1983 Suzuki Tempter project

[action man]

Hey All,
I had to get rid of a beautiful 2001 ZRX1200R for financial reasons (Toronto insurance prices) and my brother in law gave me his old Tempter. I had always thought it was one ugly bike but with great hidden power and the insurance is only $150 a year. Sold for free. You get what you paid for. It looks winter driven due to poor storage. I expect to be asking a bunch of questions as I go along. I am semi technical with help from others.

I am looking to turn this into a cafe racer of sorts. Basic black, big tires, better stance. Anything to make this look a bit less ugly. Rat bike ugly looks better than this. You get the point.

 

[action man]

BTW - For anyone in Toronto- the shop TO Cycle is closing their doors in Mid- Oct. If you want some vintage hard to find parts - Now is the time to go.

Which brings me to my new question. I want to change the forks and swing arm (Easier than getting all the rust off and painting). What are my easiest options? Things that don't need extra welding. Grinding is fine.

I saw a guy who used a dirt bike swing arm on one of these post? Any idea which one or if mods were required?
Front end bolt-ons?

 

[action man]

I've ripped out the turn signals and brake lights for some temporary ones. The old ones were rough. I'll be looking for some nice bullet shaped lights all around. Pulled out the airbox and added some big UNI filters. Then I drilled out a bunch of holes in the back of the tailpipes. Then I horsed the bad running bike to the shop and had the carbs rebuilt.
The mechanic didn't bother with the main jets so it ran like crap after 1/2 throttle. Today I replaced the mains with 140's and man it runs great. $20!!
The filters and the holes make the bike sound like a rock'n roll 60's hot rod. It is a definite improvements all over. Plus I pulled off the ugly plastics so the filters are exposed. I'll run a better test this week on the hwy.
It's still ugly, but it runs and sounds great.

 

[action man]

And these goodies arrived. A new digital dash and an RFID starter module. I figure for $35, why not go fancy to match the dash. I might b bal to use my phone as the key.

 

[john83]

They can be pretty cool once you beat some of the ugly out of them.

 

[action man]

That's a lot of ugly to beat out.

 

[action man]

The ghetto Exhaust

 

[action man]

Hey guys. Need a vote for the next set of purchases. I need a full set of lights for the bike. Eventually it will be stripped of plastic and most colour. It will be painted black with minor chrome parts and copper header wrap.

If I go with the headlight with build in signals, I'll do the same with the rear turns, or use those diamond shaped signal.
If I go for the transformer cree bulb, I'll use the small round bullet style turns.

If I go with the lights with cowl that looks like a robot's face... not sure which turns.

Ideas? votes?

 

[adventurco]

I see the potential there...

Does it run yet?

 

[action man]

It runs great.
I am trying to get an aluminum swingarm now. Someone gave me an '86 gsrx750 swinarm to try, but I don;t think it will work. Darnit

 

[action man]

Nope. The swing arm will not fit. Thanks to Big Rich's post on pg 63 and 64, I see the pivot point is a long straight tube on the GSXR, and on the tempter it is a short tube on each end.
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=18045.930

I saw a swingarm on Kijiji for about $100 that I'll grab.

 

[action man]

Progress!!
I replaced the rear shock with a Ducati monster shock.
A few things to note:
When taking off the swinger, take off the nut, then with a big assed allen key for the other side, unscrew it. It is a double screw shaft. A small thread for the nut, a bigger thread for the frame.
The monster shock goes upside down (red nipple + spring adjusters down) because the of way it hits the linkages
Shave the outside of the eye on top because it hits the inside of the linkage. This is important otherwise you will shave the aluminum off the wrong side of the shock. Like what I did. Duh.
A huge improvement was re-greasing all the bearings. Man there was a lot of nasty coloured grease. But now everything pivots smoothly.

 

[action man]

I still need help with a replacement swing arm. I am looking for the gs750/1100 aluminum swap but can;t find one. The only other one that I have found that might fit without a hacksaw is a dr600, but that is hard to find.
Does anyone else know of another direct fit that I can use? I am mainly looking for an aluminum one. My steel one is rusty, heavy and nasty.

 

[strang]

I always thought this bike looked awesome:

search suzuki tempter scrambler.

 

[twerth]

I used to have an '83 Tempter (What a name!! Sheesh!). You're right, they're ugly from the factory, but kind of a cool bike deep down. Parallel twin, mono-shock, vibration damper. I think it even had an early form of variable valve timing (could be wrong about that).

I did a street tracker thing with mine. It was my first try at cutting a bike up and turned out pretty clumsy. Not too proud of it, but I'll post some before and after pics anyway.

 

[Luugo86]

Looks nice man

 

[action man]

Nice bikes. One look I might go for is with the big tires. I think they look really cool. The bike isn't a speed demon, so I figure why not put big tires to look cool and run over things?

 

[action man]

I thought I would post these because the way the bike was strapped it looked like a mechanical bull ;D

 

[strang]

;D

 

[hillsy]

I always thought this bike looked awesome:

search suzuki tempter scrambler.

By the way - that's a Savage, not a Tempter