Streetfighter89
No regrets, livin' for the day
Hi folks,
this is a little insight on my project to turn a nearly stock, but in bad shape, Suzuki GT 250 '75 into a cafe racer.
The bike has now 55.000 km on its old odometer, according to the previous owner he had the motor rebuild at 50.000 km. The problem was that it sat in a garage form 1986 to 2009, until I purchased it in last years july. Because of the long time the crankshaft-seal got stiff so I had to take the whole motor apart.
I got the bike in with red paint, but the finish was crappy and from the day I bought her I had in mind to paint her flat black with the frame painted with something that nearly looky like aluminium. She also had clip ons right away and Koni shocks.
Over a year passed since I bought her and I still not finished and still i have so many things in mind and its getting more and more that I want to do.
Thats how I got her, the picutres are lying:
A clean frame triangle is not suitable for my project, because of my seat leaves no room to hide the battery for example, so I keep the sidecovers in this look:
My bike features various details that nobody will notice when she is fully assembeld, e.g. red/orange airfilter, red battery case, orange/checkered coils
My brake caliper is now orange,
Maybe you noticed at his point that theres a lot of orange odds and end, thats because orange is my favourite colour and I needed some accents.
My seat is a rare bump one for the GT, got it for a good price, still need seat-plate that gets fabbed at the moment. The cover is new in brown leather.
For the obligatory rear set, I bought some of a mid-90s GSXR. A few days ago I decided to machine the heel protection down at work, to loose some weight and make them smaller, not so chunky. The missing brace is already fabbed and the shift-linkage bolts right on.
The forks where to rotten to recue the chrome, so I preserved them from further corrosion, actually it doesn't matter because it will totally disappear under teh clip ons and the tommaselli brackets. Inside the forks are new 30% stiffer springs from Wilbers. Maybe I machine the forks down soon for about 3-5 cm.
The motor is now black, the barrels and the top end got bead blasted
The new rear fender is only a smaller cover to prevet water and dirt splling on the batterey and the airfilter. Its actually cutted from the chunky stock fender.
Catchy detail to fasten my side cover
The frame got totally stripped and then preserved and painted
Is there anything sexier than flat black spoke rims?
Thats the tank, with chrome edge, knee rubbers and some stickers. Maybe I will fit a X7-tank later on.
Oil tank cap
And this is the current state
I got the feeling I missed so much to tell, e.g. bronze bushings, tapered roller bearings, etc.
Hope you like it!
this is a little insight on my project to turn a nearly stock, but in bad shape, Suzuki GT 250 '75 into a cafe racer.
The bike has now 55.000 km on its old odometer, according to the previous owner he had the motor rebuild at 50.000 km. The problem was that it sat in a garage form 1986 to 2009, until I purchased it in last years july. Because of the long time the crankshaft-seal got stiff so I had to take the whole motor apart.
I got the bike in with red paint, but the finish was crappy and from the day I bought her I had in mind to paint her flat black with the frame painted with something that nearly looky like aluminium. She also had clip ons right away and Koni shocks.
Over a year passed since I bought her and I still not finished and still i have so many things in mind and its getting more and more that I want to do.
Thats how I got her, the picutres are lying:
A clean frame triangle is not suitable for my project, because of my seat leaves no room to hide the battery for example, so I keep the sidecovers in this look:
My bike features various details that nobody will notice when she is fully assembeld, e.g. red/orange airfilter, red battery case, orange/checkered coils
My brake caliper is now orange,
Maybe you noticed at his point that theres a lot of orange odds and end, thats because orange is my favourite colour and I needed some accents.
My seat is a rare bump one for the GT, got it for a good price, still need seat-plate that gets fabbed at the moment. The cover is new in brown leather.
For the obligatory rear set, I bought some of a mid-90s GSXR. A few days ago I decided to machine the heel protection down at work, to loose some weight and make them smaller, not so chunky. The missing brace is already fabbed and the shift-linkage bolts right on.
The forks where to rotten to recue the chrome, so I preserved them from further corrosion, actually it doesn't matter because it will totally disappear under teh clip ons and the tommaselli brackets. Inside the forks are new 30% stiffer springs from Wilbers. Maybe I machine the forks down soon for about 3-5 cm.
The motor is now black, the barrels and the top end got bead blasted
The new rear fender is only a smaller cover to prevet water and dirt splling on the batterey and the airfilter. Its actually cutted from the chunky stock fender.
Catchy detail to fasten my side cover
The frame got totally stripped and then preserved and painted
Is there anything sexier than flat black spoke rims?
Thats the tank, with chrome edge, knee rubbers and some stickers. Maybe I will fit a X7-tank later on.
Oil tank cap
And this is the current state
I got the feeling I missed so much to tell, e.g. bronze bushings, tapered roller bearings, etc.
Hope you like it!
