Get on this little Adventurer, turn on the gas, flip the choke, push the button, and that cheerful two-stroke burble comes out the well-muffled exhaust.

Cruise down the suburban street, out into the country, engine warmed, drop the five-speed tranny down two gears, wind it out to the 8,500-rpm redline, shift, shift again, and a lightweight solo rider on a slight downhill gradient might be seeing 80 mph on the speedometer. Not bad for a little 185 back in those days, not bad at all. Even more so, these bikes were cheap to buy, cheap to run, and well suited to the factory worker and the college student.

Suzuki was in its two-stroke stage back then, and had built some exceptional machines in the late 1960s, followed by the excellent triples. One innovation of which the company was most proud was the Ram Air concept, very apparent on this little twin. Take a close look and one sees that this is a vertical twin, parallel cylinders standing upright. The cylinders are perfectly square, 49mm by 49mm, and the air rams are actually built into the cylinder heads. As opposed to being bolted on, as with the 380 and 550 triples.

The patented Ram Air design was not of any use around town, but out on the open road it allowed these two-strokes to motor along at close to maximum power with no undue side effects, such as overheating.

• Comes complete with Original Suzuki Owners manual
• Two Stroke, Ram Air
• Very tidy condition in good working order.
• This Japanese lightweight is great fun. What makes this little Suzuki delightful is its nimble handling and positive steering. Even a passing vintage bike fan would agree that its a little darling.
• Weighing just 127kg, you could fling this Suzuki over to the limits of its generous cornering clearance and even though its tyres and suspension are rudimentary, it doesn’t seem to matter.
• This bike is ideal for a collector and for the just qualified rider, who doesn’t need, or want, a bigger or sportier machine. Yet while bikes would take 20 more years to evolve into machines that could be used without much modification for racing, the GT185 still offered enough visual cues to satisfy the sports fan. Take, for example, the large drum front brake with twin leading shoes, or the skimpy front mudguard blade, both of which look like they’d come from a works bike of the 60s. The big headlamp gives the bike an air of authority. Rubber bellows covering the front fork legs offered a feel of enduring quality. It is also roomy with a precisely balanced riding position that worked both in the showroom and on the road.
• Suzuki’s take on the class was – at first sight – completely fresh. Although the 185cc twin used the same basic engine and frame as the 125cc model, both were new designs without any previous lineage. The engine was novel in that while it used conventional horizontally-split crankcases, they were tipped up at the front so that the axes of the air-cooled cylinder barrels were vertical, ostensibly to help their cooling.
• Smooth and responsive – Once on the move, the bike feels smooth and responsive, the rubber-mounted engine singing up through the gears to reach more than 80mph on the speedo.

A great collectible wee bike, that will only increase in value.

The 1973 Suzuki GT185 occupies an increasingly appealing niche in the classic Japanese motorcycle market. Introduced in 1973, the lightweight 184cc two-stroke twin represents an era when Japanese manufacturers were producing simple, colourful and highly characterful motorcycles that introduced an entire generation to riding. With its distinctive Ram Air cooling, twin-cylinder two-stroke engine, period chrome and twin-leading-shoe front drum brake, the first-year GT185 has considerable nostalgic appeal. Contemporary testing praised its lively performance and nimble handling, with period testing recording almost 80 mph – impressive performance from such a small-capacity machine.

Today, much of the GT185’s collectibility lies in exactly what once made it an everyday motorcycle. Many were inexpensive working or learner bikes, used hard and ultimately discarded, meaning genuinely original, complete and well-preserved survivors are becoming considerably harder to find. The 1973 model is particularly interesting as the introductory-year version, retaining the front drum brake before Suzuki moved to a disc for 1974. As enthusiasm for 1970s Japanese two-strokes continues, smaller-capacity machines such as the GT185 offer collectors an accessible way into the market while delivering enormous nostalgia: the sound, smell, light weight and distinctive power delivery provide an experience that simply disappeared with the passing of the two-stroke road-bike era. Values remain modest compared with the larger and more famous Japanese two-strokes, but that is arguably part of the attraction. The best original examples should increasingly be viewed not merely as old commuter motorcycles, but as surviving pieces of 1970s Japanese motorcycling history, affordable, usable and wonderfully nostalgic collector machines.

