Gammaboy

Got a few minutes to do some coolant hose work - mainly the hoses between the inlet stubs. The steel stubs aren't so great, and are discontinued by suzuki... I've slotted them back in with fresh hose and o-rings, plan is to machine up replacements out of alloy and have them welded up - will slot the alloy ones in at some point down the road. Looks like I have to drop the rad to get the rest of the coolant pipes out of the thing - there's a y branched chromed steel hard line that goes from the thermostat (under the headstock bracing) up to the rad filler neck, and across to the radiator. It's been pretty easy to work on otherwise... well, apart from everything being stuffed into the headstock!

Ignitech. Dyna 2000 is a bit of a dinosaur.

That describes pretty much all Bimotas though doesn't it?

Had some time to chip away at some smaller jobs on saturday - connecting up the ignition switch was one of them... fuck, what a ballache! Abandon hope, all ye who enter: Needed to move a coil to get enough space to connect the ignition switch connecter up in the steering head - well, fuck, that turned into a major effort - the spacers for the coils are loose, so you have to hold them in place while slotting the bolt in - and then not drop anything while getting the nut on the bottom. Had to pull the coil back out more than once to pick up a spacer or nut dropped and hiding inside the headstock areas... Pulled out a mullered helicoil on the seat unit mounts - they're a 3 diameter helicoil from factory, so wound 2 1.5D coils in to replicate. Luckily they'd only damaged the first turn of the insert, cleaned up perfectly when the tap went through. Removed the hoover hose and the rubber heat trap that kills the alternators on these while I was there. Had a bit of a shitty moment though, as I sprung the lower seat unit mount areas out to get it off the frame - heard a quite loud "Keeerack!". Inspection showed this: It appears when SB6s went from Mk1 to Mk2, the "reinforced seat unit" was a mess of chopped strand plastered inside the seat area after the beautifully laid up glass (most of it) and carbon (cosmetic for the exposed carbon in the "Raspberry Ripple" paint jobs) cloth was already cured.... anyway, looks like I'll be grinding that out and replacing it with some divinycell foam core and some carbon uni and cloth. There's the start of a similar delamination on the other side too. Not looking forward to the mess/itchyness of this job. Here's a pic showing the transition from the main layup to the reinforcing - have a suspicion the M in paint pen was to indicate that the job had been done. Aiming to get the carbs finished this week (just need to install the brass tubes and finish screwing it all back together), and get as many of the coolant hoses sorted as I can. Speaking of which... the lower clamps on the little connector hoses between the cylinders are completely inaccessable. Have to remove the lower steel tubes to do it. Sigh. (You can also see the rubber mat I removed here)

I used a Raybrig for a RX7/MX5/MR2/Hilux, was miles better than the stocker (Using the same bulb)

SV1000 are similar dimensions I think. GSX1400 forks?

They should work, or just use the OEM rubber bushes in your brackets. Just putting rubber under the bolts won't work because by the time you wind the bolt up, the rubber will be compressed solid - there needs to be a crush tube through the middle of the rubber.

I'm told that the fuel tap is common on Huskys from the Cagiva ownership period - I'm assuming for stuff like 125cc dirt squirters, because it wouldn't flow fuckall to feed anything more serious. It's alarming how unloved some of these Jap delivered Bimotas have wound up.

So, been struggling to find time here and there to work on it between getting dragged off on holidays and working on plastering and painting the front room (Fucking horsehair plaster, people who wallpaper over horsehair, and then paint over the wall paper!)... anyway, been hunting down bits and slowly rebuilding the carbs... So, went back to the guys I bought it off and made a template off the seat of another SB6 they had - the seats are basically unobtanium, so the plan is mould my own base for the main seat, and carve a buck for the bum stop, mould it in carbon and enlarge the storage space while I'm at it. So, to get to the carbs, it's off with the seat unit... and out with the carbs.... a few pics of the sights along the way - including the main reason FCRs are a bear to fit - you have to cut big holes in that crossmember for the float chambers. Note the clearance pocket in the upper shock mount: Oh, looky here - the oil filler. lol. Guess Marconi really wanted to wrap the beams tight around the motor... The original vacuum only fuel tap is another piece of unobtanium, and has been replaced with this piece of shit. Dunno how it fed the 1100, but it's got two, tiny 3mm holes inside it as part of the "turn to stop flow" arrangement... Bolt spacing is same as SRAD/SV650, but that's a whole nother story. Fuel level sensor is also missing, but the OEM ones never worked very well - have a plan for a replacement though. Onto the carbs - stripping in progress. So, the 90's "Slingshot" GSXRs had Mikuni BS-SS series carbs - BS40SS for full fat 1100s (US got 36 i think? DR650 also got BS40SS fwiw), BS38SS for the 7fiddy. They all have these fragile fucking brass tubes down one side of the carb - 3 curved to clear the linkage, 1 straight on the outboard pot. Of course, i stupidly managed to fuck the outboard one while trying to get the airbox on to keep the water out on the trip home. Then, while removing the throttle butterflies and shafts, I fucked another one. Oh, and one of the carb caps is cracks and fucked.... and to the rescue comes the 750 carbs I had left over from the 750WP I briefly had... except the caps are different - the 750 caps have the internal stopper ~2mm deeper, so I guess I'll be ordering an OEM 1100 one to make sure all slides open fully. So I stripped the 750 carbs, discovering they had a Dynojet kit in them (Dynojet bits are for sale if anyone wants them), and have started butchering them.... Have since got all of the casting off that brass tube, going to liberate a spare curved one, and the straight one too. Using a Litek kit to replace bodgery like this: Also took the one piece fairing off - I'll do it a better way next time! Hoover hose is the factory cold air feed to the airbox - not sure I'll bother refitting it. Some of the tight packaging (Headlights not fitted - from a Cagiva Elefant of all things, as is the tail light - later used by the1st gen Ducati Monster) - 2 small batteries under the gauges, overflow bottle wedged between the batteries, gauges and the headlights... and an adjustable steering damper, that you can't actually adjust without pulling the fairing off... There's all sorts of fun to dig through with loose fasteners, disconnected wiring.... this may take a while!

