Tag Archives: Katana

Bike of the Month July 2020

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When are projectbikes ever finished? ARE they even ever finished? Some bikes get moved on when the initial owner/builder reaches the goal that was set, or interest is lost, only for someone else to take up the challenge and see it through to the possible end. Some other bikes get broken for parts to be sold off and in turn help other projects get finished.

It’s a natural “circle of life” if you will, in the OSS fraternity and I think on average more bikes actually DON’T get finished than do, which is a good thing, because where else would we get all the bits from?

Owner/builder Katanasteve and myself have never met, we’ve never spoken, yet I’m quite aware of some of the projects that moved though his hands. Some finished, some others sold on or broken, as per my previous statement. One thing that did seem to be a recurring theme was the fact that Steve takes it quite a bit further than most.

Engineswaps, turbochargers, superchargers, dual front wheels; everything that you could dream up, Steve probably did it, and to a better standard than most of us could even dream it up to be.

For this build, something was done that we very rarely see on our end of the planet, yet in Japan you could say it’s almost normal; marrying 2 frames top and bottom, to have the runninggear from one bike, and the bodywork of the other. I’ve seen it done to Blandits, but this has taken it yet another step further; Slabside GSXR bottom frame, Katana spine (is that the right word?) and a GSXR1100 motor sandwiched in between.

Tank and sidepanels made out of aluminium by the very talented Kenty, another OSS heavyweight,  all was meticulously bolted (literally) together to get all the proportions right. No easy task as the original Katana must be a good 5” longer than the GSXR that is residing under this one.

A separate subframe was fabbed up to support the seat and have the added job of holding the top end of the twin shock conversion. The original Slabby arm was in turn also modified to work with the twin shocks and a brace was added for good measure.

Swiftly build up and MOT-ed, it has turned out as a bike that even those that do know what they’re looking at, need to give it a 2nd look; it’s done so right, that you could walk past it thinking it is “just a Katana”.

This build has been on my radar for quite some time and with it on the road and finished, I saw it fit for BOTM. I sit down to write this very piece and the topic is all the way up to the top again; Steve went ahead and started fitting spoked wheels and stacks..

They’re never finished. If we had to wait for a bike to be completely done to get picked as BOTM, we’d have a VERY hard time choosing, simply because few ever really are.

Congratulations Katanasteve, your bike is this month’s Bike of the Month.

Discuss here

Buildthread here  

Bike of the Month November 2018

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When we set out resurrecting Oldskoolsuzuki.info as a website and dedicated forum, we knew we had a monumental task ahead of us. It would be hard, take countless hours, maybe even cost serious money, and we didn’t really know if it would actually be succesful. Still, as you know, we went ahead anyway


Bike projects can be pretty much the same; when you start off with a bunch of bits and a general idea of what you want, you’ll never really know how it truly will end up until it’s done, and if it will actually work or not.


Solcambs managed to bag a Bay of E-bargain and set to work, using the forum to document how the Katana you see before you went from a bare frame to what it is today and likely, what it will be later. Starting with a 750 frame and aircooled 1100 motor, later swapped out for a bit more fresh oilboiler. Blasphemy in the eyes of the purists, which, we’re not.


Through the 22 pages that the topic is now long, we’ve seen the build through the stages of initial planning, fiddling with forks and carbs, right through to a tour of continental Europe, proving again that our bikes are more than capable to shine in the current day traffic.


I know we’re not always given the time of day by the general “Biker” fraternity, usually only until we outbrake, accelerate or just plain outrun them on our outdated bikes, but this Katana is yet another example of how a 35 year old bike can be made more than relvant in the Now, and looking better than anything you can buy in the showroom today (and basically, ever) to boot.

Congratulations Solcambs, your Katana is this months Bike of the Month

Read more here

Discuss here

Bike of the month March 2018

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There’s many reasons to start your own build, with “because I want to” coming first and “because I can” second. (If the person taking on this project actually can, is something different, but more on that some other time)

Other reasons are aplenty but there’s two that carry much more load than any other reason I can think of. One; building the dream bike of a lost friend. Two; being asked to build that dream bike, by said lost friend.

This Katana was trusted upon Pete by Dave “Swingarm” Roberts, member of old and builder of one of the very few actually cool Bandits in history. Dave was lost to a horrible disease and the Katana for which he already had most of the parts, was left to Pete to finish.

Pete took it upon himself to finish the bike to a standard we rarely see outside of OSS. With a general idea of what Dave wanted the bike to be, he set to work.

Built over the course of less than a year, the Katana was entered in the Newark Show as its first public outing this January, it promptly won a award.

