Okay, the time is right and you want to own a Kettle! It may be that you see it as being something different or have a yearning that you've lived with for years, having missed out on one back in the day ............ you want one and you want it NOW!

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STOP AND THINK -  BUYER BEWARE! KETTLE OWNERSHIP IS A JOYOUS THING, BUT ONLY IF DONE RIGHT.  JOIN THE CLUB BEFORE BUYING - DO YOUR RESEARCH - IT COULD SAVE YOU A FORTUNE AND A LOT OF GRIEF! YOU MIGHT EVEN FIND THE KETTLE YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR, BEING SOLD WITHIN THE CLUB - WE ALWAYS HAVE A FEW ON THE BOOKS.

Yes, Kettles are very, very desirable and are becoming more so. But like any piece of classic machinery they have important, individual points to look out for, before spending money. It is strongly recommended that anyone contemplating buying and/or restoring a Suzuki GT750 and who does not know the machine inside out (literally); that they' should join the Kettle Club and then, seek out the collective knowledge within its ranks and if necessary, ask for assistance before taking the leap. That's what being a member of this club is all about. ​

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Do you know what model you want? Styling can be all important to some.  Look to see how the model varied and developed in "The Bike" section above and decide whether you prefer the early styling of the J or K, with their attention seeking colour schemes and "ray gun" exhausts, or the more traditional look of the later models. The early bikes (J, K and L) have different state of tune to the later models, making them a notably different riding experience. 

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Buying a Kettle as a "box of bits" might seem to be an attractive proposition, but in today's market and with the rising costs of restoration services, such as chrome plating (and there's a lot of that on a Kettle!); this could possibly end up costing you substantially more than what you might pay for a fully or partially restored and running machine. Let's face it, the Classic bike market has been in a state of decline for a couple of years now and prices of all but the most exotic machinery have fallen. Yet parts and the services referred to above, continue to increase. Regardless of condition, average Kettle prices are generally around £2000 less now, than they were 2 years ago and yet most commercial sellers (and some deluded private sellers) don't appear to have grasped the fact. Of course some of these private sellers have probably spent a substantial amounts of time, money and effort on their machines and are finding it hard to accept the loss but heh, that's the classic world for you. So as a buyer, there's a lot going in your favour nowadays and unless you absolutely can't help yourself, there's no need whatsoever to pay over the odds to become a Kettle owner. ​

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If you are not after a top-drawer machine, or are not too fused about things such as originality; you can find some very sound, presentable and reliable machines out there. If restoration is your bag however, then the object should be to pay the bare minimum for the base machine (buying the most complete example is always the best bet), then with the assistance of a club such as ours, it is still (just) possible to achieve a full restoration within a feasible budget, but only if you are prepared and able to do the vast majority of the work yourself and better still, if you have the right contacts. ​Incomplete project rebuilds can give good results. Some sellers often run out of steam after spending lots of cash on a restoration over a long period of time and just want to pass it on to someone else.

 

As with buying any classic machine, PROVENANCE is king i.e. history. Many machines on the UK market nowadays have spent much if not all of their lives overseas, so don't expect them to have any history at all, prior to arriving on these shores. This can equally apply to even UK original bikes. If the seller is one of those referred to above and has already commenced work, then receipts for anything major or not visibly obvious, should be present. You should never be prepared or expected to take a seller's word on anything! And that goes for any machine, regardless of how 'pretty' it might appear. There are a lot of what are colloquially known as "polished turds" out there, that can catch even experienced buyers out. If the seller claims that major work such as a crank rebuild, new seals etc. has been done; then who did the work and when? Was it someone well known and acknowledged?

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By now, I think you should have got the picture. Look, The Kettle was a flag ship machine for Suzuki back in the day . It was a middle digit to the other Japanese manufacturers of the time, particularly Honda, whose CB750 was Suzuki's main target. To that end, Suzuki were determined to engineer a machine that would not fail from the outset and in order to achieve that goal, and to minimise the risk of failure; they over-engineered the hell out of them - a fact born out by the numbers still in existence, even after over 50 years of neglect and abuse. When you combine that robustness with the simplicity encompassed in a piston-ported 2-stroke (albeit water cooled); then it's no surprise that the Kettle is becoming seen as one of the most practical classic machines of its era to own nowadays. But they are still machines, with their own particular foibles  - none of which are serious, but need to be understood all the same. And the only sure way of addressing that is through intimate knowledge - the kind that you'll only find in a club solely devoted to this one machine. So if you want to know more, then join the club!