Practical Sportsbikes 01.2022

OFFERING UP SOME PROJECT BIKES
BODY PANELS WITH
THE TANK IN SITU Fixing up tanks is an inside job
REVEALS THAT THE when it’s a bit nippy outside
BLUE/BLACK COMBO
(WITH STICKERS)
WORKS EXCEPTIONALLY
WELL

more… for a day or so. Pour it out, wash with EVAPO-RUST treatment
water, dry it on the cooker, sloosh some de-
natured alcohol around, dry with a blow gun… How long: two days 8
and there you go. Cost: £33.99 10
Contact: web of the wide world
Now for some more displacement activity:
let’s put some decoration on the tank. Hanging Go-faster filler cap always a useless essential Almost does what it says on the 5-litre
around in the random decal pile are some big, bottle. Gets rid of most, but not all,
round Skoal Bandit stickers. So, to disguise internal corrosion inside a petrol tank,
some of the innate goofiness of the stock and makes a
tank, I chop them in half and apply the halves tank useable.
either side of the gold Suzuki logos – another Handily it’s non-
massive win. toxic, so can be
poured down the
Next up is the fuel tap refurb. Disassemble, drain after use
check, scrub up externals with Scotchbrite, (although they
wash down internals with brake cleaner, treat reckon you can
rubber parts to some silicone spray, check re-use it too). If
tube filters and try to fit Suzuki ones to the a bad tank needs
a quick fix, this is
Yamaha tap. Their fine gauze extends lower good enough.
into the tap and I’ll be running with no
reserve, so they’ll give me every drop of
fuel until empty – but they won’t go in. Oh
well, no big deal.

Time to fit a fancy ally petrol cap.
Everyone knows these are worth at least
three horsepower. And it saves me from
having to have two keys once the Suzuki
GP125 ignition barrel goes on (in case you’re
wondering, it’s a three-pole switch, so I can
have lights on the third click instead of needing
a handlebar switch).
Offering up some body panels with the
tank is situ reveals that the blue/black colour
combo (with stickers) works exceptionally
well. There will be no need at all for paint, or
any form of expensive tarting-up work. Not
until Chris decides the thing is a complete
embarrassment to the magazine.
This Bandit 12 is not very far away now. All
it needs are a brake rebuild, carb rebuild, front
and rear suspension rebuild, a GSX-R600
clutch fitted, seat recovered, then wire it up,
and fire it up. That shouldn’t take long.

Suzuki filters (top) won’t fit theT’cat tap. Sadly Thundercat tap with fresh gasket ready to go

Practical Sportsbikes 101

This is not a studio, this is MF’s new garage...

Mark Forsyth

2003 Suzuki SV650

New global headquarters for MWR

Monkey Wrench Racing (Motocross Dad and Chimp) make grand plans for 2022

Adam Forsyth: much faster o, with the 2021 race season
than his old man, and dusted and done we’ve started to do
a better person too something called planning ahead. It’s
new and confusing, but seems like fun.
We’ve just done a full season of Rookie Mini
Twins with the BMCRC (or Bemsee as it’s
more widely known) and it’s been pretty good;
well-run, approximately a-round-a-month,
and the chance to ride the fabulous Brands
GP circuit – the only club in the UK to allow
anyone that pleasure.
But we’re after a change for 2022. Young
Adam has learned a lot this year and managed
to bin his novice bib. I’ve learned a lot, too –
although mostly stuff I’d forgotten.
Mini Twins is still our preferred option for
year two, though. It’s a cracking class to learn
the racing ropes in as most of the bikes are
evenly matched. We’ve ended up developing
our bikes into finely honed bits of kit that are
visibly as quick as anything else out there,
without resorting to the kind of cheatery that
uses hooky ECU maps to deliver the 72bhp
while on the official paddock dyno, and then
considerably more out on track.

