Bike of the Month October 2017

The king of Babylon, his fingers and the number of the beast…..

….and oxygen, and allotropes of carbon, and Leary’s model, cervical nerves, a byte, a fully lit seven-segment display, an ‘mericun cup, the Dharmacakra..and…urm i’ll stop with how i started before i start listing all that is weird up the Corinthian caulicole of religious curiosities, that’s right this episodes B.OT.M. is brought to you by the number 8.

Although no longer an ‘8 valver’ doubling them up obviously (and mathematically) takes nothing away from this black suited 80’s doorman of a bike, man it’s got some presence, it looks purposeful yet somehow simple……..urm again i’ll stop before them two billett 6 ‘duckle knusters’ crack me in the yokes. don’t stare too long is all i’m saying. It’s an awesome clean looking ol’skool eighty’s air cooled muscle bike, uncluttered and understated with a stance all of its own, like one of Hyatt’s numero’ VIII balls rolling across the cloth into the pack, whether you’re watching in full colour high def or on your nan’s black and white, you know which one it is, which one is king, the eighth king, the king of Babylon, ol’ jake himself.

I gaze upon this bike as i imagine a rabbi gazes upon a jewish males 8th day, thinking ‘almost perfect, now we’ll just trim a little bit off the end’.

Congratulations on BOTM R1guy, an awesome build.

Read the project thread here.

Discuss this article here.

The number 8, a slightly defective number, a tweak away from perfection, come on, if i’d said octopus you’d have got it straight away…wouldn’t you?…..jeez…..am i the only one doing an eight-ball on an (ol’)skool night?

We Love Projects

Projects, we fucking love them here on OSS! We can’t get enough of them… sharing build progress, inspiring others, building great OSS bikes, solving problems, unique solutions, riding the finished article etc is what OSS is all about. Or are they ever really finished? Just like when you were at skool, the end result will only get you so many marks… we like to see your working out too!

Fact is, the Projects section of the OSS forum is by far the most posted in section of them all and for good reason too. At the time of writing there are over 15,000 posts! Air cooled, oil cooled, water cooled, trick framed, forced induction and various combinations of those mixed up. Serious OSS porn-in-progress is just a click away and often the inspiration for your next build or even just the solution for that head-scratching problem for your current build you’ve had for a while can be found in there.

We keep a close eye on this section and as well as inspiring all of us and providing great interest it’s also where we primarily look for potential BOTMs (Bikes Of The Month) too. So, we urge you to do the decent thing and have a browse through the project section if you haven’t done so recently and if you are building something, no matter how humble or how trick… as long as it’s OSS we’d love to see your project thread up there. Who knows, it could be BOTM one day soon…

You can find the Projects section here.

Bike of the Month September 2017

Goodbyes are never easy but they make for a good occasion to honour something or someone that has done OSS (very) proud. Let me fill you in…

Maxwin stumbled on the scene in January 2016 mid-development of his 750ET after having competed in the 2015 season of the Earlystocks championship. Having cobbled together the bike for 2015, the early days of 2016 were there to fine tune the bike and get it all working a bit better, looking a bit nicer and going a bit faster.

As with pretty much every build I’ve ever seen on OSS, thing spun a bit out of control with lots of clever engineering, pole positions and ultimately, big crashes. If you’re not crashing, you’re not racing. There’s no argument to say our friend Maxwin didn’t try his very best.

One of the very first to be promoted to OSS Winged Hammer, he has kept us up to date with all the ins and outs of the ET, plenty of pictures and YouTube videos for us to ogle over and wish for it to be us on the clipons and having a go ourselves.

Personally, I’d love to go racing, but lack of talent/balls/money will see me get my fix trying to hassle my bike around during rookie-level trackdays, dreaming of keeping up with the likes of Maxwin and his Earlystocks-compadres.

But, this is a goodbye, and for OSS an instance to honour someone who in turn honoured our request to fly the Winged Hammer flag and do his part for our little community. After a few heavy crashes, our friend choose to follow the path of progression (as you do with racing) and that progression sees the ET and Maxwin parting ways, with a water-cooled 600 of a not-to-be-named brand waiting in the wings to bring new highs in the career of our friend.

Update: It will be a Slabby 750 for next year, hurray! The ET will stay and progress, for Maxwin keeping it and let his dad have a go.

If you’re not crashing, you’re not racing. If you’re not trying to take things to another level, you’re not racing. If you’re not out to get that next second off your lap time, you’re not racing.

Maxwin chose racing and thus, we must say goodbye but not before we award him with the BOTM September 2017.

