bluedog59

Stuart Garner. Now there's somebody who deserves the wrong end of a splintery stick...with a nail in it.......dipped in dog shit. For starters.

The weight saving probably balances out losses.

Yep, mount a fancy caliper on a nice, long lever and reintroduce all that lovely flex the fancy caliper was designed to eliminate...........and maybe a little more for good measure.

The spring is a service item and the manual gives a minimum free length for replacement. They are pretty cheap and easy to replace.

If you're going to pull it apart you can add the price of new gasket set to the cost at the minimum. Then add, " I'd better change that seal etc etc while I'm in here" and the cost just keeps going up. Do you need to pull it apart other than for painting ? It will take a lot less manhours to clean the engine well enough to get a very good finish to than strip it, cart all the bits round to get them blasted, paint it and rebuild it.

Check the spring length against spec. They have a service limit and quite cheap to replace. Give all the internals a clean while you're in there.

By the sound of it, you have a right mismatch of parts and could just end up going round in circles. Have you checked the emulsion tubes aren't worn ? B12's are renowned for it. My advice is the same as others, get it on a Dyno. Find a Dyno shop you can trust, try to book an "off peak" time and ask if you can be in the Dyno room while they're running it. Stand out the way ( never go behind a running bike ) watch, listen and ask the operator to explain what the various readouts are showing and you will ride out more knowledgeable and wondering why you didn't do it earlier.

More power will never solve a lack of talent.

I wasn't suggestion "de tune" them, just be careful not to sacrifice too much at the bottom chasing that last little bit at the top.

And while you're working hard, playing tunes on your close ratio gearbox and trying to keep that peaky motor singing, wondering if you dare tap the power just yet............. The guy with a broader spread has pulled 10 bike lengths on you and going 10 mph faster. Race engines are great on race tracks but become a pain on the road. Look at the course before selecting your horse.

I would concentrate on the torque curve if you plan on being the old guy on the "sleeper". With a fat mid range you can kick their ass while they're winding it up then roll it off before speeds gets silly ( because you're a "sensible old guy" and your chassis is going to start struggling soon anyway). Hit them in their weak spot. Lack of mid range.

There's a couple of things about dynos and HP. 1. The final figure is not the important one. It's the difference between what you started with and what you've now got. 2. It needs to to be the right type of horses and importantly, torque. Don't build the engine you "want" chasing the top line, build the torque and power curve you ( and the bike ) needs. Do you like to ride it like a race bike or use mid range "grunt" ?

Erm, I think you may have got a little muddled re acceleration. The smaller number (3.07) will give a higher, theoretical top speed but acceleration will suffer. The larger number (3.20) will have the opposite effects. What gearing to run is down to want you want out of your bike/riding. What type of riding do you spend of your time doing ? Motorways ? Town ? Playing on fast, back lanes ? Are you bothered about MPG ? The Factories tend to know what they are doing so I would stay off as close to stock overall as you can get and tailor it to suit yourself from there.

If you haven't got a syringe, kitchen paper will do the job.

Wiseco do a 77mm kit (1043 cc) which is probably around the same cost as using new pistons from Suzuki but without the pin size problem. Another option could be to go big and use the crank, rods, piston and cylinders from a GSXR1100w. You then have the further option of going "big bore" on an 1100 for a real sleeper.

Are you running the full system ?

Is that a rotating mudguard mount for a quick change wheel system ?

If you have the skills available round you, start haggling.

Going by your intro, I think you already know if it's a viable project given the skills and resources you have available and it comes down to your personal outlay/work required balance. If all the other bits are good and the work is within your capabilities then something around that price could be doable. Those headstock welds don't need tidying up, they need grinding back until they're tack welds to hold it all together and redoing.

£2.5k !!!!! The bits that come with it must be worth at least £2k then. A few weekends to build it ? Now that is B/S !!!!!!

That's the conundrum. Overall it looks half decent, they've got the big bits right but then stumbled at getting the small but important bits right. If you have time, patience and access to a good Ali welder ( just in case any need redoing ) then it could be a bargain............or a nightmare. It puzzles me why there is such a mismatch on quality, they got the tube bending and jigging right then made a poor job of welding it together.

Which then leads you to wonder how good a fit were the joints before welding and what grade of tubing it is.

Dare we ask how much ?

It's "experimenting" when it goes well and "fucking about" when it goes wrong.

That would wipe out a big percentage of modified bike builds in an instant. Most of the collective knowledge of mankind has been gained by "fucking about" with things we don't understand. It's called "learning" for those that do it.