102 Practical Sportsbikes

PROJECT BIKES

IT’LL BE EPIC TO BE If it didn’t have bikes in it, you ‘d
ABLE TO WORK ON think it was a bloody house...
BIKES WITHOUT
SNAGGING A BELT LOOP
ON ANOTHER BIKE’S
CLUTCH LEVER, OR
LIMBO DANCING
AROUND TO GET TOOLS
AND SPARES

Bemsee is unashamedly a southern centre, ...and this is the old garage where MF will be sleeping when Cath finds out how much the new one cost
Brands-centric club. That’s all well and good
as Brands is a belting track, but for 2022 we seemingly everything else at the moment, Quarry conveyor belt 9
want to mix it up a bit with some new tracks. is ridiculously expensive and in very short
supply, so external cladding might just have Cost: £0 10
At the moment, viewing all our options, the to stay as roofing membrane until things calm
North Gloucester club is looking favourite down a bit. Contact: local limestone quarry
purely because it mixes in the astonishingly
splendiferous Anglesey with the scratcher’s It’ll be a massive relief to move out of a Cadged a length of this stuff from my
favourite Pembrey, and the bumpy and tight single garage and into the L-shaped local quarry. It’s the perfect wheel-arch-
buttock-clenchingly fast Castle Combe. supershed. Much to the delight of my wife to-wheel-arch width for the back of the
Cath, we’ve currently got four bikes in the van and, in the race awning, the perfect
We also spotted a nice CRMC-eligible house, and several others in a rented shipping length for a bike on front and rear stands.
7/11 Slabbie at Brands which has given us container. It’ll be epic to be able to work on It’s warm to kneel on, easy to hose off and
something else to think about for 2023... bikes without snagging a belt loop on another a load easier than faffing about with that
bike’s clutch lever, or limbo dancing around to horrible click together plastic flooring
It’d also be considered rude not to cross get to tools and spares. which never works on grass anyway.
Hadrian’s Wall to visit the all-action Knockhill,
too which will also double as a trip via Cumbria Next job is to epoxy-coat the concrete
to visit family and friends. Oh, and speaking of floor. Been speaking to some surface coating
Cumbria, Barbon Hill Climb on Saturday 23 experts who suggest either an acid etch
July is also a fixture firmly etched on the 2022 or mechanical grinding process before
calendar. application. The acid etch is a no-go due to
the walls being made of Sterling board foam
But in order to think about the next move sandwiches that won’t like getting wet so it
and pay for the accompanying bike build, our looks as though I’m going to have to attack the
spare SV (which has done little more than floor with a rough-arse power grinder.
cart me around on a few trackdays) needs
to go. £4250 if you want a bang-on 72bhp That won’t be messy, noisy or upsetting at
MiniTwins bike setup every bit as good as the all. Not one bit.
one that’’s staying. Contact the mag..

Ever recent spare waking moment has been
spent erecting a supershed in the garden.
It’s been a slog, but the L-shaped SIPS panel
construction is now up, roofed and fitted with
windows and doors so it’s finally windproof
and watertight.

Seeing as every joint is foamed, the building
is practically airtight too, so the theory is that
the south facing double glazing should be
enough to heat it passively through winter.
Kevin McCloud would be well impressed by my
green, COP26-friendly construction criteria.

But, I priced up the external timber cladding
the other day and nearly sharted. Timber, like

7/11 spotted at Brands has given them ideas

Practical Sportsbikes 103

Minor machining work should do the
job. But we’ve all heard that before

Gary Hurd

1982 Suzuki GSX1100EX

He’s the king of the swingers

Gary picks up a ‘straight fit’ back end improvement, that doesn’t fit. But it will, with a few mods

