In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Suzuki was famous for building go-fast two-stroke motorcycles, and a machine like this gorgeous 1983 GS1100ES was a twinkle in an engineer’s eye. By the early 1970s, Honda with its CB750 and Kawasaki with its Z1 900, were dominating the four-stroke, 4-cylinder program. But in 1977, when Suzuki launched its GS750 and GS1000, the Japanese manufacturer was back in the game. Suzuki then upped the ante in 1980 with the GS1100E—a machine with its Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber, or TSCC, technology. Instead of two valves per cylinder, the bike used four valves per pot with a narrow included valve angle, and the combustion chambers were wedge-shaped, thereby imbuing the GS1100 with some serious performance credentials. By 1983, Suzuki’s GS1100ES had been granted an additional 3 HP, and the steel tube frame was now equipped with an air- cheating, small and tidy fairing and windshield. “The GS1100ES is not the most powerful street motorcycle on the market, nor the fastest,” a September 1983 Cycle World test explained. “What it is, is the quickest, thanks to an unmatched combination of seating position, suspension, weight, torque and clutch controllability. While others shoot the front wheel skyward or spin the rear tire, the Suzuki rockets forward, the rider able to fully use all 108 horsepower. This is the easiest 1100 to ride at the dragstrip, as shown by consistently good numbers.” It was also a seriously good sport-touring motorcycle, thanks to sensibly placed foot pegs and handlebars, and many were put to that use. This 1983 GS1100ES is in impressive condition in its distinctive pearl white and blue paint, and the exhaust has been swapped to a SuperTrapp system. The original exhaust is included in the sale, and as evidenced by the exhaust plume in the wintry photographs, the machine appears to be a runner just waiting to go for a long and pleasant summer’s day ride. S184 1983 SUZUKI GS1100ES