You sir, have truly done us all a big favour by letting us enjoy your updates and it makes me personally very proud to see our stickers on bikes used as intended and doing a bloody good job at it too! Thank you, I hope you return into our fold at some time in the future, for now, all the best 🙂

Congratulations on Bike Of The Month September 2017

Buildtread here

Bike of the Month August 2017

Bandits, they crop up for discussion from time to time on OSS. Are they interesting? Are they not? They get referred to as ‘blandits’ unless they’re decent and have always been seen as a good source of parts, particularly the engine for our beloved OSS bikes.

So, when we set about rebooting OSS into what it is today we had a think about how to word which bandits we’d like to see on here… specifically no blandits! However that needed a tad more definition so we ended up with the following as part of the rules: “Standard bandits just aren’t that interesting. Trick ones are another thing though, there are indeed some out there and we’re not talking bolt-on tat. GSXR running gear, 1216, flatslides, turbos etc, that makes them interesting!”

When it was time to choose this month’s BOTM, I saw Colinworth79’s Bandit Evo thread and re-read that definition. My thought was that maybe it’s time for a ‘non-blandit bandit that’s still somehow a bandit’ BOTM. I also like well-executed tasteful trick details and I like shiny… so here we are.

Trick frame? Tick. Upgraded running gear? Tick. Turbo? Fucking tick! There are so many upgrades and details on this bike. GIA frame (11kgs lighter than the stock), Ohlins suspension, Harris/custom yokes, that swingarm, lightweight wheels, big bore, turbo, the list goes on with some amazing details and one-off parts along the way. Recognisable as a bandit however very trick and lacking in renthal bars and twin dominator headlights too!

The bike has competed at the Brighton Speed Trials and has since been seriously crashed and rebuilt along with further upgrades. It doesn’t stop there though, a 1340 motor is now being prepared for it too.

So, here we have it – we’ve got a bandit as BOTM. Yet it’s not a blandit. It’s the opposite of bland yet it’s still got the recognisable silhouette of a bandit. Is it still a bandit? Who cares, it’s our BOTM.

Colinworth79, your Bandit Evo is this months BOTM.

Read the project thread here.

Discuss this article here.

Bike of the Month July 2017


Some of you may know of my fascination with Eighties Movies; I absolutely love them. To be honest, I’m not totally sure why myself; could be the cars, the music, the girls, anything. One thing that returns in pretty much all these films is that perseverance and doing the right thing, will alway get you on top. In the 90ish minutes most of these films take, our lead character will fight his or her way though all matter of obstacles, an epic montage for good measure, with the end of the movie wrapping up with the championship/the girl/the car/ saving the planet (remember Wargames?)


This Slabbie that Leblowski has built, reminds me of those movies. The buildthread reads as a moviescript with some things hard to be believed, yet they all really happened.


Starting on the backfoot with a heavy operation and a bike most normal people would’ve called a scrapper, Leblowski took it upon himself to get the bike built to enter in the Bikers Classics Festival at Spa Francorchamps which he had attended as a spectator many times before.


Cutting it as close as you like with having the bike first run on the Dyno only days before the event and arriving at Spa with the paint only literally just dry from application, the bike proved to be absolutely perfect. Finished to a standard most of us can only dream of and the frame so heavily modified, it may be the most extreme Slabbie in existence. You’d have to look for it though, because you really can’t tell if you just casually walk past.


Now Spa is out of the way, this bike will be used for more track outings as part of the #TeamBanana “racingteam”.

I take my hat off for Leblowski, doing this project and taking it as far as he did, I know very few people so determined to make their vision a reality.

Leblowski, your Slabbie is this months BOTM
Read the whole script here

Bike of the month July 2016

BOTM JULY 2016

Here at oldskoolsuzuki.info we are united by our love of these 80’s and 90’s bronto-bikes. The project section is our busiest forum section and it has supplied us with an amazing variety of very special BOTM builds. This month’s bike of the Month winner comes to us from the OSS trick frame department and it is fair to say that it is a truly exceptional example.

When you follow a build like this you are immediately struck, or more accurately you are immediately dumbstruck, by the level of thought and absolute dedication to quality that has gone into every component. Not content with fabricating beautifully simple components in billet aluminium our man decided to set up his own anodising bath to ensure he could get a contrast in finish between components.

Seeing this build come together, piece by piece, has been a joy and looking at the finished result is simply drool invoking.  Quality components, top to bottom, this bike can’t fail to deliver.

This month’s bike of the month winner is Garry Bond’s EFE powered Harris F1.

Gary, the OSS community collectively tip their oily caps in your specific direction sir. You have built something we can all only dream of taking home.

Gary’s build thread can be found here.