Suzuki GT 250 "Daily Donna" Cafe/Rat-Racer

[Streetfighter89]

Thursday I finally fired her up for the first time ever, after nearly 2 years of building.

I made some blasts down the short road in the first two gears... It felt great! I was really afraid that it wouldn't fire at all or the performance would be too poor for me and that all the work was for nothing, but so far I'm very very glad that I made this build. It also sounds great, I think the PO made some modification to the mufflers (quite a lot ugly weldings on the insides).

The stock brake pump was replaced by one of a Suzuki GS 500, the angel of the stock one wasn't safe to ride, the GS 500 bp has just the right angel for clipons so the reservoir is horizontally, the stock one always got air into the system at some angels. The GS500 brakesetup is the way to got, my MBX had one too, and you can adjust the lever in 4 positions. I also changed the clutch side to GS 500 parts too.

The eletric issues are also done, every wire is conncted to its partner, lights are all working, tacho and speedo also (both electric), they are also mounted proberly now. Now I just have to squeeze all those wires into the tiny headlight bowl, quite a job as i figured out. The bowl is now lowered and the tacho/speedo-combo also.

The igintion is off, I just tuned it by rule of thumb, so when she was warm she refused to start, but I'll tackel that next week. Also the left carb is leaking at the bottom, I think it is the o-ring of the drain plug.

I think its now 95% MOT-worthy, only some little issues are still to be solved. For the MOT i will run with the original seat and the stock rearfender. When i pass it I'll start finishing up the brown seat, the selfmade rearsets and the tire hugger.

 

[Streetfighter89]

Yesterday I tackled the last few Gremlins on the bike.

The battery was empty due to the gauges, they need permanent current from the battery and it was not charged enough. After loading it the problem with the idle persists, I pull the throttel and the engine responses 3 seconds later when the revs are below estimated 4000, still goes out with no throttle , the left carb still leaks when the petcock is on PRI. I think I have to rebuild the carbs. Still hard to start when its warm.

Steeringhead is now adjusted correctly.

The ignition is right now, the oil pump still needs some fine adjustment. Its kind of hard to get a lightbulb, no shop had them so they had to order them.

When the engine is above estimated 4000 it really lives, now that the igntion is right, I accidently pulled some mild wheelies, it's a real rocket to me.

The stockfender also arrived yesterday.

 

[Streetfighter89]

I made some progress again and I think it will be done soon.

The carbs need definatly a rebuild, still leaking. I do have idle now, but the petcock leaks now too.

Everthing is in its place for the MOT-kind-of-check and works correctly.

I took her for a 10 Miles spin in the fields today and it felt great! Lots of power, really nasty on the powerband, shifted correctly the revs don't go down much, but also at the bottom enough power for a two stroker.

Tough the tacho and speedo don't work yet, I think I cracked the 60 Miles a several times (tight twisty roads with some dirt here and there). The corners I took fast felt very good, the tires and the suspension is good in my book, nevertheless the front end needs some attention, its too bumpy, because the fork springs are too short, have to machine some distances.

I haven't ridden a bike in 2 years and I have to say may back is killing me

The sound going trough the gears is amazing, never tought that it would be that agressive. I really start to think the PO made some mods to the exhaust (lots of weird weldings)

The stock fender with the LED-backlight is fugly and it weights a ton, I know, it's just an improv for the MOT-kind-of-test.

Finally she pays all the blood, sweat, tears and grease back to me.

 

[Streetfighter89]

Yesterday I fixed some brake issues, the front brake squeked, copper paste did the job.

I also installed the distances for the fork springs, feels totally different now.

The speedo had a weak signal, I just wrapped a little bit more of copper wire around the igntion wire and now it works fine.

I'm looking foward to get her on the road this month!

 

[Streetfighter89]

Done for now, street legal and in working condition.

Total blast to ride, 7 seconds 0-60mph, already had her around 90mph top speed, does wheelies in the first gear if you help her a little bit, forks and dampners are sporty to ride, tires are good to handle, actually its comfortable to sit on it, even for longer rides.

Actually the forks are not that high as they seem on the pics.

 

[Dirty Dan]

Bringing this back from the dead! (only kinda)

Just read over the thread, I love it! Great looking bike. I got one a little while ago and it's going to be my winter project, I'm really excited! I see you mentioned that the previous owner may have messed with the exhaust a bit, where are you seeing the weird welds that you mentioned?

Where are you located, by the way? Oh, badass Renault(?), diggin' the paint ;D

 

[Streetfighter89]

Thanks for the compliments!

I spent a amazing season with my bike, went trough 6 capacitors, ran out of gas twice and finally one piston got stuck for a moment. Well I think I rocked her too hard.

Barrels and pistons tough look okay, no damage but I think something with the ignition is faulty too, she really lacks power since that incident. I'll fix her over the winter.

Since my new girlfriend has a Hayabusa I won't need a two seater in the near future (Be honest, two seaters do only exist to hit on girls ), so over the winter I'll fix the ignition fault and also get the GSX-Tank and a Cafe seat on it. I'm also trying to score a T250-exhaust at the moment.

Concerning the rims there is some progress: Relacing the hub into the high shoulder rings is a straight plug and play-job, original spokes fit. Real weight improvement.

By the way, I'm located in the middle of Germany and my car is a Fiat Cinquecento, but yeah its badass (I'm kinda into small discplacements)

 

[Streetfighter89]

Now I'm going all the way, cutting, welding, glassing... all the good stuff.

Bought a Imola-seat from ebay, fabbing my own wouldn't be as light and as fine as this one.

Some bits of the frame had to go, its a first mockup.

Also tested my new mirror.

 

[Streetfighter89]

There was some progress over the last months.

I fabbed my own seat plate for the seat, from generic plastic that was available in the local home depot, I welded the strut for the seat onto the frame and I fabbed a new very light battery tray.

Also I made a seat pad from an old original GT 250-Pad, still in progress (the pic with the black seat and the brown pad is just a montage how I want it to look when its finished). As a cool goodie I was finally able to score a 13 teeth sprocket for increased accelaration, now the full torque is reached at 124kmh, totally working for the streets I drive on, on those top speed is neglactable but sprint qualities are needed, there are other bikes to nuts-fast.

Looking forward to reach the magic 130kg on day, now i should be around 135-137kg at least.

 

[Big R]

Man, I haven't checked this thread for a while! That's a great little scoot you built up man. Congrats!

 

[Streetfighter89]

Tough no progress here, after solving some ignition issues (one coil blew up) one carburetor gave up and flooded the motor with over 2 liters of gas.

The carbs where rebuild, one of the floaters sunk and destiny took its way. Now I need some more modern 28 diameter carbs, will get them from a NSR 125. For this year she won't be driving again, I'll fix her nice an slow.

Since my fahter saw, that I was devastated about not being able to ride again this year, he gave up his yearslong, always haunting him, no-progress-project... he gave me his GS 500-bucket as a present.

Nearly one decade away he disassambled his naked GS 500 for some mods, but he never put it back togehter. Now I fix her to the standard of a fully faired commuter since the GT 250 is anything else but a daily driver, simply not reliable enough. The GS motor was totally rebuild by me in my living room, should work quiet alright

So basicly thats what draws my attention momentarily away from "Not-so-daily Donna". I'm pushing the build forward in a fast pace. Starting with only a frame on 17th of march, I now reached the 80%-progress-mark. Looking forward to fire her up next thursday.