It would be no more than stating the obvious to talk about oldskoolsuzukis being as much about the journey as the destination. Starting with a dream, a flash of inspiration – we follow a well trodden path of empty wallets and skinned knuckles but hopefully at some point, there is a fine motorcycle to ride. And then the next chapter begins.
This month’s bike of the month goes to Gammaboy’s Katana. The attention to detail and quality of finish is to a standard many aspire to. Long may you continue to adapt and overcome, Gammaboy – and congratulations! Thank you for sharing your story ….. so far.
Comments Off on GSX-R engine mounts for a GSX Frame
Below are drawings of engine mounts to fit an early air-cooled GSX (round frame tubes) or EFE (square frame tubes) with a GSX-R engine. Both place the engine in the middle which is aesthetically best but may cause some problems with the exhaust headers interfering with the frame downtubes, which can be solved by using spacers or modifying the headers if necessary. Engine mounts for a GSX1100 frame to take a GSX-R engine. By “jonboy”
A Katana with the above engine mounts installed…
Engine mounts for a GSX1100EFE (GS1150) to take a GSX-R engine. By “GJG”
Below are drawings from the engine mounts, as I used them a few years back. I built at least two EFE’s using these plates. They mount the engine pretty straightforward, like in the Katana I send you pics from a few months back. I also included the cutting contours in .dxf format, that could straight be fed into a laser.
Parts description: PL-105 and 106: Take front rubber engine mount, and lower below crank. Need shims or bushes to compensate for offset.
PL-107 and 108: These should be welded in with the engine or cases in place, mounted with the previous mentioned plates. PL-108 is a bit long, and could do with a brace, taking sideward loads to the cross tube from the shock. The stock plate should be removed. The lower cross tube in the frame will need some cleaning up and removing of the stock lower rear plates, before taking PL-107.
PL-110 and 111: These make the removable, welded upper rear engine mount taking loads to the stock bolt holes/bushings welded into the side of the frame.
Making your GSX frame stiffer Written by Mr.7/11, inspired on earlier work done by Tony Foale, Arnout and Tinus.
It may be well known to anybody that creating a stiff frame has to do with connecting the headstock to the swingarm pivot as direct as possible, which is what modern “Deltabox” frame designs do. So the best possible solution is to weld f*cking huge bars from the headstock directly to the swingarm pivots. There is just one problem with that… there’s a huge mother of an air-cooled engine in between that hasn’t followed any diet …ever.
To keep the weight down we remove some before adding any.
And besides she’s so beautifully shaped that we wouldn’t want anything hiding those luscious curves from full view now would we? So we’ll have to resort to beefing up the frame we have as well as possible so the front wheel will keep in line with the rear during heavy braking/acceleration as well as big bumps in the road.
The GSX frame is of the “cradle” type which means the main frame tubes are routed above and below the engine. We haven’t got many options for reinforcing the lower cradle as there are exhaust pipes, oil cooler lines and the oil sump between them and we don’t want to create problems while performing regular maintenance. So we leave it alone with it’s primary task to keep the engine in place concentrate on the part of the frame that runs above the engine.
Take a look at the picture below. The weak point of the frame is the green section between the headstock (yellow) and the swingarm pivot area (blue). If you look at early GSX-R frame designs you see that on race bikes they have allways tried to beef up that area with additional plates. There’s also a rumour this is what Yoshimura used to do with their GSX superbikes. Suzuki have allready paid lots of attention into making the headstock as stiff as possible so the effect of additional bracing here will be minimal. If you intend too keep the standard airbox and the battery in it’s original place then options for bracing around the swingarm pivot will be minimal too. So if you would like ot improve the stiffness of your old dinosaur I’d make modification C. first, and consider dumping the airbox in favor of separate K&N filters to be able to add D. and E. When you’re at it you might as well go along and add braces A. and B. but I don’t consider them to be essential.
Be warned that reinforcement C. can hit the inside of the tank if you make it too big and will also make it hard to find enough space for the air filters! You should make all reinforcements from cardboard first anyway to check that they don’t interfere with anything.
A. these tubes support the headstock against torsional movement. The plates B. support the frame tubes to prevent them from bending due to the load created by tubes A.
The cross-bars D. stiffen the area above the swingarm pivots. The tube connecting both sided is placed at the same height as the engine mounts to keep the engine in place under acceleration. If we replace the cross-bars with a pyramid D1. we add even more stiffness to that area and prevent the swingarm pivots from moving back and forth in addition to up and down. It may look a bit awkward and I question if it adds anything as you must not underestimate the strength and function of the rear subframe. This might be why Yoshimura adds gussets to the subframe on the Katana 1135R, but they have also changed position of the shock mounts considerably. They probably did this because they use a very short swingarm to decrease the wheelbase and so improve steering into corners and if they kept the original mounting point the shock would be too upright making them too hard.
