Topic: The Quest for Brakes and Suspension: GSX-R Treats

[sethdhawkins]

Those "stock" rear fenders he's producing would make a very subtle and cool upgrade to stockish cafe. I wish my 450 hadn't had the seat hinges cut off before I received it, or that would be my direction.

More food for thought on the stockish 550.

Agreed.

[sethdhawkins]

I do not even have words

And a cb550 tank that's gonna be pretty sick:


I'm impressed. He says the tins look phenomenal. Word just came down the pike that I'll be moving my shop again. My painter friend (guy who did this) and my other buddy are gonna do a full blown hot rod shop with over 5k square feet. They're going to allow me a little honorary space in the corner to keep building bikes. I'm stoked.

[Terry in Australia]

That's beautiful paint Seth, your friend does good work! Cheers, Terry.

[sethdhawkins]

Many thanks, Terry!

[sethdhawkins]

....and I have another motorcycle!

[Syscrush]

Your tank looks so great, I'm not even gonna razz you about the Ural.

That other gold metalflake 550 tank is a thing of beauty, too.

[sethdhawkins]

Your tank looks so great, I'm not even gonna razz you about the Ural.

That other gold metalflake 550 tank is a thing of beauty, too.

Thanks! Surprisingly, those Urals are about as much fun on three wheels, as I've had with my pants on. I'm gonna flog the #%^* out of it all summer, and if it blows, I'll re-power it or put the car on a new Bonnie.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

....and I have another motorcycle!

I'd love a side car to take the dog out for rides.

[sethdhawkins]

[/quote]

I'd love a side car to take the dog out for rides.
[/quote]

I got it cheap, so I'm not that worried. More importantly Don, how do ya like that paint?!?!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I'd love a side car to take the dog out for rides.
[/quote]

I got it cheap, so I'm not that worried. More importantly Don, how do ya like that paint?!?!
[/quote]

I'm kind of jealous.  I not nuts about the Chinese flag motif -- I'd dig it more with a vintage WWII allied paint job -- but it's clean and I wouldn't throw it out of my garage! 

I freakin' love the old school lace job on you 750.  Really cool. 

What's on your TO DO list?  This bike is my front runner for a future BOTM.

[sethdhawkins]

I just have to finish one more week of shoving around barges filled with petroleum, and I can assemble the thing. Maybe a day of work, if I'm using the bench seat...a little longer on the cowl, as I have to glass a seat pan.

[Terry in Australia]

Hey Seth, you bought a Urinal! They're becoming popular here in Oz, but are woefully underpowered, or at least the older ones were?

I thought about buying one and shoe-horning a BMW R100 engine and gearbox into one to give it a bit more grunt and up the reliability somewhat, but never got around to it, too many projects, and too little time.

Have fun on that thing, and be careful riding it near any redneck bars, or NRA meetings..........

[sethdhawkins]

Your mind is in the gutter along with mine! I've got an R100 motor sitting in the cobwebs. I'm not sure if it's financially responsible to do the bmw swap, as the tranny needs attention when you go to that kinda hp. I may just steal the sidecar off it at the end of the summer. We shall see.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries mate, and considering that the Urinal engine is a simple device, there's probably plenty of scope for simple head/carb/exhaust work to give it a bit more pep, if you think it needs it. I reckon it'll be a real fun bike this summer, enjoy! Cheers, Terry.

[mrbreeze]

I just ran across this after noticing GSX-R in the title.With 50 pages in the last 6 months....you woulda thought I'd have noticed it!! I checked out the first few pages and saw some cool stuff and I will be back to read more later. I have some GSX-R stuff inherited from Mick in Australia (Retro). He bought 89 GSX-R 1100 front end parts and only wanted the tubes sent to him (crazy high shipping from States to down under). So I have the complete triple tree, clip-ons, & front axle with speedo drive. I can't remember if its 42 or 43mm tube size. After seeing it on your bike I'm half tempted to keep these parts for a future project......they look great on your bike....more beefy.
So what are these parts worth (cash or trading items)? I will put up pics in a few minutes. I have to resize them.

[mrbreeze]

If I decide to keep em....what else beside forks would I need to make the swap? Specific wheels,brakes,spacers,etc.,etc. What is involved in the stem swap and cost?

[Retro Rocket]

I wish i had got you to throw that bloody axle in Fred, having a hell of a time finding one here...   I'll find one eventually though as i'm not paying stupid shipping for that one...