had a JMC swingarm in the GSX fatter USD forks from a Slingshot before). And It’s a nice looking swingarm – a few marks here
before it got blown up. By Chris. the last time he came round to criticise the and there, but it’ll be fine on a bike that will be
Seven years ago. Have I ever told you swingarm, I’d seen a mate selling a GSX1400 tidy but not perfect. The chips and marks on the
about that? ’arm ready converted for an old GSX frame, for bodywork are part of its story, so I won’t repaint
Anyway, it made sense then because it was £80. Sold: to the man who already has way too it, and the frame I had powdercoated about 30
a street-legal drag bike . Short forks, low ride much Suzuki stuff knocking around his garage… years ago still looks pretty good.
height, and a Vance and Hines Sidewinder pipe,
the whole bit. But the current budget GS/Bandit GSX 1400 swingarm way shorter than JMC job But won’t bolt into a GSX1100 without work
drag bike got built during the time this GSX
was in pieces, untouched, so there was no fun in
rebuilding it as it was.
I picked up another JMC swingarm cheap
(the one originally in the bike went in my EFE-
powered Katana for a bit, before the drag bike
took over) and I put it in this GSX. But then I
got thinking – why have six inches of swingarm
hanging out that I’ll never use? It seems, and
looks, a bit silly.
Newbigging had been in my ear too ‘you need
to change that swingarm, it doesn’t suit the
bike’, etc. Whether he had any influence over
my thoughts I won’t say, but I did come to the
conclusion that the long, underbraced ’arm
didn’t look quite right with RWU forks and
normal road-going ride height (it had shorter,

104 Practical Sportsbikes

PROJECT BIKES

AT THE VERY LEAST
CAPTIVE WHEEL
SPACERS WOULD SAVE
ME A LOT OF JUGGLING,
AND IT’S NOT REALLY
ANY MORE WORK FOR
SOMEONE ALREADY
MACHINING WHEEL
SPACERS UP. IT’LL BE
WORTH THE AGGRO

This swingarm has been trimmed at the Old rearsets were a cobbled together mess, so Gary will cobble together something less of a mess
pivot and new bearing sleeves made to suit a
GSX – but it must have been a 750 frame he’d 3M 6000 Series dust mask
taken measurements from. Lots of stuff is the
same, or you can swap bits, but the swingarm How long: three years 9
pivot bolt is shorter and thinner. So it needs the Cost: £22 10
spacers trimmed some more, as well as drilled Contact: DIY shops
out for the 1100 pivot. No big deal, my mate
Chris over the road is handy on his lathe and Current CB1300 shocks are waaaaaay too long I’m asthmatic, so dust can be a real
rarely tells me to take a running jump when I ask Spacers need a trim from Chris across the road problem for me. If I’ve got any cutting,
for a favour. grinding or sanding to do that gets me
into a fine mess (particularly with glass
I offered it up loosely without spacers to see or carbon fibre), this goes on. It’s more
how it sat anyway. The answer is tall – very tall
– too tall, really. So the CB1300 shocks I got effective than
cheap will need to be replaced by something a disposable
shorter. I’m not too bothered, the last set I saw mask, but nicer
up for sale generated a bit of a bidding war. to wear too.
Handy for when
The other issue is later – as in, later than 2000 I get nagged in
– Suzuki wheel spindles, are fitted. The spacers to DIY jobs, too.
for the 1990s Suzuki wheel I have slip straight Just change
through the adjuster slots on the 1400 ’arm, so the filters once
it’ll need new spacers. in a while, and
that’s it.
Newbigging again ‘helpfully’ volunteered
the suggestion that the combination would
lend itself to a captive rear brake carrier
arrangement, too. I might not go that far, but it’d
be a trick thing to have. At the very least, captive
wheel spacers would save me a lot of juggling,
and it’s not really any more work for someone
already machining wheel spacers up. It’ll be
worth the aggro, and it’ll suit the bike too – less
‘streetfighter’, more street bike.

The job after that is rearsets. I’ve always
hated the ones on the bike – they’re the
original brackets, but with Raask controls,
with a gash linkage to operate the rear brake
mastercylinder hidden under a panel.

While the bike was at the MCN Festival, Justin
Bisset from SES Race Products dropped by. I
tried (unsuccessfully) to talk him into making a
GSX fitment, but while it’s not viable for him to
do that, he came up with a winning suggestion:
cut up a donor rearset for the portion that
carries the mastercylinder, weld it in place and
use the footpeg/lever too.

So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got plenty
of mastercylinders, and a GSX-R rearset looks
like it has a bit just the right shape to fit on top
of the GSX bracket, so there’s some fun to be
had with a hacksaw, and maybe Simon’s TIG
welder, too.