I *think* ET, ES, Katana and pop up katana all use the same 7"x5" standard headlight, although ES has a funny slopey front on it.

Are you going to take the pillion subframe off to lighten it up a little?

Or returning to standard oil flow when fitting straight cut primary gears...

I used SV650/Bandit 600 calipers with adaptor plates and 300mm discs (I used RS250 Aprilia, have also done a couple of sets for use with VFR800 discs), Busa1300 on here did same calipers with stock rotors and adaptor plates. We used the 2 piston floaters because 4 piston calipers won't clear the wire wheel spokes (4 pistons may be ok on cast wheels though) Have a look at this thread.

Digging this one back up - I know the 1250 crank is different, but will it play with the GSXR clutch? Shouldn't be rocket science to cut the end of the 1250 crank to fit under the GSXR end cover...

6R uses a longer swingarm (Same unit as SB8R and VDue I believe) a collection of about 15 plastic panels vs the 2 single piece carbon reinforced fiberglass pieces of the 6, has questionable styling (Don't get me wrong, there are bits of it I love, but as a whole it's not as cohesive as the 6 or the VDue, and hasn't aged as well - SB8R suffers the same issue), does away with the bracing behind the headstock and has a bigger airbox thanks to the ram air ducts that run over the top of the head but under the tank making the tank higher - the battery lives in the middle of the tank, so CG is not quite as low as the 6 - those that have ridden both say the 6R is less nimble, but more comfortable. The 2 batteries up next to the headstock isn't really an afterthought - it's a neat bit of packaging to try to help keep the front wheel down, and, well, there's nowhere else to put it! Have a look at the pics of one undressed here: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Road Test/Bimota SB6 1996 Motosprint/Bimota_SB6_Motosprint.htm

1250 Barrels work with the watercooled head and cases - crank and cases are a little different because the 1250 runs the charging system off the end of the crank rather than the jackshaft with the starter and alternator. Pin size is different, so probably have to do a rod swap or find suitable pistons..

Progress so far has consisted of ordering parts and moving it into the spot in the shed where I can work on it - in doing so I had to move the Mito, so briefly had them parked side by side. The Mito is much much taller, and feels to carry all it's weight up high when you lift it off the side stand, even though it's not even 130kg... Just seems odd that the Bim is 60kg heavier, but carries it all so low. Should be fun!

Pretty much exactly that - Suzuki (powered) Bimota, model 6. SB1 were TR500III powered racebikes. SB2, SB3, SB4 were GS1000 powered (although, being a kit bike, the SB4 often copped GSX1100 power) SB5 was GSX1100 powered SB7, confusingly, shares the frame number sequence (200 SB7, 1144 SB6, frame numbers are randomly scattered), but got an injected version of the w/c GSXR750SP motor. SB8 series were TL1000R powered. If they used the capacity naming convention, there'd be 4 quite different SB10s, and a couple of SB11s.

That sucks, but best bit is you're ok and the bike looks an easy enough fix!

Already there - infact, have been lurking around there for nearly 18 months I think. I can't stop eyeballing it everytime I walk past it.

Wouldn't you just put a Watercooled 1100 bottom end (or Bandit 1250 bottom end) under the RF head?

So there's going to be some hunting of parts, some making of parts, and a whole bunch of recomissioning, and then maybe a cosmetic tidyup. May build a new rear half for the exhaust - the stock mufflers weigh a fucktonne (or seem like it after lifting the seat unit!) .

I thought up a few names for this thread, but once I loaded this thing onto the trailer, none of them did the bike justice. So, I present to you, my Bimota SB6. PIcked her up today. It's tiny, and perfectly formed. And has 1100cc worth of OldSkoolSuzuki grunt buried between those epic frame rails. I cannot stop fucking grinning. She's pretty shabby, but I can't stop looking at it. (note, while the tank, airbox and exhaust aren't fitted in that pic, I do have them. Seats and number plate holder, not so much. Headlights are on their way from Japan.)

I gather this wiring mod would be applicable to the watercooled bikes too?

For science, I weighed my 2nd gen (swept spoke with the hole at the end, flat front disc) Daytona 675 wheels. Front wheel, spacers & bearings, disc bolts, no discs, no tyre, bang on 4kg. Rear, spacers, bearings, stock steel sprocket, rocket carrier, rear disc and ABS ring came to 8.1kg: