Monthly Archives: December 2019

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

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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/turkey/sprouts into the garage to ‘get some more beers’ whilst secretly spending ages looking at your bikes or indeed pile of project bike parts. The time to make plans for the new year to finish or maybe start that project. Or to join the Winged Hammers and go racing. Oh, and of course the time for us to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and an Oldskool New Year.

No matter what your views or beliefs about Christmas you are always welcome here at the church of OSS for our carol service played on instruments of flatslide chatter, mulled turbo whine and barely silenced heavy engines. You can stick your gold, frankincense and myrrh up your exhaust outlet though, bring us machined aluminium, titanium and magnesium components instead!

Thank you to everyone for your contribution to and support for OSS this year, including not least our moderator and event team for everything they do. Best of luck and every success to our Winged Hammers racing next year too.

This year, we are giving you the chance to win an OSS T shirt! For your chance to enter and full terms and conditions look here.

Merry Christmas and an Oldskool New Year from the OSS admin team*.
*except for Viz.

Bike of the Month December 2019

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Some bikes are built because you can, some because you want and sometimes because you need to. A sense of urgency before you miss that window of socially accepted ownership, so to speak. Such is the tale of Kraptanaman’s turbo GS1000.

Excuses at the ready to justify the actual turbo to the good lady, parts were gathered from inside OSS-land and the build commenced swiftly. This very bike will be the first awarded BOTM twice, because the frame is YoshiJohnny’s old GS1000 Yoshimura-rep, previously earning BOTM way back on the old page.

Playing around with the hacksaw to make the engine fit properly without having to re-do the headers, all fell into place after some persuasion and focus was shifted to the frame itself. Deciding on a slightly shorted seat, the backend was lopped off and the seat shortened to suit.

Making use of the talents and knowhow of several OldSkoolSuzuki heavy-hitters and also a few local tradesmen, the project neared the end of the journey and after the obligatory MOT, it was out on the road, all nice and legal.

However, as normal with pretty much any bike built in any shed, trouble rears its head when you think you’ve done everything properly. This was no different and work was needed to the tank because it sprung a leak under the new paintwork, which ended up needing a different tank and another complete paintjob again.

Over time a trip to Blair’s dyno to get the best out of the old oilboiler, Andrew ended up with a 200+ Bhp machine, having scratched his mid-life itch of building and owning a turbocharged motorcycle.

Long overdue since it has been finished for some time; congratulations Kraptanaman, your GS Turbo is this months Bike of the Month.

Buildthread here

Discuss here