Practical Sportsbikes 105

Mark Graham A very nicely put together frame in T45 tube.
The work of Geoff Cain at Co-Built

1999 Kawasaki W650

AVAST SHIPMATES! Full ahead
Boat anchor frame almost ready for ship’s carpenter to start attaching important bits to. Aye, Cap’n

he boat anchor, the unlikeliest PS It’s not as if this projected machine had any Now we nearly have a frame. The seat
project in recent memory, was close recognized template aside from a photograph stays were the biggest headache. Originally
to having a finished frame. Until of a 1954 BSA A7 Daytona race bike. What we had them running curved from the top
fabricator Geoff decided to go on his holidays we did have were dimensions approximated rail, but then decided they just weren’t right,
in November, that is. The cheek of it; almost from GSX-R and YZF numbers: 1422.4mm and replaced them with straight tubes. And
there and he chucks his TIG wand on the floor wheelbase, 25º rake and 101.6mm trail straight is always stronger than bent.
and swans off to Tahiti, Torremolinos, Tenby… (Yamaha R6 yokes with 35º offset). Plus a
who cares? In November. Really? W650 engine. Next up will be bosses to secure the seat on
This could all have been over by Christmas. an ally tube subframe. Bosses for footpeg-
But no. It’ll now drag on into the new year, and
then he’ll maybe decide to go snowboarding in An oldie, sure – but a goodie, and model for the W650
March, or some such nonsense. Then a spring
break sailing on the Norfolk Broads, and we
most likely won’t see anything completed till
after he’s swum with some bloody dolphins
in June.
It would all appear to be worth the wait,
though. Unless you can do this sort of thing
yourself, you are hostage to the expert.
And Geoff has been nothing if not expert in
studying the references, alerting me to issues,
listening to my ramblings, and then patiently
suggesting how best to go about things. And
sending me bills.

106 Practical Sportsbikes

PROJECT BIKES

GEOFF HAS BEEN
NOTHING IF NOT
EXPERT IN STUDYING
THE REFERENCES,
ALERTING ME TO
ISSUES, PATIENTLY
SUGGESTING HOW TO GO
ABOUT THINGS. AND
SENDING ME BILLS

The W650 boat anchor – where all this started

Curved seat stays now
jettisoned in favour of

straight pieces

Seat requires a substantial slim and reshape

Apico paddock stand/seat mounting plates are already welded on. The B50 tank. It was a gift from a mate, and it
old BSA B31 toolbox that we planned to would be rude not to employ it.
How long: six years 9 mount the electrics in now looks as if it’s not
Cost: £35 10 going to fit in the elbow of the now straight Being in love with a petrol tank is surely
Contact: the nerd wide net rear tubes, so we’ll have to conjure up a plan verging on madness, but there’s nothing
B for that. particularly normal about building a rigid-
When you’re too tight to buy a hydraulic framed machine in this day and age anyway,
workbench (like me) the next best thing is a The seat, a BSA A65 platform, is being so we’ll see how that pans out. Meantime I’ll
nice little seat to get you down to bike level shortened, and will need narrowing too, be expecting a postcard from Geoff – at the
without you knees seizing up. I even sawed but that can wait until we get the Yamaha very least.
the bottom rails off to make it even lower YZF125 wheels in again and see just how the
and it hasn’t broken yet. Bench: £500. This: whole plot sits. Once Geoff gets the sand out Beesa tank... maybe do something with that...
£35. You choose. of his shoes.

The BSA B50 fuel tank is starting to look
small, which it is at 1.5 gallons, and in an idle
moment (when he wasn’t thumbing through
holiday brochures) Geoff spied an A10 tank
(BSA again) on a shelf, and offered it up.

Proportionally it does look better, but it’s a
very olde worlde shape and flavour that would
need some work to revive in a modern idiom.

