has anyone here owned a suzuki GS850??

[Clark]

I have owned a 750, several 1000's and an 1100... thinkn now I need an 850 since my strom has a hack on it and I know I am gonna want a 2 wheeler.. if you have owned 1 and can tell me if 1 year is better than another I would greatly appreciate it.. tia

[Gryphon Rider]

I had an '82 GS850L like the one pictured below.  The regulator/rectifier is prone to failure.  I replaced it with a used part from a newer bike.

[Clark]

annnnd..howd ya like it??

[Gryphon Rider]

I liked it fine until I holed a piston. I'm not sure how that happened but I think it was related to a problem where gas was pouring through the air box when the engine was off and made its way into the crankcase. Of course I had changed the oil and re-oiled the air filter when that happened, but never got to the bottom of the problem.  I now think it was a vacuum-operated fuel valve problem, but the gas issue didn't repeat that I noticed.  For several reasons I never tried to figure it out or fix/replace the engine, and ended up selling the bike years later as a parts bike.  I never heard that this was a common problem, but I had heard about the regulator/rectifier being an issue.

The seat was reasonably comfortable; I had highway pegs and a backrest that could be slid forward and back for use by either the passenger or rider.  I rode it from Calgary to Winnipeg and back (2600 km round trip) one Thanksgiving weekend.  I think I had it up to 160 km/h once or twice and don't remember having stability issues.  I rode the bike from 1990-1994 or so.