Suzuki
GT380 Gallery
The GT380 and GT550 were predicatable and sporty
motorcycles, but up to a point. At touring speeds
they were comfortable and smooth, but twisting
the grip further brought a wobble and cornering
at higher speeds showed the limitations of the
suspension, swinging arm and tube frame.
The GT engines were less highly tuned than
the Kawasaki triples. Porting, timing, compression,
carburetor size were all chosen to deliver smooth
power at the expence of maximum power. It made
the Suzuki GTs more reliable than fast. The
odd 3 to 4 exhaust system and rigid foot pegs
also limited the leaning angle and the sporting
nature of the bike. The GT triples were simply
made for touring and not for sport riding.
The Ram Air System (introduced in all of the
air-cooled GT models) that forced the cool air
to pass through the cylinders and behind the
block was a new developement, tested earlier
on Suzuki's TR500 racers. It is an simply an
air scoop that ducts cold air directly onto
the cylinder head and aid cooling on to the
engine. It was a known problem that two-stroke
engines lost power when the cylinder head temperature
rose too much. Cooling problem plagued other
two-stroke triples but the Ram Air System made
the Suzuki GT triples less suspective to the
charasteric two-stroke power loss. Nevertheless
the GT triples still had a reputation for the
middle piston seizing.
Both triples saw some minor improvements every
year of their production but after only few
of years production the two-stroke engined street
bikes were terribly out of fashion. Although
the GT380 was as strong and reliable as a four-stroke
of equal displacement the rather high fuel comsuption
of the two-strokers was suddenly an issue, when
the gasoline prizes rose in the seventies. Even
Suzuki itself dug a grave to its two-stroke
models by launching its highly popular GS series
with four-stroke angines. It was actually forced
to change their minds and start making four-stroke
engines. The tighter emission regulations in
America sounded the death knell for most two-strokes
Bike |
Image |
Description |
1973 Suzuki GT380K |
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- Air cooled, two stroke, transverse
three cylinder
- 171kg
- 6 speed
- 38bhp @ 7500rpm
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1974 Suzuki GT380 |
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Suzuki launched its air-cooled two-stroke
triples GT380 and GT550 in 1972. An water-cooled
three-cylinder GT750 had already been presented
a year earlier and the 380 and 550 followed
the design of the flagship model. |
1974-75 Suzuki GT380 |
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1975 Suzuki GT380 |
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Suzuki's automatic system mixing fuel
and oil had been refined for the GT models,
providing less exhaust smoke, now called
CCI. A clever new item in the early seventies
was the vacuum-operated petcock was first
used on the GTs and later used on all Suzuki
mototrcycle models. |
1975 Suzuki GT380 |
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1975 Suzuki GT380 |
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Suzuki
GT380 Road Test |
1976 Suzuki GT380 |
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2-stroke triple. |
1976 Suzuki GT380 |
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1976 Suzuki GT380 |
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1976 Suzuki GT 380 |
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1980 Suzuki GT380 |
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