Bike of the month January 2017

By | |
Comments Off on Bike of the month January 2017

  A stylish beast of burden. Style, we all want it….don’t we? but at what cost? The thing about developing your own style is it takes time and effort…and a total disregard for excuses. An idea that you feed with whatever it needs and 99% of the feedback is negative…or a positive negative. The time and effort spent on the various ways of how not to do it is far from wasted. More failures than success, but once you hit that sweet spot you make it look so effortless and flowing….but then comes the crux as the audience offers praise … Continue reading →

How to do your own anodising – Gary Bond

By | | ,
Comments Off on How to do your own anodising – Gary Bond

When Gary Bond built his Bike of the month  Harris F1 as well as fabricating some of the billet aluminium trickery himself and having the other parts custom machined to his specification.,  he also anodised most of the parts himself. If you ever wanted to  have a bash at this yourself, here’s how he did it. There is a gallery of pictures too. How to do your own anodising I’ve had a good few people ask me about the anodising process I used whilst building my Harris F1. No doubt I’ve missed out a few bits but I will edit it … Continue reading →

Bike of the month December 2016

By | |
Comments Off on Bike of the month December 2016

  Less is more, more or less… There can’t be too many occasions when its perfectly acceptable to replace the mighty heart of an EFE with something….erm…well, a bit less EFE-ish The EFE is a legend in OSS  folklore and a brute in stature, from the humongously sized (and priced) headlamp, its no nonsense alpha bodywork  and its squared off arse. You don’t mistake an EFE for anything else or indeed anything less… or do you?…say without its monstrous 16valve atlas stone? An idiom wriggling inside a can that’s rattling inside Pandora’s box, a Russian doll painted as a biker…. we could , or more accurately, those … Continue reading →

Competition makes us faster but collaboration makes us better…

By | |
Comments Off on Competition makes us faster but collaboration makes us better…

Following on from our announcement earlier in the year that we wanted to create a collective oldskoolsuziki race team identity, we’re almost ready to launch the OSS race team board. While OSS have always had members who raced ( Go Runt Go! and Go Pete Go!) we have never, until now,  given them a special place on the site.  Over the last year we have recognised the importance of those that choose old school Suzuki motorcycles as their foundation for a building a competitive machine. This has convinced us that we need to provide a race section on the site … Continue reading →

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

By | |
Comments Off on We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

What comes to my mind when someone mentions a motorcycle road trip around Europe? A large capacity sports tourer with hard luggage and a gel seat? Perhaps it’s an adventure bike with unlimited luggage capacity and the finest Gortex multilayer touring gear? This story is about a motorcycle road trip that is the polar opposite of what you might normally associate with motorcycle touring. In contrast to the norm, this story is about toughing it out, without compromise, on a two wheeled, air-cooled weapon of choice.  This story is about an almost Zen like minimalism all wrapped up in a … Continue reading →

ENDURANCE LEGENDS at DONINGTON PARK 6-7TH MAY 2017

By | | ,
Comments Off on ENDURANCE LEGENDS at DONINGTON PARK 6-7TH MAY 2017

Last year we said that all real world OSS events would be held around other larger bike focused events. Last year we had 2 big get togethers. The first one was at the Classic Bike Trackday weekend event at Cadwell and the second was at the VJMC  classic bike festival at Donington Park. Both events were a great success and proved to tick all the boxes by providing an opportunity to meet and socialise, while surrounded by OSS bikes on our stand and on the track. Yesterday I spoke to Rob from Classic Bike Trackdays and we agreed that OSS … Continue reading →

If it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough power yet – The quest for speed.

By | | ,
Comments Off on If it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough power yet – The quest for speed.

This year we’ve had the pleasure of following one of our youngest members on his crusade to build a winning 300bhp turbo wheelie bike based on a GSXR1100 Slingshot from the 1990’s. We all watched in amazement as the master plan took shape and we rode the roller coaster with him throughout the year.His determination and focus was such that  it soon became clear he was either going to break a record, break his engine or break himself. Fortunately he managed the first 2 and not the 3rd. Here’s Kev Kearsley’s round up of  his 2016 campaign. He went into … Continue reading →

Bike of the month November 2016

By | |
Comments Off on Bike of the month November 2016

Ticking all the boxes… BOTM first of all must fit within the rules, after that I haven’t picked bikes I’d like to own, just builds that have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’..be that in the amount of info the member has shared on the site, through to ‘I can’t believe that’s the same pile o’ shyte from the first post’. A bike that has evolved to Tom’s exacting standards (these can sometimes be winced at but never shunned, Tom has not got all his frequent flyer saddle miles on luck alone) and as I type this he is still … Continue reading →

Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about…

By | |
Comments Off on Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about…

Looking back on the years between when the original OSS faded and the months and weeks directly before we brought OSS back from the dead, there were some that thought we should have let sleeping dogs lie. OSS had lived out it’s natural life cycle and should remain assigned to the past along with, for most of us,  our late 30’s and our 40’s. There was a belief that we could never hope to re-capture the magic because those days had passed and so much had changed in the world and in our lives. The brotherhood that thrived during the … Continue reading →

Bike of the month October 2016

By | |
Comments Off on Bike of the month October 2016

As I pondered B.O.T.M whilst watching Bill Cummings being fed to the sharks by Largo it occurred to me that… A) I spent more time choosing it than being entertained by it. B) Picking a B.O.T.M. can be as tough as selecting a 007 DVD. C) This is not Dr NO. E) Sometimes I should put things back where I found them. D) Missions are better with a plan. 6)F.T.S. I guess if the mission is to cover just over 400 meters in a straight line from a standing start, as quickly as possible, whilst looking slicker than a Leen … Continue reading →