Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500 - New oil tank

Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Boy, T500 projects are springing up all over the place. Seems like every time I log in there's another. Looking good so far. I used the same clip-ons on my Titan, though by that point I was sick of polishing and just painted them black. Your polishing work looks first rate, keep it up. :)
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Wingspan said:
Boy, T500 projects are springing up all over the place. Seems like every time I log in there's another. Looking good so far. I used the same clip-ons on my Titan, though by that point I was sick of polishing and just painted them black. Your polishing work looks first rate, keep it up. :)
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Greatness begats imitation. I absolutely love your T500. Had not seen your bike or DTT till about the first of this month. I read the whole thread on your build and was mighty impressed. Awesome bike. Anyway, I was trying to buy a kettle or an 1100e as the basis of a cafe build and not having any success. The day after I first saw your bike I bid on T500 for sale near my home. And won the auction. And here I am. This will not be a copy of your bike but will share a number of similar parts. I am impatiently waiting on my order from Titan Performance. :)
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Great job you are doing, the polishing looks like it is turning out really well. I decided not to polish any of the parts on my T500 project partly because of the time and effort involved.

Where did you buy your tank from?
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Gas tank is a Dunstall Lowline sold by Neuxstone a retailer on E-bay.

Thanks for the encourageing words on the polishing. The bike was sold to me with many of the major parts (engine cases, wheel hubs, forks) already polished by the original owner. With that start the idea of polishing the rest of the parts did not seem so overwhelming. Still it is hours and hours of work. I'll never do this on another project. :eek:
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I like the look of the tank, how it sits on the bike makes all the difference though. I'll be interested to see how the tank looks when you get it installed in the exact position.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I agree with wingspan. Ive never seen this many t500's! I wish I had found these build threads when I was doing up mine! Your t500 was very clean from the get though. Very nice work so far!
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Redrum Racer said:
I agree with wingspan. Ive never seen this many t500's! I wish I had found these build threads when I was doing up mine! Your t500 was very clean from the get though. Very nice work so far!
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It is great to have builds like yours and Wingspans to look at and draw inspiration. It does make it easier if you can see what someone else has done and copy the areas you admire and change the areas where you might have different taste.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Tank has been trimmed to sit as low on the frame as possible. Actual final position will be about 1/2" higher in front and 1/4" higher in rear to allow for some padding. In position shown tank rubs frame front and rear. Also the front fender has been cut. I think the length is about right so next I will contour the front edge. Now that tank is in place I have ordered the seat. I will not be cutting the headlight brackets till after the speedometer is mounted. Speedometer (an Acewell) has been ordered.
P1010083.jpg
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Reddy said:
This will not be a copy of your bike but will share a number of similar parts. I am impatiently waiting on my order from Titan Performance. :)
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I don't know if you bought their rearsets or not. If you did, make sure to disassemble them and locktite everything. I my rush to get the bike done I just took them out of the box and bolted them on. BIG mistake. Titan didn't apply thread lock and mine shook to pieces on the first long ride. In the end the only thing I lost was the toe peg on the shifter but at one point I had to stop and tighten the left peg because it had backed off enough that the shift linkage wouldn't work.

Note, this isn't a criticism of the Titan Performance rearsets, the design works works well. Just a heads up that they don't apply thread lock when assembled. These bikes vibrate at highway speed and you'll want some sort of locking feature on just about everything.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Wingspan said:
These bikes vibrate at highway speed and you'll want some sort of locking feature on just about everything.
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Yes, I have ordered the rearsets. I had planned on liberally using locktite during final assembly but I am pretty sure I would not have dis-assembled the rearsets. Thank you much for the heads up.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I will be re-using the existing controls. The throttle and light controler are nice aluminum castings which I have cleaned and polished. The levers are classic ball end but the clamp had a perch molded on top for the old mirrors. Since I will be using bar end mirrors I cut off the perch and ground down the clamp. You can still see the hole that the old mirror screwed into in the top of the clamp.
P1010086.jpg

P1010085.jpg
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I am still waiting for some major parts to arrive. Got rearsets, expansion chambers and speedometer still to come.

I rough cut the front fender last week to a length I like. Now it needs a little shaping. I put some masking tape on the front edge so I would not need to write on chrome. The cut off piece of front fender makes a good template for the desired curve.
P1010087.jpg

Rough cut close to the line with cutoff blade in grinder.
P1010088.jpg

Grind to the line.
P1010089.jpg

Remove tape and use flat file to remove burrs and ease edge so it does not cut your finger off. Done.
P1010090.jpg
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I shortened all my control cables today to fit the clip-ons. They are fairly new cables so I cut off one end and soldered on new barrels rather than buy new.

Still waiting on seat, chambers, rearsets, taillight, and speedo. I will post again when I get something in the mail.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

just to let you know, i haven't read everything. but i plan to go back and do so when i get the time :)
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

Hey Reddy thats an awsome looking Titan your building. I trimed the fenders on my Titan the same way, I like your idea to trim the mirror perch. I'll have to put together a thread for my own build but I would be hard pressed to live up to the quality builds that have/are going on on DTT.
Thanks for the inspiration
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

dean owens said:
just to let you know, i haven't read everything. but i plan to go back and do so when i get the time :)
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Cool. It's nice to know people are reading the thread.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

DBM said:
Hey Reddy thats an awsome looking Titan your building. I trimed the fenders on my Titan the same way, I like your idea to trim the mirror perch. I'll have to put together a thread for my own build but I would be hard pressed to live up to the quality builds that have/are going on on DTT.
Thanks for the inspiration
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I like to think we are all here to help each other. Some guys have access to really high end equipment and are doing amazing fabrication work. Others, like me are just backyard mechanics. It's all good. We do what we can. Post up your bike. I am always interested in another Titan.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I have plenty to work on now. A whole bunch of parts came today. Have seat, taillight, and speedo. Also the electronic ignition came day before yesterday. Life is good except.........

I would post a pic of all this stuff but my camera took a dump. No great loss, a three year old pocket compact but it was good enough for my needs. I looked up the problem on the net and no help. One of those things that is not worth fixing. I have a nice backup camera that I have not used in years. All is good there except it takes a special usb plug so I can't get photos from the camera to the computer. I will post an update when my new cable gets here.
 
Re: Little Red - '72 Suzuki T500

I am back in business with a functioning camera so lets do an update.

The picture below shows the changes. The seat came so now both the tank and seat are sitting loose on the frame. The rear fender has been rotated forward about 4" and has the tail light mounted. The front edge of the fender has been cut for clearance with the drive chain.
P7080025.jpg
 
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