Macduff

Just back from picking my wheels and heres bettablast black chrome sample. He also has a shadow chrome which he can vary the amount it “chromes” as its a 2nd solvent coat over a black.

@clivegtoNot sure but his colour sample wall is a bit over whelming if you wandered in trying to decide on which one you wanted without a preference. He would no doubt answer if asked on fb etc . More useful for next frame/ bits given yours is already shipped out. I’ll be back there next Saturday picking my wheels up and can ask if wanted/ take pic of a sample if he has one made up?

As an aside (probably) and apologies if irrelevant. I had my 750 Slabbie calipers rebuilt and then fitted with Brembo Sintered pads (from Bike torque https://www.biketorqueracing.co.uk/buy/brembo-brembo-sa-sintered-road-brake-pads/07su06sa.htm#eq1) mated to a spares pile 19mm brembo radial M/C (possibly knockoff I've had it that long and originally bought s/h from teabay) . Took a while to bleed up into a firm(ish) lever but when tested at the last MOT the tester chap commented it scored the highest he'd seen on the brake rollers in his memory I think he was more suprised given age of the old girl. The feel from the front brakes is the best of all my rides the current shed holds and the modulation is lovely, though I suspect a panic stop would have it standing on its nose if the tyre has grip available so not something you just want to bang on full pull pressure.

Allens performance do VM29 spares though when I asked for a price for a full rebuild kit the price was in the order of about 400quid. I think it was probably every replaceable part still in circulation for the VM29 so could likley be trimmed down a touch

my old VMs on my JDM750 had smaller idle jets than the new ones I purchased (UK Spec) though even with the larger jets it still ran crap at idle difficult to start etc. The carbs appeared clean but suspect the internal drillings were too cruddy as a swap over to another set (fitted with the new UK spec jets) worked great. Order in a load of plasters for the skinned knuckles if your going to be regularly pulling these with a stock airbox , I ended up getting new airbox rubbers as I got sick of the hours spent cursing the old hardened ones refusing to fit in airbox and onto the carbs. PS it might have been the spare VMs that had smaller idle jets originally, swapped these for the new ones I had is uk size.

This thread probably has the info your after

I've used simply bearings and wemoto for needle bearings for my slabby swingarm , If you have the dimensions you should be able to search for them , or the part number though sometimes these hard to read on an old needle roller and measuring the internal I/D is tricky on the bearing so measure the sleeve used instead. What I found was the same bearing(s) as oem was shipped and there was only one source that being IKO so no issues regarding quality . PS CMNSL parts often list the dimensions of these bearings to help with searching alternatives to oem prices.

CMNSL sometimes have the bearing sizes posted on the parts fiche for bearings . If these are the same as slabby ones I have them somewhere Slabby swingarm pivot bearings are according to my Chinese verniers 25mm long 29mm O/D and ~22mm I/D (hard to measure inner dia P/N IKO TA.2225.Z Slabby swingarm lever pivot? bearings are 25mm length 24mm O/D ~17mm ID PN TA172425 UE03.

Don't think FCRs have a choke option (or the ones I have on a duc don't) they rely on a couple of squirts from the accelerator pump and a tweak of the idle speed knob for cold starts.

The other bearing spec number you need is C3. I believe this is the bearings tolerance/clearance spec. if too tight then it wont like being spun at the RPM speeds a wheel rotates at and could overheat. Or at least that's what I do for wheel bearings (ie im not a bearing engineer)

I've been fiddling with some bits for and on my slabby. My MOT pass b4 last mentioned some slight play in suspension cushion bearings and this MOT didn't so thought I'd best give it a check over , fek me it was a bit flappy. Luckily I had a spare with decent bearings so a relatively easy swap out later and bollox theres still some play (though a lot less). Looks like the swingarm pivot bearings are toast and potentially the bearing sleeves the needle rollers run on. So ordered a set of needle rollers (and seals for the swingarm and started pulling the duff ones out of my spares pile swingarm as I want to strip down pull old arm swap in freshened one to keep the time its apart to a minimum. Pulling the old bearings out wasn't too bad with my fleabay sourced Chinese blind bearing puller. I plan on having this bare arm cleaned & powdercoated before I fit new ones as its been partly polished at some point in its life and looks a little scabby in its half polished/half anodised state.. I'm pondering the best way to fit the new needle rollers as they don't look like they tolerate the socket and hammer bash em in method , maybe some heat on the swingarm is needed to expand the bearing seat area to ease them in with a long bolt and washer as a slow controlled press in. In other news I've had both my spare wheel sets blasted and powdercoated in a retro pale matt/satin gold . That wheel colour may turn some somachs but IMO its not quite as bad as it sounds ie its not the bright gold you get from hammerite tins and more like the classic Campag gold wheel colours of the 70s/80s so more a light bronze in a satin matt finish. I'll fit one of those pairs (either the wide rim 1100G pair or 3 spoke 1100J pair) once I've decided which will get the conti classic road/race tyres spooned on, hough the J set will need my 750H forks fitted so it has the required 17mm front axle . Oh and a Ignitech ignition module is also due soon too

