Chocksaway

Arnout; Lots there to reply to. I'll do that this evening. Had an accidental knee in the bollocks from my lad this morning and can't think straight ! nloien; Yeah, by the tip I hit the pit last night it had become clear I'd have to go right back and re-cover all previous ground. To be honest, with it laid up for six years I'd forgotten just how bad it was. I was hoping just to get it good enough to go back on the road and start refining it in stages, but the last 48 hours of investigation dictate that will not happen, there's too much to get right before I can venture back out, but at least then the majority of the bigger issues will be sorted. This morning I started to remove wiring loom and battery box, airbox and carbs next. Carbs need a clean and check over anyway as I always suspected a duff diaphragm or something anyway. It was a bit three cylinderish, but if the fourth joined in it came in with a "jump to light speed" wallop ! More to do this afternoon and will report later. Thanks all Rog

Captain Chaos; Thanks, at least I know I'm looking for longer rather than shorter. I'll check and post results. Rog

Duckndive; Thanks mate, good info and pics. I notice on your bottom link though, that the distance from shock to links is way longer than mine. So surely yours runs a higher rate than mine.... ? ie. per mm of movement on the swing arm, your shock will compress more than mine. I'll check tomorrow, but I don't think the links foul the spring at all. I had thought about remodelling the top shock mount to an adjustable one, just to be able to play around with ride heights, and if necessary, different shock or link lengths. Start simple as they say... Captain Chaos; Thanks for the dimension, I'll check against mine tomorrow. Any dimension for an 1100 arm? On a different subject for a moment. Was looking back at old pics on the PC and found a scan of an old pic. Me on my GSX 600F at Long Marston early 1989. 12.33 secs @ 111mph consistent. Not bad for bog stock, although I was a tad lighter back then !

As for rear height, the geometry doesn't look too bad, I think slightly longer dog bones would get me where I need to be. I'll try to sort the oil cooler and see about fitting the old header pipes back on tomorrow. Might have a start up next weekend ! Rog

And another point... The god-awful home made torque arm for the rear caliper is mounted on a bolt to the frame. Is it best to mount this way but remake the torque arm and mount it properly with a bush etc. or, mount it to the swing arm to induce a bit of brake squat? Suggestions please... Rog

Duckndive; Do you have overall lengths for 1100/750 as I'd like to identify what bits have been used? I'm not worried about the airbox at the moment, if it needs modding in due course then that will be addressed as a separate entity. Wheel alignment check was not as easy as hoped due to finding out that the frame tapers slightly, hence the box sectioned clamped on also tapered. However, it seems the wheel is of centre to the right by 5-6mm and the rear sprocket is out of line to the left from the front sprocket by about 4-5mm. So, the plan is to strip the battery box, airbox and anything else out that's in the way, and take a wire from the centre of the headstock to the back axle and centralise it within the frame. This will give me a centre line of the wheel on the axle and dictate what I've got to do to centralise the wheel. Once the wheel is centred, I can come back to sprocket alignment and sort that. If I remember correctly, the original tyre would have been a 150 ? so I have to cater for an extra 15mm of tyre towards the chain straight away. Is it wise to think about offset front sprockets, or does that overload the output bearing ? (bearing in mind I'll only be pussyfooting this bike around !) I'm finding so many things are wrong, bodged or just plain crap, that ultimately the whole thing will have to come to bits and be built back up again. Cheers Rog

Saturday report; I've had a bit of a look round it to start figuring things out. From what I can see, the rear wheel is not on the centre line, by 6-8mm. (I'm just setting some box section up along the frame to check exactly) Although I checked the tracking of front to rear years ago, I had stupidly made the presumption that who ever messed around before me had spaced the wheel correctly. Lesson learned, treat everything as wrong until it can be proven right. I've wound all the preload off the rear shock, and whilst it doesn't seem to have lowered it, the geometry doesn't look out of place. I think I need to correct the rear wheel and get it back running so I can ride it see what's going on. Roger

Swiss Toni, I have no doubt the shock is buggered! Just like the bugger of an exhaust, it's just to try geometry, not to run with. Hagon will no doubt be what I end up with, certainly no need for top end Ohlins or anything for what I'll ever be doing with it.