[sethdhawkins]

Mr Breeze,

After looking at the cost of having machine work done to adapt a harley narrow glide hub to my 2006 gixxer frontend, then more machine work to have a stem made, I went with the easy solution. www.cognitomoto.com
With his hub and stem, a lot of the swap was made easier. You can go to his website and read the parts compatibility...but, I can already tell you that your year gixxer parts won't work with what he's got. He might be willing to work some custom parts, as he's already intimate with the cb750's stock workings. Just a thought

Good luck,

Seth

[mrbreeze]

Well Mick, I can get an estimate but it will probably be outragious as we already know. Maybe if you have anything else being shipped to you or a friend from the States maybe I could send it to someone here to piggyback it to you. After all....it isn't a big piece by any means. So Seth....these parts aren't really worth much unless they were year and model specific to someone?I will remember to check out and read some more about your rear wheel. I just got rid of a K1 part bike that had inside laced rear Harley rim to stock Honda hub but it didn't have anything to do with a rotor....stock early K drum hub. I'm digging the width of your wheel and the clearence Carpy's swinger provides.

[sethdhawkins]

That's the way I would look at it. One would have to put a fair amount of effort and money into making a specific modern frontend work on these bikes...while retaining spoked wheels. When people tell me that the custom hub I picked up was too expensive, I often wonder how much time and money they're willing to expend trying to make something that they thought was cheaper work? I knew from prior experience, that I could get the job done, but I'd be way over budget at the end...just a fact of forging the way.

The rear wheel setup was (relatively) easy. Custom spokes for a deep drop wheel, then laced and trued. I have no idea what the clearance is like on a stock swinger with a 140 sized tire. I've got plenty of room on the Carpy swingarm, but the proportions look odd to me were I to go wider.  The 140 looks HUGE compared to stock.

[Retro Rocket]

Well Mick, I can get an estimate but it will probably be outragious as we already know. Maybe if you have anything else being shipped to you or a friend from the States maybe I could send it to someone here to piggyback it to you. After all....it isn't a big piece by any means. So Seth....these parts aren't really worth much unless they were year and model specific to someone?I will remember to check out and read some more about your rear wheel. I just got rid of a K1 part bike that had inside laced rear Harley rim to stock Honda hub but it didn't have anything to do with a rotor....stock early K drum hub. I'm digging the width of your wheel and the clearence Carpy's swinger provides.

Fred, you may be onto something there mate, I am looking at some later model brake parts near Illinois, i'll let you know...

Cal, the Honda stem presses straight into the GSXR1100K clamps , I've already done it, i'm not using it though because 35mm offset triple clamps add to much trail, i don't mind a 5mm difference but 25mm is an inch and that adds up to trail over 4 inches and a real slow turning front end, I'm using the 43mm forks with custom clamps, i am pretty sure you could make the cognito hub work quite easily, bearings will be no problem , spacers may be needed for the discs or even material taken off the cognito hub if its narrower or wider than the 89 hub. I would not give up on it but i would do some very accurate measuring... 

[sethdhawkins]

I wouldn't know any of the specs on that year frontend. We know for a fact that the fork legs are smaller in diameter, and not USD(?), the hub will probably be a different width requiring either shimming or spacing, and who says that the stem has to be anything like the generation gsxr frontend that I used. I know that many of the earlier bikes used steel stems in alloy trees...My point being, you may as well start with a harley hub from scratch at that point.

[sethdhawkins]

Mick beat me to it.

Seth

[Retro Rocket]

Retro - I completely understand your point about the offset, but, Breeze stated:

>>So I have the complete triple tree, clip-ons, & front axle with speedo drive. I can't remember if its 42 or 43mm tube size

If he uses the triple he has (certainly not stock Honda offset) and his forks, but uses the CM hub and perhaps a stem swap, shouldn't his rake/trail remain the same and provided he deals with axle/rotor spacing, be on the road?

I spent some time these last couple of days with Devin (CM). We discussed the different offsets on the triples a while. I wonder, with the larger USD forks, does even pushing them back to a "Stock" offset result in the same handling behavior? Does the "math" truly dominate the handling characteristics if you don't take into account the change in technology and standard/inverted forks?

I suspect the math does play an ENORMOUS part, but I also wonder the net result and whether it is truly 1=1 the same?

I just replied to Devin's post in his thread mate, I explained it there. You must always take wheel size into the equation when working out rake and trail as a smaller wheel regardless of offset will speed up steering, smaller diameter front wheel= quicker steering, its not quite as simple as using what suits other bikes , its a fine balance of rake, trail, offset and wheel diameter that makes it all work,  using smaller diameter wheels also reduces rake by lowering the front end, these things weren't taken into account when Devin made up his chart, that doesn't mean its not useful, but it isn't the full story, the sweet spot of handling is quite small and a lot more complicated than most think, racers like Mick Doohan and others say they can "feel" 1mm differences in offset   

[sethdhawkins]

Ah yes, modern frontend swaps; the new oil thread

I did some pretty bull#$%* rake and trail calculations on an online site earlier...I think there are too many variables. I'm gonna ride it regardless, and if Devin makes those adjustable trees, I may try those too.
I can say affirmatively, I wouldn't have anything to do with running a 19" wheel on this setup. Period. That's all I know, the rest y'all can speculate over it, or just try it yourself.

Have fun.

Seth