Bike of the Month June 2019

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Having rules is nice and all, and for the forum, this is really good. However, in other instances, it can make your (or; mine) life a bit hard. One of the rules we set for ourselves, is that a BOTM has to be built on the website and have a topic showing the ups-and-downs of the project. Here we have a BOTM with NO buildtopic, for the simple reason that this bike is pretty much as it left the factory in Japan all those years ago. Just that makes it damn-near unique in our little OSS-world. Rivetcounters really have no … Continue reading →

Bike of the Month May 2019

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Choosing BOTM is hard; there’s loads of bikes to choose from as it is, but we also need a proper buildtopic with a nice backstory, a bike that represents OSS as it is and we want diversity. We could happily just choose Katanas and/or EFEs and we’d be able to carry on for about a year or 2 without coming up short, but that’d be too easy. Another thing is the “deadline”; I don’t think a single BOTM has been published on the 1st of the month and I don’t think that will change in a hurry, mostly because a … Continue reading →

Bike of the Month April 2019

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Only yesterday, it was made evidently clear that OSS and especially its forum, are a step away from current reality; from “normal” or “the norm” or whatever you want to call it. Facebook and/or Instagram are the go-to place to show off your bike, collect likes and get your ego fed, and rightly so (if you’re into that sort of thing). It’s easy, fast, all your friends, colleagues and your mom are on there, thus you get to publicly show off how awesome your life is etc. This is normal… Don’t get me wrong; I’m on FB as much, if … Continue reading →

Bike of the Month March 2019 – Suzuki GSXR 750 H

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Slabbies, I love them. The GSXR 750 was such a radical new model back in the day when they were first launched, they have become very desirable today and are ripe for both subtle and serious modifications. So when I first saw pictures of b-slayer’s GSXR 750 H in it’s very sorry state, I thought the same as you probably did… ‘this has got potential’. Little could we have imagined how trick it would end up being… a real ‘zero to hero’ build. Having started his project thread, b-slayer shared some photos of the horrendous state of the bike when … Continue reading →

Oldskoolsuzuki meets Don Hill at Rooster Racing

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Rooster Racing Don Hill

At the end of January I got a chance to go and visit a man who has probably forgotten more about building and tuning 90s GSXRs than most of us will ever know. His name is Don Hill and he owns Rooster Racing. What made this opportunity to visit Don’s workshops special was that it’s not something he offers very often. He is almost adverse to attention and publicity, preferring to hand pick the people he builds bikes for. The reason for Don’s approach became clearer as the day wore on. Don Hill I first became aware of Don’s work … Continue reading →

Bike of the month February 2019 – Suzuki DR 800S

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Oldskool suzuki DR750

Oldskoolsuzuki.info is a site largely dedicated to Suzuki in-line fours from the 80s and 90s. Occasionally we see the odd twin in there too but big  singles like the DR 750 and 800 are quite rare on the forum. I have always been a fan of big single cylinder machines so I would happily see more of them. At the same time that Suzuki were releasing the first generation GSXRs they also nailed the big thumper genre too, with the mighty DR800S The DR Bigs had very distinctive styling and record breaking 727cc and 779cc single cylinder engines. These bad … Continue reading →

Bike of the Month January 2019

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OK, I have to admit that I’m biased. Biased towards slabbies and 2-strokes that is. Particularly towards 2-stroke Suzukis that I used to own and wish I’d kept, like the RGV250 VJ21. So, seeing as it’s just been finished (are they ever really though?) and been on the OSS stand at Newark and looks fantastic, my (biased however wholly deserved) choice for this month’s BOTM is Simbec1863’s lovely RGV250. Purchased in reasonable-looking condition however with some significant shortcomings, Simbec1863 didn’t muck about and got stuck in.  His plan was to fully strip it then clean, refurbish or replace parts on … Continue reading →

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (and a Competition)

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OK, so maybe not quite as wonderful as that first start up after a long engine rebuild! Or eagerly awaited trick bits turning up in the post. Or lining up for the 1/4 mile or a track day. Or finally getting your jetting spot on… I could go on. Anyway, it’s that time of year again soon. You know, the time to sneak off from family/sprouts/other responsibilities into the shed to ‘get some more beers’ whilst secretly spending ages looking at your bike / pile of bike parts. The time to make plans for the new year to finish or … Continue reading →

Bike of the Month December 2018

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I try to stay as far away from politics as I can; tax is inevitable, and they’ll never do what we want anyway, so why bother? I’m happy to say that OSS is the same; no Brexit discussions here, and that’s how it should be. Now, “politics” in itself goes further than just the governing body of your country. One could argue that us admins practice politics in our own way, but we honestly try not to; everyone here is the same, and we all follow the same basic rules. We just have the means to push some buttons when … Continue reading →

GSXR electrical modifications

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  GSXR and Bandit Alternator overcharging problems. First some theory: Suzuki have tried to be clever using a closed loop design which may work when everything is new perhaps. Out of alternator are two leads the main power to battery and the other is the ignition feed to alternator which is trigger to turn reg on. Problem here is voltage drop on the trigger wire, ive measured half volt purely at ignition switch, suppose age takes its toll. ive got further .3 volt loss through wiring and joints i can tell you the connectors are clean and look good. So … Continue reading →