And frankly, there’s enough going on without
having to start another sheet metal revival.
We could always try something with it, but
I have huge sentimental attachment to the

Practical Sportsbikes 107



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110 Practical Sportsbikes

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Practical Sportsbikes 111

You will not find a
cheaper Z1-R than

this. Looks ace in
drag guise too

A FRIEND – a fellow £4AS7KI5NG0
devotee of old Suzukis
– passed away suddenly KAWASAKI Z1-R
last month. His name was
John Martin, he founded US import drag bikes are usually knackered by
the Air-Cooled Suzuki the time they ship over here. Or any project-grade
Owners Group, restored and straightliner in fairness. So I’d go in with low
modified all sorts of bikes, and was generally expectations on this: even so, this one runs, and
quite active in our world. I’d see him here the fact it still has the air-shifter fitted suggests it
and there, at shows and the like. His turbo hasn’t been totally pillaged for parts. Standard carbs
Katana was in PS a few years back, and he though. I don’t think that’s bad money, whether you
loaned us several bikes for tests without saw it as a potential Dragstalgia build or just a Zed to
hesitation too. True, he loved to see his bikes rebuild as a street bike with a different swingarm.
and name in print, but without generous
blokes like him prepared to let us tool HODAKA ROAD TOAD piston among other things. Lot of new and
around on their pride and joy, we’d never reconditioned bits already done though,
get the mag done. Potential p*ssed-up impulse buy of the and nothing of any consequence is missing,
The Big C got him, with shocking speed, month, this. Why? The name, obviously – and most things are available from the USA
and way before his time. He was only 54. who wouldn’t want to own a Road Toad? (they were made in Athena, Oregon, despite
Why am I telling you? Partly to pay tribute: If you were six Stellas deep when you bid, sounding Japanese). Nice little bike for
he was a decent bloke and deserves it. But you might miss the note in the description someone – emphasis on the little. Not for
John built a lot of bikes, he rode them, and saying it’s been assembled for pictures, the big or tall among us.
he let others ride and enjoy them. and is an abandoned project with a missing
I sometimes get a bit negative on these
pages – advise you don’t get involved for
whatever reason. But you know what? Life
is short – if it makes you happy – do it. Buy
stuff, build it, and do your best to enjoy it
all while you can. I’m sure John would have
continued doing so for years to come, but he
certainly made the most of the time he had.
It’s the only way to be.

YAMAHA RD250

A great start to a special,

(or a CRMC racer as

suggested by the seller).

You’re looking at an

RD250 motor and frame,

with TZ chassis parts, and £1AS2KI9NG5

some trimmings to build Super rare over here, less so in the
USA where Hodakas were made.
it up with.There is some

commonality of fitment

between road/race Yam

twins, but not directly.

I think that’s all the money

in it as a project basis,

because there’s a lot to

get done still. Or there’s

a bit of a profit in it still

if you took the time to

identify £S2OL0D4FO9R
it all and sell anything
you didn’t want.

112 Practical Sportsbikes

SUZUKI GSX-R600 Sometimes, you might find A£S5KI0NG0
something cheap you weren’t
These are dirt cheap – this one more actually looking for... KAWASAKI
so, because there’s no logbook. The ZL750 ELIMINATOR
reg and chassis number are though:
checking those, and applying for the Eliminators are funny things. You
logbook is a straightforward affair. never see them – at shows, events,
And, believe it or not, people do lose or meets, yet there’s a steady trickle
paperwork, though it’s the age-old ex- for sale, especially the 900/1000
cuse for hooky bike sellers, too… It’s a versions. Someone loves them, and is
thrashable road or track tool you could buying them. But who? They’re a bit
have ready in a few winter evenings. kitschy but have appeal in the manner
of a Yamaha V-Max. Let us know if
£A8SK0IN0G you’ve got one – and why. I’m curious.

There’s a certain something about
these... please tell us what it is

YAMAHA £4AS5KI0NG0
TZR250 3XV

That’s a bargain these days, especially if you can

haggle a bit further, as it didn’t get snapped up

quick. Buying a two-stroke is best done under the

assumption it needs an engine rebuild at least, and

at this money you wouldn’t hesitate to do it. Judging

by the mismatched tank it will want at least partial

restoration, but when a shiny example from a dealer

is £10k, you’ve got plenty of wriggle room to get it

sorted, and still have that peace of mind from being

sure everything has been done. It’s registered and

running, which saves some aggro to begin with.

Four and a half large is not
unreasonable for one of these

Practical Sportsbikes 113

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fraction of the money better than new with a snotty ZXR400L track and road bikes