Pop up article discussion

[busatoon99]

Ok, so between 75-100 bikes where officially imported into the uk in the mid 80s. The grey importers have no doubt brought some in, and i dare say there where a few personnal imports too, but those numbers can only be guessed at.

What im wondering is how meny are left in the uk ?

Im guessing but i reckon at least half of them would have been written off or scrapped in the past quater century or so. I doubt that there are too meny sitting in barns or garages waiting to be found. Ive been on the "how meny left" site, but it does not reconise gsx750s3/se.

Does anybody have any idea how to find out how meny are left ?

[fossie]

We used to a count in our newsletters of the number of bikes of each type in the club.However this all depended on people keeping us informed, which in reality wasn't as reliable as could have been.

But as really near enough guide 30 pop ups are known in club members hands .

Recently some have appeared for sale which aren't club bikes but this will be at most 10 I think.

[busatoon99]

The reason im wondering how meny are left on our shores is, just how rare are pop up katanas in the uk ?

If we say that there are a maximum of 50 left in roadworthy/restorable condition, thats about 1 every 1900 square miles ! Untill i bought mine last year i cant remember seeing one since i saw one in Mead & Tomkinsons (long since bankrupt) showroom when it was launched in 1985.

Taking these factors into consideration you can see why parts unique to the pop up(tank, plastics etc) are getting expensive, and the bikes more so. We only have say 50 or so scrapped or broken bikes to get bits from, a lot of them would have been picked clean since the mid 80s.

As for buying a complete bike you can see because of the rarity how the prices are steadily heading north.

Ive got abosolutely no intention of selling mine. However ive told my 7 year old daughter that (if there is any petrol left in the world) she will be getting mine for her 21st birthday. By then i will be 61 and pop kats will be rarer than an intelligent govermental decision.

[geekay]

Just to add my two penneth, when I went to Carnells in Doncaster to test ride the new RG500, I saw my first "pop-up" in their showroom. I remember asking where they had got it from, as I had never seen one before, and I was told it was from a shipment originally intended for South Africa. The guy also told me later that Heron had officially imported another batch of 85 "Jap-spec" bikes.

[busatoon99]

So did you buy the RG500 ? Ive had two of them, and i kin loved the all or nothing power delivery only a two stoke can deliver

The rev counter did not start till 3000rpm, it should have been 7500rpm before the bike went vertical at 8000rpm I was less impressed with the 16mpg i got when riding upto the bikes design limits

[geekay]

no - I bought an RE5M and a Jota instead.

dont ask..........................

[busatoon99]

Ive kept an old motorcycle international mag from december 1985 because of my fondness of the rg500. Inside there is an article called the the forgotten 750s, one of witch is the 750 pop up. According to the write up, after the now infamous batch that missed the boat to wherever, and im quoting directly here,

"Suzuki offered the model on a first-come-first-served basis. Heron Suzuki rather belatedly snapped up a mere 75."

This article was written in late 1985 by Chris Dabbs who would have spoken directly to the importers upon the bikes release.

[Pop-Kat]

Would be good if you could scan the article and post it on here.

[busatoon99]

Ive not got a scanner/printer, i dont have any need of one !

The point is that the importers (Heron Suzuki) would have given all relevant information to the press road testers at the time.

[Pop-Kat]

Ive not got a scanner/printer, i dont have any need of one !

The point is that the importers (Heron Suzuki) would have given all relevant information to the press road testers at the time.

You do now

To have the article on here would be good for everyone to see.

When I bought mine in the mid eighties I was told by a Heron Suzuki employee that 75 came in the country, I've never seen evidence of that anywhere except from what he told me at the time, Which I always believed to be true, why wouldn't it be, he was from head office and it was around the time they were imported.