Description: Yes we combine shipping for multiple purchases.Add multiple items to your cart and the combined shipping total will automatically be calculated. 1977 March Road Rider - Vintage Motorcycle Magazine - Suzuki GS750 CONTENT SBACK ROAD EXPERIMENT[Rode Testing Suzuki's High Performance GS750] Dave Petersen . ... 12A BIKER’S GUIDE TO DAYTONA BEACH[Touring The Environs of Speed Week Country] Bob Anderson........24SPRING FEVER: SOME TESTED RECIPES[Camping With Cliff] Cliff Boswell...............................31SPEAKING YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE[Humorous Notes on the English Language] Roger Lovin.............39WINDFALL[Experiencing a Bike Club's Movie Debut] Ruth Calif..............42YAMAHA ‘77[Preview of What's in Store This Year]...........................50GOURMET TOUR[People Going Places to Eat].....................................52LOVE STORY[An Opinion of the Dual Purpose Yamaha XT500D] R. L. Carpenter . . 74STRICTLY STREET[One Biker's Solution to the Commuter Problem]...................79SCENIC “NINE”[There's This Road ... in West Virginia] William Phillips........85Faulty Muffler....................................................2Two Up............................................................4Letters...........................................................6Reports at Random................................................46Product ReportSignal Sentry...............................................48F.Y.1............................................................56File Under “B” For “Bureaucrap” .................................60What About... ?..................................................66Book ReviewCycle Touring...............................................72What’s Happening.................................................82Classified.......................................................86No Comment.......................................................88Advertisers’ Index...............................................88COVER: The back roads of America offer a refreshing change of pace and sceneryfor the touring motorcyclist who ventures off the blacktop. This particular countrylane is part of the extended "driveway” leading to the home of the A.L. Petersens ineastern Oklahoma. Mr. Petersen shot this back road photo of son Dave arriving for avisit on this month's test bike: the Suzuki GS750.In the summer of 1976, representativesfrom assorted motorcycle publicationswere airlifted to Montana for a previewride on Suzuki’s new GS750 four-stroke.After the brief 500-mile ride, I wrote upmy first impressions (“Is It Suzuki’sTurn?” — October, 1976 RR) and saidthat I was looking forward to doing astandard Road Rider Rode Test on themachine. The chance to do just thatcame sooner than I expected, and itwasn’t long before a Suzuki van rolledinto the RR parking lot and a bright redGS750 was off-loaded.Considering that the GS750 is Suzuki’sfirst attempt at manufacturing a largedisplacement four-stroke motorcycle, it’sobvious that the research department hasdone its homework. The machine is notonly attractive on the outside — it iscompletely state-of-the-art on the insideas well. According to U.S. Suzuki, thebike is designed as a high-performancestreet roadster. They won’t get any argu-ment from me. The engine is 748 cc’sworth of four-cylinder, air-cooled, double-overhead-cam wallop! It took me only afew moments in the saddle to reaffirmmy earlier observation that the bike isdefinitely a contender in that category.But my original article ended with aquestion as to the bike’s suitability as atouring motorcycle — and now I had achance to pick up where I left off.Due to illness in my family and the needfor a long-overdue visit back home, mychoice of a place to take the Suzy waspretty well made for me. However I stillhad the prerogative of route selection.The trip from California to my parent’shome in Stigler, Oklahoma is pretty muchof a straight shot on Interstate 40, butthis time I decided to take a long detour-ing route — staying on back roads and offthe Interstates as much as possible . . .visiting some of the places I had not seensince I was a child, and some of theplaces I’d passed by several times beforefor lack of opportunity or inclination tovisit.I outfitted the bike for the trip byinstalling a small Bates windshield, check-ing the fluid levels, tire pressures, chaincondition and — last but not least —unhooking the throttle return spring!Once upon a time many moons ago(well, not all that many) some words ofwisdom were laid upon me by a more-than-usually attuned Marine Corps DrillInstructor. I recall those great wordsquite often: “You don't have to practiceto be miserable. ” In this case, the 500-mile preview ride last summer plus acouple of days of local running aroundhad convinced me that I had already hadenough “practice” with the return spring.It’s not that the Suzuki has a harderreturn spring than other Japanese bikes,but just that I personally feel that any... And much more!
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