This month's customer build belongs to Mike Mitchum (Cincinnatti, OH) and his 1977 Suzuki GS550. "This a custom, cafe racer bike that I built in my garage. The bike was purchased as a non-running disaster (for $250) and was transformed over the course of just under 3 years.
"Almost everything from the top rail down are original parts that were cleaned up, except for the oil tank, pods, rearsets, chain and sprocket" says Delcourt. "Almost everything above that is not original, including the custom seat, bobbed fenders, and clip-ons"
Eric speaks about his 1983 Suzuki GS1100E at the 2018 Barber Vintage Festival.
If Carlos Ruiz’s brother ever asks you to dog sit for him, definitely take the gig; he pays in motorcycles. That’s how this 41-year-old Chicagoan wound up with a 1981 Suzuki GS450L that he’s nicknamed "Kyojin", which is Japanese for "giant" or "big man".
"A few years back when I was about 18, the vintage motorcycle bug, in the form of a 1976 Suzuki GT250 bit me hard. The bike was out for sale a few miles from my house, and man was she sexy. Running and in very nice shape for its age, she was begging to be mine. I spoke with the guy and swapped him a paltry $75 bucks for my soon to be freedom machine. In my then blissful ignorance, before I bought it, he told me 'it doesn't have a title, but you can just go get one.' HA! To this day I wish it were that easy..."
Durant, Oklahoma’s Ron Erickson isn’t much of a brand guy. He doesn’t bleed red for Honda and hasn’t sold his soul to Harley-Davidson. He started out at five years old with a 3.5 horsepower Briggs & Stratton minibike from Sears and has owned 20 motorcycles since, including seven Harleys, four BMWs, three Triumphs, three Hondas, one Yamaha, a Moto Guzzi, a Ducati and now a Suzuki...
Ten years ago, Mark Dempsey bought his first motorcycle right off the showroom floor, a 2006 Suzuki GSXR-600, a 407-lb. 100 horsepower rocket of a two-wheeler. He had never ridden a motorcycle before. This story doesn’t end well (he lived, but stick with us here).