The Kat turned out, arguably, better than the Yoshimura-1135R Pete posted up as the end goal for the build and it’s received praise far and wide.

A fitting tribute to a lost friend, I tip my hat to you Pete; the Katana is this month’s BOTM.

More here

 

 

 

 

New OSS Trader – Lucky7moto

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We are pleased to welcome Lucky7moto as an OSS Trader, with a discount available for OSS as well as a fantastic prize to give away too!

Lucky7moto are well known for building cool bikes, several of which have featured in magazines around the world. Their ‘no fucks given’ approach has always been fun to see, take a look at their T-shirts! They do it because they want to, not because they have to.

As well as building cool bikes for themselves and others with deep pockets (check out the Katana or ET they built), Lucky7moto also sell specialist parts.

New bike builds in the making include a GSXR1100 Slabside for a customer and a GSXR Slingshot that will become something endurance based. All builds result in some bespoke specialist parts being made and these are then offered for sale to you.

Today their most commonly requested item is the seat re-covering service. Steve the founding member, is a time served upholsterer by trade spending years in the Aston Martin interiors factory. Using only the best materials like high-grade leather or the latest waterproof Alcantara to the best textured vinyl, Lucky7moto seats can be found on some of the best builds on the planet. Racefit can attest to that. Lucky7 seats are on all of their builds. Steve has partnered with Jay who is an active member here on OSS.

Whether it’s a GSX1100 Katana, Bandit, GSXR (or any other bike including one off specials) these guys can (re)cover it transforming the look of the bike. Just don’t ask them for embossing or bright blue stitched logos, that’s not what they do.

Current bike parts on offer are GSX1100 and Katana oil catch tanks, under trays, swing arm spacers to allow later model swing arms to be used and shock mounts to allow newer style mono shock arms to run twin shocks. Lucky7moto will also supply you with a Racefit Legend system if you ask nicely 🙂

The newest product to come out of the workshop is a stunning hand beaten aluminium tank for the GSXR750 Slabside. It’s internally baffled, much lighter than stock and a real thing of beauty. These are a limited run so be quick to get some exotica. Other limited run, hand made aluminium tanks are on the horizon with GSXR Slingshot and Katana tanks being talked about.

If you can’t stretch to a fuel tank then Lucky7moto offer some very cool T-shirts and stickers for sale too. OSS members will receive a 10% discount.

To celebrate their new OSS Trader status, they are offering as a competition prize a re-cover for your bike seat OR if you are lucky enough to be a Katana or GSX1100 owner – an oil catch tank OR undertray set. Basically one winner, one prize.

For details of how get your OSS discount and to enter the competition, see the article in our Traders section here. Please note that you need a 50+ post count on the OSS forum to take part.

You can find Lucky7moto on the interwebs here:
http://facebook.com/luckyseven.motorcycles
http://lucky7moto.com (currently under construction)

Bike of the Month December 2017

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Lists, we all have them; shopping lists, to-do lists, bucket lists. Stuff you “need” to do/buy/build before a certain time.
When you then, in your waking life, don’t get the chance to tick off some of your most desired points on your list, if you’re really lucky, it sometimes happens that some of your friends will do it for you, in your honour and in your memory.

Craig Smith is such a friend. We know Craig as one of our like minded Down Under members who has made VERY good use of what Pops Yoshimura and Wes Cooley started in the old AMA championship, by using his GS as it should be. He has also always made an effort to let us in on all the fun.

This Katana project was started off with previously accumulated parts and a general idea of what the finished product should look like. Craig and a few friends went on to finish the bike that their late friend, Alan Baker, had dreamed off and had actually started building. This project has had many things in common with the OSS Knarf build. Both were documented on the old site.

Only when we got OSS  back up and running did we properly learn how the project turned out and how the story had concluded. (imho) this Katana on its own, even when you don’t know the story behind it,  is one of the best Kats out there. Revealed to friends and the world in May 2016, it’s more than what anyone could wish for as a lasting monument and a promise that they hadn’t been forgotten.

I realise this project has been finished for quite a while and Smithy hasn’t been on OSS much after it but that’s beside the point. I had this bike on my BOTM list for a long time and here it is; congratulations Craig, Alan’s Katana is Bike of the Month December 2017.

Read more here

Making your GSX frame stiffer

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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.

frameremovals

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.

framemods

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.

framebraceexample

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.

Gussets © Tony Foale

Gussets © Tony Foale

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...

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

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 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.

The use of rectangular beams in the subframe means it’s easier to bolt stuff onto it like electronics, brake pumps, nitrous solenoids etc.

Tuning your Kat – the basics

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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.