Suzuki GS750 Humble hero!
You have to wonder who worked out the strategy. It had been seven or eight years since Honda had introduced the game-changing CB750. Four years since Kawasaki had blown our minds with the Z1.
BMW, Guzzi et al had responded with litre bikes of their own, but with Kawasaki the 1000cc four-cylinder four-stroke was well established and the benchmark for performance. So what better way to announce your (late) arrival into the four-stroke superbike segment than with an, erm, 750?
“It’s not the biggest, or the fastest – but check out the refinement!” No, we’ve never read a tagline like that. And yet, this was effectively the story of the GS750. As we know, a year later, in 1978, its larger sibling, the GS1000, would storm to the top of the premier league, but for 1977 Suzuki came into the four-stroke market almost quietly; they even painted the new bike in muted colours. The GS750’s arrival was precipitated by the need to meet new US emission laws, which their existing superbike, the two-stroke GT750, could not meet. And arguably caution was the watchword at Suzuki as they’d only recently gambled big on the RE5 rotary – and lost. So, probably as dictated by the boardroom’s bean counters, it would seem little steps was the preferred strategy.
To give context, the Suzuki was not alone in the 750cc market. Honda had moved on – slightly – from their CB750K series and were now making CB750Fs, which
