks and an 18 inch rear wheel on the 1980 model. The mirrors for the original GS1000S and brake mater cylinder cap are also unique to this model. I have seen original mirrors for these, in typical eBay scabby condition, fetch £600 a pair!
To find an original machine with everything in tact is like trying to source a museum piece. They very rarely come with the original exhaust system with large amounts of engraving on the silencer about how wonderful and legal the exhaust is. Original airboxes got binned along with the original shock absorbers. Those insanely difficult to procure and expensive mirrors were totally useless for showing you anything other than the hedge by the side of the road or your sleeve, so they got binned and replaced with standard items. Original seats would have deteriorated so badly as to have been replaced with replica items. Tanks with fuel gauges are like hens’ teeth and will have rotted from the inside out and will have been replaced with a standard GS item without the fuel gauge. Brakes were weak, at best, without braided steel lines, so they won’t come with original brake pipes. Finding an original machine is almost impossible. And when you do, the clutch basket will rattle and bang, demanding a new lease of life. Then the price……
So, you eventually find a machine that is investment grade, with its original motor and not one from another GS1000 and it has all the parts there intact. The classic motorcycle world is very small and the classic motorcycle investment world is after such machines, so you are not going to buy this machine for a few grand. Prices in the US and Japan have gone crazy with such examples fetching US$18,000+ (that’s around £13,500 in our ever-depreciating currency at the time of writing this article). And prices and demand are both rising daily. Also the meteoric prices that are starting to be achieved by Honda’s CB750, CBX1000 and Kawasaki’s Z900 series, means that people are looking for less expensive alternatives and the limited edition Suzuki fits perfectly. But won’t buy this classic for under £10,000 as the owners have held onto them for so long waiting for the prices to rise. You will find them with parts missing for below that price, but can you find the parts to get it up to spec? Very unlikely. And if you do, it’ll take your own machine well over the £10K price mark.
So, if you can find a really good investment grade Suzuki GS1000S for under £10,000 I suggest you snap it up rapidly and you could do worse than look here. The price is only going one way and that is skyward.
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