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I'm on my first build... I've owned a few different bikes but have never built one... I'm starting with a 1981 Suzuki GS550L that I purchased from my Uncle for $200 with a parts motor. There was low compression in Cyl. #2 and the carbs needed synced. After a valve adjustment and carb rebuild and sync she is running strong... Now I'm in the, "Make it sexy phase" I plan on making a "cafe style seat" and keeping the factory hardware so I can throw my wife on the back with a switch of a seat. I'm looking for input or any ideas!
This is what I'm starting with... (70' Super Bee in the back to the trained eye)
Greetings from a fellow Ohio Suzuki owner, I like what you have done so far! Any plans on changing the ignition and speedo/tach?
I'd love to see what you did with the seat in more detail. I'm always looking for creative ways to ride two up on a cafe racer. My wife worked hard to earn money for my bike, the least I can do is bring her along for the ride.
Welcome to DTT man clean looking bike ! Know there are a few threads here that people have made 2up seats and single seats that look real close to one another . Where about u in ohio? down in the south part of akron myself.
Welcome to the Ohio group! Great start, had an '82 zook 550 back in the day- bullet proof motors. But I need more pics of the Super Bee! How bout posting some up in the cages section? I always thought the '70 coronet body was the best looking- really liked the split grill. My dad had a '68 500 when I was a kid.
I'll see if I can dig some pics up of the Super Bee... I no longer have it, I have a 1964 Dodge Polara 500 right now. The wife made me do a little liquidation of the toys... I didn't have the time to play with them all.
When I started on my original 750L tank I took it down to bare metal with the initial thought of doing that exactly. On the side of the tank under the emblems there is an insert that is put in the side of the tank that if left bare might look a little out of place, not aesthetically pleasing in my opinion for what I am going for. If you could find a way of hiding it through some metal work more power to ya would be great to see how it looks.
I found this not too long ago, I really like the Industry look to it... The line doesn't bother me too bad at all, I actually think it adds a little character.
From all of the Jap Bike Cafe Racers, This is hands down my favorite!
Nice looking bike for sure, clean and flows well. That projector headlight on it probably throws a ton of light at night! If you like it I say go for it, would be pretty simple to do that on your bike. Could use some paint stripper to clean all the old off then, depending on the look you are going for, use a wire wheel or sand paper to prep the tank the clear over it.
My biggest situation is finding a place to hide the Wiring... There is a bird's nest of wiring on this bike. I really want to relocate it all along with the battery and build a box that everything fits in very nice and clean.
Yeah unfortunately the wiring on these old zooks are a rats nest. Once I get to that point what I am giong to do is make a tray to hide up under the seat between the bottom of the frame and the bottom of the seat. If you do a brat style seat like the one you posted up you might not be able to hide the battery even with a small gel battery but you could have the positive and negative terminals come up under the seat to your wiring which would still keep it fairly clean. If you do a full cafe style seat it would give you the availability to hide the battery under the rear hump.
Our fearless leader Tim did this on his bike for the electrical.
I really like the look of the brat seat, but for aesthetics I may do a cafe seat and do something similar to this... That set up is amazing, It looks very clean and better engineered than the factory.
My electrical ability is null, mechanically I'm still a novice. It's going to be a lot of trial and error, with that being said I still want to keep my budget in the $1000 range just to prove a point to my wife!
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just saying .....
