Some bikes are rare because, well duh, there just weren't many of them made—like every Bimota ever. Some are just sales flops, like last week's find—the rotary RE5. Some bikes like this week's find are rare even though there were formerly tons of them, because they were just so popular for racing, modifying, and riding hard (crashing) that they have all been used up. You go ahead and try to find a cleaner, more original, lower mileage 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 for sale somewhere online and post it in the comments.
It would be easy to understand someone buying an early GSX-R Limited Edition bike (a homologation bike with rare parts like a dry clutch for racing) and putting it away for years as a collectors piece. But this was just a plain run of the mill bike 30 years ago when it was new and they were built for riding and racing. You almost want to pour out a little race gas for this poor bike that has never even worn out it's original tires.
The original exhaust is still there too, which typically got binned in order to save an extra few pounds, as if 388lbs wasn't light enough in 1986, or got destroyed in the first low side a few months into ownership. This one is still pristine even after 10,920 miles.
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The lower fairings are even in good shape, even though these were often scraped up by enthusiastic corner carvers, or taken off in warmer climates because these bikes run hot. It is possible living in the table flat land of graph paper straight roads has some benefits after all. This bike is currently in Palm Harbor, Florida, with not a corner within hundreds of miles.
Yes, there are some scuff marks on the paint on the fairings, but that stuff is easy enough to fix. Otherwise, it looks as if it rolled right out of page 6 of the 1986 Suzuki sales brochure.
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Currently (with no bids), it's at $5,400, which may be a little high as a starting bid considering the buy is now priced at just $6,000. Here is the seller's copy:
"This is my 1986 Suzuki GSX-R 750, blue and white, in very good condition; only issues are the bike still has the original tires that will need to be replaced & the clear coat is coming off in two small spots on the front fairing. I might be being a little bit picky about the condition but I have 100% positive feedback and I don't want anyone misled. The rest of the fairing pieces are excellent. I bought the bike eleven years ago and planned on keeping it the rest of my life, but plans have changed. I need room in my garage for a new toy on the way. The bike runs excellent. In 2011, I took the bike to Cycle Springs Motor Sports and had them go over it from top to bottom. I had the carbs and clutch rebuilt, brakes done, new battery, tank drained and flushed out, changed the oil and filter. (spent $1,584.80) I just recently did the oil and filter again.
Took the bike out last Wednesday to bike night. Put around 26 miles on it, ran excellent. Lots of compliments and people were taking pictures of it."
It really is hard to overstate how important the first Suzuki GSX-R sport bikes are to the development of the bikes we all know and love today. Back then, even the Ninja and Honda Hurricane had steel tube frames similar to bikes from the 1960s, just hidden under plastic bodywork. The Suzuki was a real paradigm shift to the aluminum perimeter frame of modern times. Bid on it here
UPDATE: Sold with one bid at $5,400
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