TLDR GSF600 front axles circa 2000 fits and can use GSF 600 spacers and a M16 1.5 pitch locknut After I posted a wanted ad for the above and finding that there are probably are rare as hens teeth on their own ie not attached to forks, though most of these forks seem to be sold without axles (hence my wanted ad) I did some digging into what might work as an alternate front fork/wheel axle for the 750H or 1100H/J original 17mm axled forks. The CMNSL parts fiches for these modles show the axles are NLA and don't list an updated part number so infer that these axles weren't used in other suzukis. I figured any 17mm axle of the correct length could work as long as it had nut on the end (as slabby forks use a separate nut not a threaded fork tube). and a search of fleabay found a few likely candidates, one seemed just about perfect as it had a Fixed Nut head , reasonable length and came with the original bikes spacers (but no Nut) This was the axle from a 2000 GSF600 this model uses 17mm axle with a threaded fork tube so no Nut, luckily its long enough to fit the (750H)slabby forks using an 1100J wheel (GSF600 ) Spacers and have enough thread to mount an M16 1.5 pitch Nut (ideally locking as there is no hole in the axle for a R-clip etc) . The GSF seems to use a spacer both side (no axle speedo drive) but handily this appears to be the same depth as a speedo drive would be as the fork centers were the same as my existing fitted slabby forks. Good to know for those that want to loose the speedo drive and have a readily? available factory spacer. I'm waiting on a 17mm axle slabby speedo drive to arrive and will re-check the centres distance with that to be certain. Another possible axle candidate is the later 2005? on GSF600 but that uses a shoulder main end so will need to be clamped by the fork leg (with the clamp bolt/nut) and have the fork spacer tube removed- (axle shoulder and this tube appear to be same diameter) this option maybe less than ideal as most forks that use this type of axle have two bolts doing the axle clamp work so potential to flex under use with only the single bolt a slabby fork has. This axle also needs a separate nut M16 x1.5 as the GSF uses a threaded fork tube . HTH those trying to fit the late model 17mm axle slabby forks and are missing the original axles. On mine it now means I can bolt in the 1100J wheels I located sometime agon and have the widest factory 18" wheels the factory fitted to a Slabby for road use. bring on those Conti classic road race tyres! Note trying to swap bearings to make 1100J wheels fit early slabby 15mmfront axles is likely to be a no go as the bearing required isn't easily available and if it was likely to be a bit dodgy in a fast spinning motorbike wheel use (ie not the usual C3 spec used on Mbike wheel bearings) so spacer sleeve would be needed instead of bearing swaps IMO.

From bits I've come across (ignoring the peculiarities of the 750F) I've heard the front cowls are the same between 750/1100 , Side panels are different & unsure on belly pan pieces . I think the 1100 front subframe is different to the 750 as is the rear cowl upper brace.

I have a gut feeling/faded memory that the offsets are different. Someone with a more accurate answer may be along shortly.

I have a vague plan to do the same for my slabby, obtained the spare original forks for tweaking just need to work out what to fit into their guts

At the risk of being burned at the stake (g -I-xxer content follows) heres a link to the mod I recently stumbled across on a FB slabby group. https://www.replace with the banned name for gsxrs.com/forums/15-oil-cooled-gixxers/168926-1100-linkage-mod.html?fbclid=IwAR0EGcdRIDzb8NJBDb6q4Jue8xR62tHRcluWlavhNBgcM4DZEnDKcqu-FaU

I benched a set of VMs as they refused to work consistently for the starting /idling ,& re-starting when hot jobs you kinda want them to do well. I had swapped the idle jets for new ones and made sure needle jets emulsion tubes were ok but the fekkers refused to play nicely. Bought a 2nd set swapped my new idle jets into those and hey presto its sorted. I suspect my crap set have crud in the carb internals and a proper ultrasonic clean is needed to bring them back. however I'll never want to find out if that's a cure given the pita stripping effort , cost of cleaning and major PITA job of swapping carbs just to find out if they are fixed so I've decided that they are best kept as spare parts for Justin.

If I knew it was such a fabled process to fit I would have taken pictures and notes , & I wasn't aware of it being a PITA task until after I did it and may have struck lucky with the correct twist on getting it in. As it was I remember it trying to refit the carbs afterwards with age hardened airbox rubbers was a far harder more frustrating job.

Its been a while but I managed to get an airbox into my 750slabby without removing the engine. I think I pulled the carbs and it was like a krypton factor puzzle working out which way to twist turn it getting it in. Some other bits may need pulling to get clearance but I definitely didn't take the engine out.

yup uncompressed. Bizarrely I measured the other fork from the pair later and it was 10mm shorter? wtf, they were definitely used as a pair for some time, same scabby paint. I've not pulled them apart since I've had them so no idea why one is shorter .

just measured the spare 750 slabby forks I've got and it was 745mm axle centre to fork cap . Think these are G/H forks if theres a difference with F ones (bar the smaller axle diameter?)

If you go to the trouble of fitting an inline filter make sure it can flow more fuel than the tanks petrol tap can. I fitted one and it caused fuel starvation where the engine drained the float bowls faster than the filter let fuel through. It was old unused filter meant for a carbed 900 ducati but I suspect as that bike had a fuel pump they didn't care to much if the filter restricted the flow a touch . On my gravity fed slabby it was just too slow a flow.

PS once off soaking them in some diluted mix of winter green (herb oil?) is supposed to soften them up for longer than a heat session will , though I never tried this myself and to strong a mix may make them tooo soft and no longer able to clamp carbs etc.

After swearing for many hours removing and re-fitting the original airbox rubbers on my 750 slabby , and facing the likelihood the carbs would be off and on again whilst I fettled them I gave in and bought new ones, the speed and ease of fitting these made the cost worthwhile imo.