First of all, I’ve never heard anyone actually call this a LeMans. It doesn’t say “LeMans” on it, and honestly I kind of doubt anyone raced them at LeMans, either. Maybe? People DO call it silly nicknames like “Water Buffalo” (Americans) and “Kettle” (British), all because it was apparently a huge surprise to have water cooling on a motorcycle, even though Scott had water-cooled two-strokes nearly five decades earlier. I guess no one remembered those in the 70’s, though. We refer to this as a GT750, because that’s the most useful thing to call it.
What matters is that this is a ridiculous thing. 750cc displacement, three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. So it’s fast as hell if you ask it. The cheap conversion on two stroke power to four stroke engines is to multiply displacement by two, thus claiming it’s as powerful as a hypothetical 1500cc four-stroke of its era. That’s an exaggeration, but it sure ain’t slow. Mind you, unlike its contemporary 750cc two stroke triples, this one does not have an unpredictably steep power curve that causes unintentional wheelies and slings unwary riders into the nearest guard rail. This is no “widowmaker”, and that’s a good thing.
Surprisingly, the brakes are actually quite good. Dual front discs take just a bit of finger pressure on the brake lever to bring you back down to sane speeds. Sane speeds on a bike with 1970’s handling means something like 50 mph. But it will do modern interstate speeds with ease, and everyone will try to catch up to tell you your engine is smoking. And you will say, “I sure hope so, it’s a two stroke!” No seriously, if it ain’t smoking, it’s probably not lubricating the engine, and your ride will be shortened considerably.
But yeah. A man in Texas loved this bike and had it restored a while back. He sold it to really nice guy in Oklahoma who didn’t have to do much to it and found out he didn’t love riding it. (The suspension and chassis are okay until you ask it to carry 250 pounds or more, at which point you’ll be wondering if you need something stouter.) So he traded it to us for a used Ural.
Lots of nice NOS Suzuki parts on this one. We’ll post more photos if you bug us to do so. Or just make an appointment to come see it.
We’ve done nothing to it so far, though we might remove the nerdy backrest/bag holder thing. We will replace the tires, which are dated 2013 (front) and 2017 (rear).
$8,100 as-is (but with new tires), stock #9091.