Rene, thanks chap, much appreciated. I've got a bit of work to do today, but I'll try and squeeze in a bit of GSX time too. Digging around in a box of bits I found a standard EFE shock, so I'll compare with the unknown that's in currently, for length. If it's shorter, and will go in, that might also correct the geometry to some extent, but I really want to get a handle on what's wrong and in what direction. If needs be I can make up and adjustable mount on the frame and adjustable dog bones to allow some fine tuning, once I've established the area of dimensions I need to be in. I'll take a side on pic, but really want to strip it in stages, take measurements and plot the pivot points on CAD to see what's going on. "Give me a lever and I'll move the world" kinda stuff ! Roger

Basic measurements/specs taken tonight; Front tyre 120/70 17 Rear tyre 180/55 17 Front axle height 295mm Rear axle height 310mm Swing arm pivot height (no load) 405mm Fork angle (no load) 64 degrees How does that compare with anyone elses? Rog

Guys, thanks for all the interest, welcomes, and comments. Much appreciated. Swiss Toni; Yes mate, intention is to keep it if I can, and more importantly, get it right. Jonboy; Hearing what you're saying, but I want an all Suzuki parts bin effort. I would almost consider Hodna, but certainly not Kamakazi or the piano makers !Same measurement on mine is 665mm, quite a difference ! Rene; Thanks for the welcome. Rear is definitely too high, I'll start by seeing if I can just make longer links to get the height right, but I think ALL the rear shock geometry is wrong. Likewise, I never tried a front tyre swap. Dezza; It feels like riding a road drill, too hard a ride. Initiation of a lean into a corner starts ok, but suddenly gets to a point where it feels like the front is going to tuck in and wash out with a resultant low side. And I mean bad, I've ridden some bad handling bikes, but this is nasty. Back in the day, I rode on Metzeler comp Ks ME33 front, ME1 or ME99A rear. It's got a Metz on the back and a Battlaxe on the front. I think out of psychological support I need to get a match up of Metz on the front too. GPZ110 Convert; I thought about the same as a rough guide. Hence why I think my snout is down and arse up. I'll drop the arse first as it seems easiest, then look at the front. Inspite of pretty pics, the whole thing really is rough. Everything has been messed with, nothing is right, and it all needs sorting. Everything... Looking at it tonight, I'm going to chuck the old pipe back on and get it running. At least then I can squirt it around the trading estate and experiment. Thanks for your help and suggestions to date chaps, very reassuring to know there's knowledge out there to be tapped. Cheers Roger

Last on the road about 6 years ago, it turned a few heads then due to rarity. Now that I've slowed up a bit I think it'll be safe for me to venture out and not take up on the first challenge and get myself into trouble. I'm not 21 any more ! At some point it will absorb more money than I'd like it to, probably an amount I'll never see back, but that's not the point, I want it sorted and reliable as well as rideable. I've been teaching a mate's son to ride his first bike, an Aprilia RS4 50, what a machine! and that's kind of inspired me to have another go with the GSX. One thing at a time I know, might address the exhaust first and at least get it running again. Then move onto lowering the back end, then forks, then lights, then wiring........ What have I started? !!! Rog

Blimey, that was quick response ! Yeah, it looks good in pics, but get close and it's dog awful. Really. I was getting round to discussing exhausts. I certainly need more ground clearance in the collector department. After this pic was taken I ditched the tail end and fitted a standard Bandit can, which actually looked the part, and wasn't a fraction as loud as the crap I took off. But again, I need to change for something better. I like the way Marving do theirs, flat collector rather than two over two. I don't mind sticking with a Bandit can or something similar, I don't want to go ultra modern and spoil the 80s look. I've considered fabbing up a manifold from titanium, just to get away from corrosion issues, plus I'm not that keen on chrome anyway. I don't mind doing some work, just not spending money as this bike is a secondary project. One criteria for getting it back on the road is it's in my office at work and taking up space ! Rog

Hi everyone, I've had a peek around on here before, but now I'm back, for a whole heap of help please ! I had bikes throughout my teens and into my 20s, but that got cut short one night when some pikey made off with my bike. That left a real bad taste in my mouth for bikes and I turned my back for a good while. A few years back I got brave and went looking for a new steed, something I could love, not just ride. I chose an '84 GSX1100E (If you don't say EFE everyone thinks it's an earlier GSX) as a rideable project. That sort of worked out, but it was barely rideable at all, it was awful.... The back end is too high, the front end too low, the geometry is all wrong and it's really a proper heap. I want to get to a point where I can take this bike out with a decent chance of survival, it doesn't need to be fast, it just needs to play to my rules. I haven't really identified the bits that have been changed, but pretty sure the forks and wheels are Bandit 1200, possibly the swing arm too, or GSXR. It ran reasonably well, but a bit weak on one cylinder it seemed. The engine I can sort, but I need help with this mismatch of other bits. The Bandit forks seems o short that I doubt they'll ever work. I even considered making a stepped top yoke to raise the front end, but that'd hardly be classed as rigid ! It seems a fork change is inevitable and I had thought GSXR1100 forks from mid 90s, any pointers? The back end I really need to strip to see what's there and get some dimensions, but again, any suggestions welcome. Whatever that swing arm is gives a longer wheelbase than standard, quite a nice look and well proportioned. Long, but not drag race long. I'll take some pics of the wreckage this weekend and await your verdicts.... Cheers Rog