Examples of frame braces on the Yoshimura Katana 1135R
The connecting rectangular tubes E. help to distribute loads from the swingarm pivots to the rear of the frame, as well as providing a mounting point for the rear brake amongst other things.
F. There’s very little room to triangulate the space in front of the cylinders because of the exhaust pipes but it is possible. You may need to dent the tubes a little to make them clear the exhaust pipes but this is better than making the V smaller. Tightening the two center exhaust clamps will prove difficult too.
Now that the headstock and swingarm pivot areas are beefed up the connecting tubes are supported by plates C.
You should also consider making B. and C. box sections, so placing a plate on both sides of the tube with a strip in between to close the box. Or use rectangular box-sextion like I did (60×20)
Tubes only need to be around 16mm in diameter with a 1mm wall thickness. Box sections need to have 1mm wall thickness and single gussets 3mm.
Below are images of a braced GSX1100S Katana frame. The bracing is designed by Mr.7/11and welded by Postma Motoren from Haarlem (NL)
Usually I don’t get horny from stiff objects but this is a completely different matter…
You can allmost feel the flow of the forces trough the frame tubes
The big cross means “no airboxes allowed” and will probably be painted red
The use of rectangular beams in the subframe means it’s easier to bolt stuff onto it like electronics, brake pumps, nitrous solenoids etc.
Comments Off on It’s not what you know but who you know.
OK, “what you know” is actually quite important on a site dedicated to info about a long since extinct motorcycle species. Our point here is that we all know genetic engineering isn’t a cheap hobby. That’s when the “who you know” bit becomes important.
We all know the special warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you receive that padded envelope in the post and it’s full of little plastic bags with the red and white labels. Unfortunately that warm fuzzy feeling is tempered by the sinking feeling when you see the bill.
Well worry not! Thanks to our very own Yoshijohnny we have secured a very useful 15% discount on all genuine Suzuki parts from Robinsons Rochdale. YJ works with the company and his employers have kindly agreed this very generous discount,exclusively for OSS members.
Robinsons Rochdale have been in the business for 60 years and if they don’t have the part on the shelf they can normally have it within 24 hours.
YJ has also agreed to alert us to any special offers on vintage Suzuki parts clear outs where discounts can sometimes be in excess of 30%
Details on how to get the discount are in our traders section on the forum and is only available to members.
As the autumn air begins to nip, we dig deep to harness the enthusiasm and kick on the determination to see the final few nights of the summer months astride our newly resurrected machines. This month’s Bike of the Month award goes to a GS which has challenged to the last but is oh so worthy.
For those who have not yet caught up with 370steve’s progress thread in the OSS Member Project section of the forum, where have you been!? Read all about it here.
Crack a beer, 370steve! That’s one beauty of a machine you’ve built yourself there.
Fancy websites and a huge social media profile are all nice and dandy but the real recommendation for a craftsman’s work is in the examples you see, hear and touch and … if you’re really lucky maybe even experience. When it comes to the FastByMe HQ, there is no shortage of examples at varying stages of turbo-ness in build state, power and career path to get a good feel for what performance enhancement is right for you. The enthusiasm and downright bloody-mindedness that can’t see any reason why all motorbikes shouldn’t have one radiates from the King Pin of the operation Dave Dunlop who is supported by his ever patient wife, Samantha.
Tucked away in the now not-so-quiet confines of a sleepy Rutland village, Dave can be found slaving under the Fast By Me banner as he has done for many years. We’re not quite sure how many exactly, but the doctor’s note was issued before word processors. Long enough is a good answer.
Dave predominantly creates custom turbo solutions but extends his offerings to other performance parts including billet big blocks and cam oil feeds as well as a range of tshirts and hoodies to wear when you’re going really fast. For more information and a range of live action videos, check out the website www.fastbyme.co.uk
Dave will be offering a 10% discount to OSS members for complete turbo kits so don’t forget to mention the site when asking for a quote.
As an official introduction on the site, Sam is offering a Fast By Me hooded sweatshirt to the person who can identify how many times FastFurby can be found on the website www.fastbyme.co.uk
Send your competition entry over to terriblethunderlizard@gmail.com – closing date 30th September – get counting!
As a sub-genre of an elite group of motorcycles, the Turbo ET has come into its own in the past year and one in particular stands out from the crowd.
This month’s Bike of the Month award goes to the busiest, most social of all the ETs in the gang – stand up and take a bow Paulm. The ‘company demonstrator’ has a lot to answer for.
Amongst the buzz of returning home, catching up with old friends and new motorcycles, Terrible Thunderlizard has been delighted with the array of projects the members have been working on and sharing on the site.
