Fully Restored Slabbie: 1986 Suzuki GSX-R1100 for Sale

1986 Suzuki GSX-R1100
Miles: 36,368
Clean New York Title
Buy It Now Price: $37,500
Auction Ends: May 26th, 2026

Designed to blend big-inch power in a lightweight package and offer high levels of straight-line performance as well as cornering ability, Suzuki’s GSX-R1100 was an icon of the era and remains a highly desirable classic sportbike today. The GSX-R family was famously air/oil-cooled in an era when pretty much everyone else was already moving to water-cooled engines, especially for their high-performance machines. But in an effort to “simplify and add lightness,” Suzuki’s 1052cc, twin-cam, sixteen-valve engine was fitted with the Suzuki Advanced Cooling System that mainly consisted of a higher-capacity oil pump and cooling jets aimed at the underside of the pistons. The system was simple, reliable, and effective and was fitted to GSX-R models until 1993. The 1100’s frame was beefed up, compared to the 750, to handle the increased power, and the bike also featured Suzuki’s “Deca-Piston” brakes. One guess as to how many pistons the system had. A “Full-Floater” rear suspension that used a set of linkages both top and bottom for a much more progressive action than what you’d expect on a sports motorcycle, and Suzuki’s NEAS anti-dive fork at the front end rounded out the package that would help define sportbikes for generations to come.

This example is the one to have: First-year 1986 model. Blue and white iconic colorway. Matching numbers. Original cycle parts. Original Suzuki header. Period-correct Yoshimura RS3 silencer. Never raced. Never tracked.

A Two-Year Kaplan Cycles Labor-of-Love Restoration: this GSX-R came from a friend in New York who had owned it since he was young. His health was not great, and he wanted to see the bike brought back properly. I promised him I would take it to the finish line.What followed became the most labor-intensive motorcycle restoration we have ever completed.

• Full carburetor service and tuning
• Rack split, cleaned, serviced, and tuned
• K&N filters installed
• Tuned to the Yoshimura RS3 exhaust
• New fuel lines
• New vent lines
• New spark plugs
• Fresh engine oil and filter
• Exterior engine refinished in correct ColorRite Suzuki engine gray
• OEM Suzuki header retained
• Period-correct Yoshimura RS3 silencer restored and polished
• New Yuasa battery

The bike runs exactly like an oil-cooled GSX-R1100 should: huge torque, violent top-end pull, deep intake roar through the Mikunis and K&Ns, and that unmistakable oil-cooled GSX-R howl.

This is not a “lipstick on a pig” restoration. The bike was stripped down to the frame and engine cradle, and every visible component was restored, rebuilt, refinished, polished, serviced, replaced, or corrected as needed.

 

There’s much more detail about the restoration over at the original eBay listing for this Suzuki GSX-R1100. The bike looks to be immaculate, although its always hard to tell with this seller’s listings, since they tend to use very evocative, but very high-contrast images where the light colors are pretty blown out, making it hard to really see. The detail shots though show a bike that looks so clean you could eat off of it. It’s not completely stock, but the period Yoshimura 4-into-1 system and pod filters suit the bike and should add the right amount of drama to every ride. Obviously, this is pretty serious serious money for a GSX-R, even one as nice as this and, before you jump into the comments to complain, the lack of bids on the bike suggest that the collector bike market agrees with you. The question is: with prices continually on the rise for clean early Gixxers, what would a fair price be for this bike?

-tad