Suzuki 2 Strokes

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd put up a quick post to introduce myself before I start my epic project thread...

My name is Nick, I'm from sunny Queensland, Australia. Have had bikes on and off over a few years, but only as cheap transport really... Was never an enthusiast.

I did do a half-arsed rebuild on a GSX750E a few years ago, then sold it before riding it anywhere much:



Instead, I spent crazy money on cars, including my true love that was in the build for the best part of 10 years:



So after getting married, buying a house etc etc, I found (was told) that car builds are too expensive, time consuming and take up too much room. So I knocked together a pickup truck with the running gear and other leftovers from the Fairlane, under the excuse that it'll "help with the renovations" and called my car building career quits:



Which lasted about 6 months... Earlier this year, I decided I needed a project to help me wind down after work, and use up those pesky "savings" the wife keeps hassling me about.

I decided a bike would be the way to go - they don't take up much space, things can be done bit-by-bit without massive upfront costs like rebuilding a V8 or painting a car...

My first idea was a British single, to build a BSA Gold Star replica. After chasing a number of worn out, rusty, incomplete ebay bikes over my $2500 budget, I decided to wise up and get something Japanese.

My first thought was an old 4cyl Honda (400/4 or something), which are known to be cheap and reliable. However, because of this, everyone owns one. After exploring some radical (read: incredibly stupid) options like an early Bultaco Matador, a friend who is mad about old Suzuki's sent me a link to a pair of T500s on ebay locally.

One was hacked up and obviously missing bits, but the other looked relatively complete. So the plan was that I build a cafe racer out of the mostly complete one and my mate would build a flat tracker or something out of the basket case. So we did the deal.

Finally, the best part of a month after putting a deposit on them, we hired a trailer and went down to the Gold Coast to pick them up.

Couldn't believe my eyes - With the exception of a pair of badges and one mis-matched indicator stem, the bike is complete and in great nick. Kicks over fine on compression, tank's clean inside. Chrome is all excellent. Potential win. The seller was the nicest bloke I've ever met and we spent an hour or so chatting to him. He had bought the pair of bikes a number of years ago. My more complete one was not running when this bloke bought it, so he told us there was every chance it'd need a complete rebuild.

On the way home, a new plan formed - It was too nice and too stock to build a full on custom out of, so I'd clean it up, paint it a factory colour, add a couple of tasteful mods and ride it around. Talk then turned to whether it'd run or not.

Two new spark plugs, some fuel, some aerostart and way too many kicks later, it fired up, sounding great and smoking impressively. We thought it'd be rude to call the seller two hours after picking up a bargain non-runner and tell him it's doing 5,000rpm in the driveway.

Some pics of when I got it:





So, the plan is basically build up a nice, clean stocker with two main modifications - a fully-upholstered Matchless style cafe racer seat and a set of ace bars.

Colour will be the factory Candy Lavender and white.

More info in the build thread I'll start!

Thanks for reading

NH

brilliant ,love cafe racer style projects.
opps sorry .welcome to the board.
loads of top advice here.
looking forward to it.
cheers mark

welcome to da strokers mad house

Welcome, Nick, and good on yer for taking what I consider to be the "proper" approach to a bike like your "green machine". That way, none of your mods will be irreversible and you can put it back to stock quite easily. As a bonus, the "modified" bike will still attract a lot of attention at bike shows AND you can have fun riding it. Keep us all informed of your progress as you go along.
PS: great background story of married life and how you ended up here.

Not a Ford Fairlane!!!!

I left Australia to get away from them. OK so that's a touch of hyperbole, aka a big fat lie, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

When I worked for Ford, one 0f our crew had one as his lease car so we spent a lot of time commuting in that or others that replaced it. He loved the Fairlane. For some reason he figured it was more than a Falcon and not as fussy as an LTD. My favorite was a Fairmont Ghia ESP or whatever it was called with a 351 manual. The most Falcon based car you could get at the time.

Modern Falcons have been incredible cars but they are not long for this earth. With the world car approach I guess the Falcon will disappear soon. Like our old bikes. Gone but not forgotten.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with on the 500. The first TR500 I saw was Michael Pettifer's built I guess by Kiwi Bruce Woodley back when Post Classic Racing was emerging.

Thanks for the comments, guys! I do intend to do this build properly - There's no rush to get it on the road, so I'll just keep collecting bits and working on it piece by piece.

tz375 - The Fairlane was a thing of rare and ancient beauty, with the factory 351 and the 9" diff and the power windows and the velour... But yes - a product of its time and also totally useless for hauling around bike parts covered in two-stroke oil. You're right about Falcons - I drive a modern Commodore at work (Chevrolet equivalent four-door box of junk for those who aren't Australian), and I can't help but feel their time is up as well, unless they actually invest in making them reasonable quality...

Anyways, enough about cars! Haven't had a chance to write up the project thread, but the swingarm and the brand new shocks are on, the forks have been rebuilt, just waiting for seals for the tapered roller steering bearings to show up and the front end will be back on.

Then I need to teach myself to build wire wheels. Eek.