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GT750 'Specials'

Click on any image to see a larger version.

'Specials' in this instance does not refer to the one off, personal creations that so many owners have built but rather to those small, limited production runs of GT750's made to fit a specific marketing opportunity.

1970 Prototype

Not a 'special' in the sense of it being a limited production, but special as it was the first. The prototype was shown in October of 1970 at the Tokyo Motor Show, and then released to the Japanese domestic market in September of 1971. I have also included a photo and three scans of material from the 1970 show shared by Jurgen Kuschewski.

Notes:

Vallelunga GT750S

Saiad, the Suzuki importer for Italy created this GT750 based café style racing special, based on the K model, and intended for production race class where it achieved some success between 1973 and 1975.

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Suzuki Dunstalls

Paul Dunstall first produced one of his seat/fairing combinations for the GT550 in 1975. In 1976 he was offering conversion kits for the GT750, GT550 and the GT380 which included a fibreglass tank cover with blended seat,rear fender, and separate sport front fairing, as well as a handle bar mounted fairing for the GT250. The Heron Suzuki GB line-up shown below was offered in 1976. Production stopped in 1977.

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Dresda

Another British frame builder was Dave Degen's "Dresda" factory, who actually are still in business making frames today. In the early 1970's they offered custom frames for several makes, including for the Suzuki twins and triples. This ad and article ran in the 1974 July issue of the UK magazine "Custom Car". I do not have information on how many Suzuki GT750 kits were sold, or for how many years but they were offered both as a kit, or as complete machines.

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Reimo 750 and 900 GTR

This was a very limited production (perhaps ten of the 900cc version) produced by Reimo (founded by Winfried Reinhardt and Horst Owesle) originally in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The company still exists and is perhaps the oldest Suzuki dealership in Germany having been founded in 1970.

Reimo were kind enough to provide me a copy of their catalogue listing their performance parts offerings from the early 1970's which Fred Sauter in Ontario has very generously translated for me:

Original German version:

English translation:

Note - a DM or Deutsche Mark is worth about $0.70 in USD at the time of writing. Also of interest is that Reimo do still have some parts for the repair of the chain enclosures - although I suspect not at 1970's prices !

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Roca

When the GT750 was introduced in France, sales were slow. Almost as an act of desperation, Jacques Roca (a well known former French road racer who died in 2007) and Suzuki France modified the GT750 (and other models also) with a custom seat and tank shell in bright colours. Doing so gave them an instant hit and sales increased rapidly.

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Moto Martin

Georges Martin founded Moto Martin in the early 1970's and produced custom frames (according to some sources styled after Fritz Egli frames) and body kits for many different engines, including Suzuki. Total production of all frame types appears to have been about 5800 based on several sources. As all the early production records are now gone, it is not possible to determine how many were for the GT750.

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Sanders and Lewis

Sanders and Lewis was a UK based Suzuki dealer who sold a frame kit in 1977 based on (actually shamelessly copied from) a Nico Bakker design. The frames were made by Saxon, also in the UK. The exhaust shown in the first photo is a Piper 3 into 1. The custom alloy fuel tank had a separate compartment on the right side with its own filler cap for the injector oil, and the radiator cap was relocated to the left side as seen in the third photo.

Numbers sold likely were quite limited, and current day survivors would be even fewer.

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Nico Bakker

Nico Bakker founded 'Bakker Framebouw' in The Netherlands to build custom frames to order for many different engines, and for use in racing and on the street. The company is still in business (see this link ) and also a recent article can be found at this link. 'Bakker Framebouw' confirmed to me via email that they only ever made a handful of frames for the GT750, so genuine Nico Bakker frames would be quite rare. If you have deep pockets I expect that you could still order one from them.

And the wheels on this bike appear to be Offenstadt SMAC's.

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