1974 Suzuki T500

Owned by Pete.

Pete aboard the Suzuki T500

I remember buying this bike the first time around. I was a student at Glasgow University and my current bike, a Honda 160 had seen better days. I was working in a factory in Dundee during the summer holidays of 1977 and as a student I didn’t pay any tax on my earnings so I was better off than my work colleagues. I worked all the overtime I could - tuesday and thursday nights qualified you to work a saturday morning, all at time and a half, and if you did all that you could get a sunday shift at double time. I threw all my pay packets into my wardrobe and at the end of my three month stint I had no idea how much I had accumulated. Phil and I had a lock up and bought odd bikes here and there and sold them all before we went back to University. Altogether I had £400 for another bike which would be the equivalent of a few thousand now. The little Honda had served me well but Japanese bikes were not my first choice of motorcycle, it really had to be British, preferably a Norton Commando or a Triumph twin.

Unfortunately for me £400 was just not enough for a decent British bike and I had searched the bike shops and small ads but nothing decent and British was available. I widened my search to non-British and I concentrated on the newspaper ads. I saw the advert for a 1974 Suzuki 500 twin two-stroke and thought I would go for a look so I phoned the number in the ad and arranged a viewing. When I got there the seller was one of the factory workers who certainly didn’t drive it to work. He had bought it from new and now needed the money. I took a test drive and was pleasantly surprised with the bike. It was newish, low mileage and probably just what I needed. A friendly discount was negotiated and off I went with a nice red Suzuki T500L. This bike was my transport for about four years summer and winter until I sold it to Phil about 1981.I had this bike when my daughter, Victoria was born in 1980. She now works for a web design company called Mint Twist and I can confirm that they had no input to this amateur website. If  you are reading this and have need of a seriously professional job on your web presence you could do no better than Mint Twist on www.minttwist.com

Now I had it back and it was in stunning condition although I suspect not run for a few years. I resisted any temptation to start it until it had been thoroughly inspected. It came with a mountain of spares and the receipts for the work Phil had paid out in the restoration of the thing.

Rod’s garage at this time in its evolution had four walls and a roof. There was no insulation and no floor other than rubble. Any nut, bolt, washer or vital component less than about a centimetre in any dimention would be swallowed by the stones never to be seen again, so great care was required in removal and rebuilding of various assemblies. The shed was reasonably spacious and had a good array of spanners and other hand tools. There was electricity so we could have a cup of coffee on the coldest nights as we worked on the bike through January and February. It was a wise decision not to start it up as soon as we possibly could. A really good service of all serviceable items and replacement of all oils was absolutely necessary. With all the spares, all that was required to be purchased was a battery and a few other bits. Then the great day for firing the bike up arrived. Rod reckoned two kicks, I guessed three; a bit of choke, a few prods on the awkward left sided kickstart to get the petrol through and ignition on! Off it went first kick. Time for an MOT and the road!