New Zealand Sales
Unless otherwise stated, vehicles sold for use in New Zealand will be supplied with a new Warrant of Fitness (WoF) and 12 months New Zealand registration at the time of sale.

Transport & Shipping
New Zealand transport and worldwide shipping can be arranged on the Buyer’s behalf and at the Buyer’s cost and risk. Any freight, shipping, insurance, customs charges, duties, taxes, import costs, certification or compliance costs are the responsibility of the Buyer unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Export Sales
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Viewing
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Applicable Law
All sales are subject to applicable New Zealand law. Nothing in these Conditions of Sale excludes or limits any statutory rights or obligations that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

For more information about this vehicle, please contact us Monday to Friday between 9:00am and 6:00pm (New Zealand Standard Time) on +64 (0) 3 310-6485. Alternatively, you may email us at [email protected] anytime, or contact us through the form below.

The Purchaser is encouraged to personally fully inspect the vehicle and also to have the vehicle inspected, and fully assessed by an experienced, independent, specialist garage - before committing to purchase. While the Purchaser is entitled to rely on statements given by Waimak Group Ltd as being correct, where goods such as vehicles are concerned, with so many moving parts and rust being an issue with older vehicles; a Purchaser who chooses not to seek independent professional assistance when assessing the quality of what they propose to buy is considered as buying at their own risk, and if the vehicle then turns out to be of less than the represented quality, or not up to the Purchaser's expectation, or in the Purchaser opinion not fit for purpose; then the Purchaser is considered to have contributed to their own loss and should not expect any refunds or betterment from Waimak.

NOTIFICATION AS TO NATURE OF GOODS IN TERMS OF THE CONSUMER GUARANTEES ACT 1993

Waimak Group Ltd is a New Zealand registered company and accepts that the vehicle being sold must be of “acceptable quality” in terms of section 7 of the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (the Act) having regard to “the nature of the goods”. Waimak Group Ltd is not aware of any specific defects with the vehicle, however (a) such a vehicle being a classic vehicle may have mechanical breakdowns, electrical failures at inconvenient times and maintenance costs being part of and parcel of ownership of a classic vehicle; (b) reliability is a combination of the particular nature of the classic vehicle, how it is being driven, how it has been maintained, and to a certain extent luck; (c) because of the age of the vehicle, and its propensity to rust, it is likely that the vehicle would have been fully or partially restored, or at least repainted at some point in its life, maybe even more than once. Waimak Group Ltd does not know, and cannot give advice on how good any restoration work on the vehicle had been.

The Purchaser acknowledges that the vehicle is being sold as a classic car; that in terms of the Act and the nature of the goods, the vehicle is an old car, bike or boat, that may have visual and hidden faults, unlike a new motor vehicle.

The Purchaser is encouraged to personally fully inspect the vehicle and also to have the vehicle inspected, and fully assessed by an experienced, independent, specialist garage - before committing to purchase. While the Purchaser is entitled to rely on statements given by Waimak Group Ltd as being correct, where goods such as vehicles are concerned, with so many moving parts and rust being an issue with older vehicles; a Purchaser who chooses not to seek independent professional assistance when assessing the quality of what they propose to buy is considered as buying at their own risk, and if the vehicle then turns out to be of less than the represented quality, or not up to the Purchaser's expectation, or in the Purchaser opinion not fit for purpose; then the Purchaser is considered to have contributed to their own loss and should not expect any refunds or betterment from Waimak Group Ltd.

The Purchaser acknowledges that they have read and fully understand this notification and the nature of a car which is many years old.