This month’s Bike of the Month Award goes to the machine which has ben reborn in front of our very eyes on return of the site – Leblowski’s Bakker Turbo.
Click here to see the build thread under the Trick Frames section.
Just seven days ago we had just a handful of test group members, a few posts and threads and a lot of work to do. A week later and we have 430 members, 340 topics and nearly 9000 posts. Our busiest section has been members projects with nearly 1000 posts. That statistic alone is the most encouraging of them all because it tells us that we have the emphasis right. We’re grateful for all of those who have given up there valuable time to share what they are building with everyone. That’s what OSS has always been about. If you have a project and you haven’t shared it yet please jump in and do so and remember we like pictures!
Thank you to everyone for their kind words of thanks and support to the Admin team for bringing the site back. Just to see how excited and happy it has made you all is all the reward that we could have hoped for. Thank you also to everyone who has taken the time to give their constructive feedback on the site and it’s function. In the last seven days we have made over 500 coding edits to iron out issues that you have fed back to us . We are really happy with the way it’s all shaping up.
A massive thanks to our Mods who have worked so hard this week too.
If you haven’t yet, please update your profile with your location and get yourself an avatar. There is a useful section on posting pics if you are having any difficulty. If after reading it you are still stuck don’t be afraid to ask a question on the thread.
This week we had our first bike of the month in over 3 years and we are currently trawling the site for our next winner. More details on that later. We are processing our first trader applications so expect some competitions and give-aways to follow too.
On Monday we sent out a press release to all of the UK’s bike press. So we expect some coverage in the coming weeks and months.If you are outside of the UK and you would like us to contact a publication in your country please let us know by contacting admin@oldskoolsuzuki.info
The forum has taken all of our time this last few days and we have barely had time to progress the .info mission on the front page and the vault. We are currently looking for anyone who wishes to produce a technical article or a how to guide for the front page on any subject that they and we think would be of interest or use to the members. If this is something you would be interested in contact us admin@oldskoolsuzuki.info
If you have any previous experience with word press we are also looking for assistant publishers to mine for old content from the original site and prepare it for publishing. Again please let us know if you are interested.
So all in all a busy but a thoroughly rewarding week. At this rate we may get round to riding and working on our own bikes sometime next year. Here are some pictures just to prove that we actually we have them.
So, a brand new site with all of the original OSS values. It would appear that there are still enough of us left to appreciate how good it feels to be home. Let’s go forward from here and continue what we have started.
A standard Kat is nice as standard, and a valuable classic as is, but it’s very hard to resist the temptation of modifying it. You can hardly find one that hasn’t been tweaked to the max. In my point of view for a Kat to remain a Kat you have to retain the standard fairing, tank and frame. So here are some of the options…
Engine tuning
Well, what can we say about tuning GSX1100 engines other than the sky is the limit? Thanks to the immense popularity with drag-racers you can build an entire engine completely from aftermarket stuff.
It has to be said that the drag bike guys have been moving more and more towards the GSX-R/Bandit engines purely because the supply of fresh engines is becoming more scarce. The most popular tuning method for a GSX1100 engine is the big-bore kit in combination with a top-end overhaul including a headflow, hotter cams and maybe bigger valves. A good excuse for taking such action is when the engine starts burning oil after churning away lots of miles. Anyway, you could go on and on about the options and still only cover 50% so I won’t go with that.
Many people are opting to fit an 1127 (GSX-R) engine, which is a dead shame for people who love the old GSX1100 engine, but a very good alternative if you’re after a low-mileage and reliable power plant.
Chassis tuning
Front end
From Suzuki’s point of view a headstock is just two bearings holding a steering stem (won’t argue with that 😉 and so they felt little need to change it’s design and dimensions during the last few decades.
That means that about any Suzuki front-end will fit the Katana… you’re free to interchange the front-ends of Bandits, GSX-R’s, Katana’s and GSX’s from about every capacity class, and even a CBR600 front end mixes in. Just remember to swap the whole front end incl. yokes and it’ll be a very straightforward swap. Keep in mind you’ll possibly lose some ground clearance after fitting smaller 17″ wheels and somewhat shorter forks.
Rear end
The space between the frame rails is 240mm. You need 30mm for the (25mm) chain to run free between the frame and the tire and 30mm on the other side to keep the wheel centered. So your maximum tire width = 240 – 30 – 30 = 180mm
To get there you need to move the sprocket outwards using an offset sprocket and maybe a spacer or two.
People who want to go wider than 180, like dragracers, need to widen the frame at the swingarm pivot and fit an outrigger bearing to the driveshaft (to keep the bending forces in control).
The hub will probably also need modification to bring the chainwheel closer to the inside.
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