Spondon GSX1170

[spondonturbo]

Not sure if of interest but thought I would do a thread on the rebuild of my old steel frame Spondon that I was lucky enough to buy back in bits 4 or 5 years ago. I originally built this bike in around 1987/8 having bought it as a race bike from Mike Allen who was a very fast guy around Aintree and Oulton Park and also road the bike around the Island in the Manx. I then rebuilt her as a road bike and got her registered and had a few good years use before regrettably selling her to fund my next spondon - the ali framed spondonturbo.

I regretted selling her and started trying to track her down around 15 years ago and got no where. I eventually struck lucky when googling as a blog came up with a guy talking about a spondon gsx he owned a while back. It turned out he was the guy who bought her from me but had sold her a year later. Luckily he knew who to. I got in touch but she had been sold again quite quickly. Again, I was lucky that this guy knew the location of the next owner, but said he will never sell her. He indeed would not sell at first but a year later I got the call that he would sell to me as he knew how much I wanted her back. Deal was done and she came back to me 4 or 5 years ago. Luckily the last guy had her for 15 years and never rode her as he was rebuilding her and never finished. The two guys before had also only done limited mileage and short ownership so not a lot of miles added since I sold her. The bike had changed quite a bit but I got all the old original bits in a box in the sale including all the bits I had made.

So here we are with a build thread starting with the frame now going to paint as I cant stand the nickel plating that the last guy had done. Will post pics as I go along but will be a slow build

 

[clivegto]

Will look forward to the updates, it has a nice back story as well.

[fatblokeonbandit]

Bugger me thats shiny

 

so how much more did you have to pay for it to get it back??

[spondonturbo]

46 minutes ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

Bugger me thats shiny

 

so how much more did you have to pay for it to get it back??

hopefully wont be shiny for much longer ! That nickel plate has never seen the road and never will. Not my cup of tea. The seller knew I wanted it so did not have much chance of a bargain 

[Blubber]

Cool you got your bike back.

 

Enjoy the resurrection 

[spondonturbo]

This how she looked back in 87 when I bought her from Mike Allen. This was at Aintree where I used to go regular as my mates raced. Mike was proper fast and had the outright lap record for a few years on this bike. I did some research a couple of years ago and found out the bike was originally built for Paul Iddon (Christian Iddons Dad) to race. It has a kat 1000 motor bored to 1170 with lots of goodies. Luckily for me the motor is still the same.

[MeanBean49]

That frame is georgous. Is it going to look like it did?

[Dezza]

When was the frame made? Does it predate the similar frames that had coaxial swingarms, the ones that had the swingarm pivots aligned with the gearbox output shaft for constant chain tension? It's great it has remained largely intact and hasn't been attacked by someone with an angle grinder

Also what bits did it come with. The original race bike has some really good period bits like Spondon forks and the pre-historic anti-dive scaffolding

[spondonturbo]

9 hours ago, MeanBean49 said:

That frame is georgous. Is it going to look like it did?

Not sure on which way to go with looks. The frame is going red and that is all I have decided so far. I originally built her in to a road bike as this picture

[spondonturbo]

5 hours ago, Dezza said:

When was the frame made? Does it predate the similar frames that had coaxial swingarms, the ones that had the swingarm pivots aligned with the gearbox output shaft for constant chain tension? It's great it has remained largely intact and hasn't been attacked by someone with an angle grinder

Also what bits did it come with. The original race bike has some really good period bits like Spondon forks and the pre-historic anti-dive scaffolding

The frame is around 1985 from memory. The co ax frames were a similar time I think, but this is an F1 frame. Only 3 of these made for Suzuki motors. The other two are Steve Burns and Bill Hunters.

I got all the period parts back in my possession so will be building with those.

[Dezza]

I remember the Burns steel framed bike at the Performance Bikes Trick Frames Frenzy in 1989 at Bruntingthorpe (30 year anniversary repeat event???). He was doing 150 mph wheelies on it. I think 2 weeks later it was totalled

[clivegto]

1 hour ago, spondonturbo said:

Not sure on which way to go with looks. The frame is going red and that is all I have decided so far. I originally built her in to a road bike as this picture

I remember seeing your bike before but can' remember where.

[spondonturbo]

definitely not going with the third paintjob I did as this photo. This how I sold her. Myabe you have seen one of my other posts @clivegto

yes @Dezza  Burnsie flipped it at a show. The frame was damaged and then got sold a while after but he has it back now.

 

[1168turbo]

Love these frames...how will you get nickel off Steve?

[spondonturbo]

1 hour ago, 1168turbo said:

Love these frames...how will you get nickel off Steve?

Who is Steve Lol

Nickel is staying on after mucho research. Found a powder coating company who have done nickel before. Very careful blasting to roughen the surface, then a primer coat of some description, then the colour, then laquer

[1168turbo]

Sorry ,wrong name...didn't think nickel could be taken off,but at least you can paint over it..

[spondonturbo]

1 hour ago, 1168turbo said:

Sorry ,wrong name...didn't think nickel could be taken off,but at least you can paint over it..

No worries. The names Chris btw :-)  Tried finding somewhere to remove nickel but got varied answers back and did not 100% trust any of the answers. Some said blast, some said dip in acid. No one seemed to have done a frame before so not worth taking a risk.

[Dezza]

Nickel is the base of most chrome finishes. Before stuff is re-chromed, all the old plate is indeed removed using, I think, hydrochloric acid. Really high quality chrome is triple plate: copper, then nickel, then a top layer of chrome. I do not know about nickel. It may have a base layer of copper though. Call a well respected platers and they will be able to help. You'll just need them to strip the old plate  by going through their preparation procedure. Just as well paint job number 3 is more easily rectified

 

I had some parts done here a few years back. They aren't exactly cheap but at least they know what they are doing with automotive parts.

http://derbyplating.co.uk/the-process/

 

What is the plan for the rebuild? Racer, cafe racer or boy racer? Each is good

Edited November 6, 2017 by Dezza

[nlovien]

lovely thing - hoping you decide to aim as close as possible to the way it was - ref: classic racer 

[Swiss Toni]

Good project, nice story! There's a few I've sold over the years that I shouldn't have. Glad you got her back. Now the work begins!  

[spondonturbo]

In answer to above questions, the plan is likely to go closer to the original racebike. I would like to do some classic track days so it makes sense. Not sure whether to do different colours though just to make her a little different this time. Got to send the dymags off to dymag for testing next to see if I can use the 30 year old pair I had on the bike.

[R1guy]

I like the red/white/black- very period

[nlovien]

I know John Neate ref: "Neate Racing" send his dymags to some guru who does wonders with these and brings them back to life - i.e. if you get stook - give him a shout for advise

[dupersunc]

As has been said, nickel can be easily removed by any plater who has a big enough tank.  Painting over it will give you better rust protection I guess.

Mag wheels. Speak to this guy. ex Dymag

http://tpcs-magnesium-refurbs.co.uk/

[spondonturbo]

1 hour ago, dupersunc said:

As has been said, nickel can be easily removed by any plater who has a big enough tank.  Painting over it will give you better rust protection I guess.

Mag wheels. Speak to this guy. ex Dymag

http://tpcs-magnesium-refurbs.co.uk/

prices on there don't look bad. I got a quote from Dymag yesterday and it was around £240 for a rear and £200 ish for front but this was for crack testing and powder coating and new bearings. Sounds a lot at first but then again they will come back looking like new and be SAFE !