GTS in da house! With pics to make it real!!!

[Stray Cat]

Craiglist is my friend. This is the second excellent hyperspace conveyance that I've found locally. Picked this up last night, and rode home in the dark, rain and through torn up freeway construction. Fortunately we made it home without a hiccup.
Now I don't have to go to the Guggenheim museum to see one. Just out to the garage!  

[heinee]

  Very nice find!! And in my opinion the '94's are the prettier ones. They most certainly are far more rare than the '93's.

Hold onto it, take care of it  

[Capirex]

Nice.  


Nice van too.  
What is that white car in the garage?  I'm straining my eyes trying to figure it out.  

[Stray Cat]

Nice.  


Nice van too.  
What is that white car in the garage?  I'm straining my eyes trying to figure it out.  

That's the MEGA VAN!
Under a cover which is kind of greenish is the race car. The car is white though, and it's sold. It's going to be picked up on Sunday  
http://Http://home.comcast.net/~gtzilla

[bizarro]

Holy shit, big congrats Randy! That's very, very cool! So when are you going to show it off? Tomorrow night at Mark's going away party?

[cognosticator]

Great find for sure.  I loved that bike since the first time I saw one.  I don't know much about how they handle, but definitely not your run of the mill bike.

Congratulation.

How does it ride and handle.  I often wondered if it was a good sporttourer.

[JoBu]

Congrats on finding such a neat motorcycle.  I have always liked those since the first time I saw one at Willy's Motorcycle Museum when it was still up at Daytona.  Let us know how it rides/handles/power delivery/etc.  I'm really curious about those bikes...  I wish you many happy miles on it.

Cheers,

Joe

[greench440]

Looks like it's in pretty good shape.  Doesn't it have hard bags too?

I'll have stop by and give it the onceover.

[Stray Cat]

In the 20 mile dark rainy trip home, I was really impressed by the ride, especially over the broken pavement in the freeway construction zones. Power is okay, but at 100hp it's not great. Good torque and nice smooth delivery all the way up the rev range. I can't really comment on handling yet. I have to get a new fromt tire before I push it at all. The worn out Michelin Macadam front is not a real inspiring tire to push hard.
I really like the uniquness of the bike. It's not like you see yourself going down the road every couple of miles on it. Plus I think it will be a great conversation piece on rides and with other riders.

I'll be posting more about my impressions when I get a chance to get the get the fluids change, change out the front tire and give it the full  once over and do some real riding.

[DogBoy]

Congratulations on the GTS. I've always wanted one. Can't wait to hear more about it. Enjoy that front brake. It will out stop just about anything on the road.

[Red01]

This page explains the GTS's unique single sided swingarm front end as well as some of its other features:
http://arc.losrios.edu/~mccleld/gts_blue.html

[JoelCool]

Nice find.  Those are great bikes.

[Stray Cat]

This page explains the GTS's unique single sided swingarm front end as well as some of its other features:
http://arc.losrios.edu/~mccleld/gts_blue.html

Yeah that's the page the guy put in is CL ad. I've found a couple a gems out there already. In fact I just found the entire shop manual and all the supplements along with the owners manuals on giant .iso file. Burned it to CD now I have it all in .pdf  
I also joined http://www.gtsclub.org which has a very active GTS membership. Lot's of European members.

[Mr.Awesome]

Congrats on the beautiful bike.   I remember sitting on one at the bike show when they first came out thinking this is going to be the future of motorcyles. Unfortunately I think it was ahead of its time. If brought out now, I believe it would be a little better recieved. Enjoy  

[nanbil]

I've alway wanted one of these bikes...keep us posted on how she runs.

Bill

[Baz]

I have a question.....

I have only seen one of these in my entire life. What is the story with that?

[FJRmgm]

Baz,  when Yamaha sold these bike in '93-94 time frame they were: 1) ahead of their time in styling and suspension and 2) pricey.

Because of the new, unique monolever front end and price, USA buyers shunned them and they sat in showroom floors.  I remember reading a review when they first came out in Cycle World and they liked the bike but it was just to "out there" for the common Joe to buy.

So, you don't see very many.  I have only see three in person since they were sold.

[DogBoy]

The GTS also had fuel injection and a catalytic converter both of which were rare at the time. I think another reason the GTS (and TDM850) didn't sell well was the poor condition of the motorcycle market at the time. Less than half as many bikes were sold in the early 90's as are sold each year today. The slump in sales hurt the non-mainstream bikes much harder.

[FJRmgm]

good point about the slump in cycle sales at the time of the GTS debut.

A beautiful machine though.

[1KPerDay]

Very cool. I've always loved those.

Congrats!

[Mookie]

Sweet ride!  You plan on keeps the old honda still?

[GTS_Rider]

Nice find! Looks in excellent condition. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? Guaging the market because I'll likely be selling mine if I end up buying a Concours 14 this summer.

And yeah, the US motorcycle market was at the bottom of a slump when the GTS came out. The number I always hear is there were only 800 GTS's sold in the US...

Year - Units sold
1992 - 278,000
1993 - 293,000
1994 - 306,000
1995 - 309,000
1996 - 330,000
1997 - 356,000
1998 - 432,000
1999 - 546,000
2000 - 710,000
2001 - 850,000
2002 - 936,000
2003 - 1,001,000

[miles]

Nice find! Looks in excellent condition. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? Guaging the market because I'll likely be selling mine if I end up buying a Concours 14 this summer.

Like you need a faster bike...

[greench440]

And yeah, the US motorcycle market was at the bottom of a slump when the GTS came out. The number I always hear is there were only 800 GTS's sold in the US...

It's also a big part of why Yamaha was reluctant to bring the FJR to the US at all and the reason for the PDP the first year.  Yamaha took a bath on the costs to import, stock, market those bikes.  Still cool though.

[bizarro]

Baz,  when Yamaha sold these bike in '93-94 time frame they were: 1) ahead of their time in styling and suspension and 2) pricey.

Because of the new, unique monolever front end and price, USA buyers shunned them and they sat in showroom floors.  I remember reading a review when they first came out in Cycle World and they liked the bike but it was just to "out there" for the common Joe to buy.

So, you don't see very many.  I have only see three in person since they were sold.

I'm guessing the reason they designed and built it was to take on Honda for engineering bragging rights, and like Honda with the RC30 and RC45 they took a pounding financially. But that's just a guess.

[Stray Cat]

Ya... it was $15K new back in 1994. That's a huge chunk of change even now! That's more then a FJR is now. But all the better for me, because it's not a desirable to the common person. I think that they are very cool and timeless in design. I showed my cow-orkers and not one could believe it wasn't a brand new bike!

The number I always hear is there were only 800 GTS's sold in the US...

Yeah that's what I heard as well. I also heard only 250 of the Blue '94's. In Europe there are Yellow, Red, Blue, Silver and Black!

Sweet ride!  You plan on keeps the old honda still?

Oh yeah. I really like the old CBR. It's such a great everyday commuter and tourer as well. It just plain works well.  

[Max Wedge]

That is one nice looking bike! I don't think I've ever seen one in person, much less seeing a magazine article on one.

[JimWilliamson]

If I'm not mistaken, Mike & Sue of Heat Troller / Warm-n-Safe have that bike:

http://www.heattroller.com/it_is_not_about_how_cold.php

[JamesG]

That is one nice looking bike! I don't think I've ever seen one in person, much less seeing a magazine article on one.

The motorcycle media were cool to the bike when it came out, so thats why you didn't hear much about it except for the years it was produced.

Pictures don't do the GTS justice. The are beautiful in that conservative mid-nineties styling (unlike the origami voltron look of today) and the RADD front end makes it look exotic.

I wish yamaha would take a crack at this again with the technology available today. Die cast Aluminum frame and swingarms, swipe the new FZ1's engine, and the FJR's whole bag of ST tricks. OOoooohhhhhh.  

[Riceman]

What did the M7M say as it passed by the GTS..."they really do exist?"  

Nice find

[JamesG]

What is an M7M?

[Baz]

Well back in 2005 I believe, the only GTS I have ever seen was on the STN Banff run.

I believe this is a photo of GTS rider!

[Riceman]

What is an M7M?

Sorry...missed the "shift" key....M&M...taken from the M&M holiday commercial where they see Santa