Ugly.....Ugly.....Ugly........

[Bloop2]

I picked up this lovely cafe racer on the weekend, hiding underneath all those fancy accessories is a 68 T500 Cobra. The Cobra has nice front and rear fenders, very little rust on the frame, original carbs and engine turns over. Has matching engine and frame numbers. This bike may be sacrificed to help me restore my other Cobra as most of the parts on here are in better shape than what I have now. There is a nice set of rear sets made by John Tickle Racing ( I believe he's from the UK according to the address on the sticker, anyone ever heard of him?). The massive gas tank is made from aluminum, dent free, just needs a good polish, does anyone recognize the tank?
The exhaust pipes are in nice shape, some surface rust but no dents, not sure whether they are expansion chambers or just a nice set of pipes. Really nice quality pipes, specifically made for the T500, I have never seen a set of pipes like this on a T500, does anyone recognize the pipes???

Along with the air horns, there are a massive set of Halogen headlights on the front of the fairing, and a set of Craven bags. I have no idea how anyone could have ever ridden this, I can barely reach the clip on handle bars.

Any help in identifying the tank or the pipes would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers......Fred

[Coyote]

What was in the pipe when to PO had that pipe dream?. Can't help with ID of anything, but I have to agree with you. It's certainly is ugly

[tz375]

It probably made sense at the time.

Endurance race bikes used twin Cibie light on a road race fairing, and that's the look this guy was going for. High speed long distance touring bike - sport touring as they say now. Back in the day the term and idea were unheard of.

Fairing is a copy of a TD1C that we all used on our race bikes.

Air horns were standard upgrade for fast riding.

Rear sets by John Tickle RE (race equipment) were expensive but good quality back in the day.

Tank has the look of a Seeley and would be interesting to find out the story there.

Seat is a TD2/TD3 replica and looks like a Brealey Smith unit I had many years ago.

Panniers (hard bags) were all that was available back in the day. I used a bag that I strapped to the tank to keep weight forwards but that was before someone invented tank bags.

The overall package could use some help, but it has all the elements one might expect on a bike that the rider expected to cover lots of miles at speed on. With a little imagination and attention to detail it could have been a lot better looking, but that's looking at it with today's eyes. At teh time it probably looked very impressive.

It would be interesting to know the story behind it.

[titan performance]

Ugly or not, I would like to own it.....I'm guessing the pipes are home brew, and the tank is a Seeley (6 gallon). I have one the same on one of my 500's....How much do you want for the tank? Or do you plan to use it?

Check out the picture of me building my 500 sports bike on the home page of our web site. Seat looks about the same too.
http://www.classic2strokesuzuki.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bloop2]

Titan.....thanks very much for all the info. I don't have a lot of info on the history of the bike, got it from a person who purchased 5 bikes from an estate sale and is flipping them. Owner is long gone but apparently it sat in his living room for 25+ years.

Re the rear sets, have found a ton of info on John Tickle and his ownership of the Manx name, along with all the things he made for racing.

The exhaust pipes may have been home brewed, but whoever made them sure did a professional job. These I'm keeping for a later project.

The gas tank looks identical to the one on your bike, filler cap and petcock's in the same place. Not sure what I'm going to do with the tank. Right now it's half full of old sludgy gas. The tank would be too long for any kind of half decent seating position for me as I have fairly short arms. If I decide to sell it, you'll have first crack at it.

[Bloop2]

Titan......just looking at your gas tank again, it doesn't have the notched part on the bottom rear of the tank like mine does.

[titan performance]

Thanks Bloop......Tickle was a big name back in the day, as was Seeley of course. When I bought my tank, it had the cut out at the rear like yours, but my pal fibre glassed a chunk of timber in and filled over it. That picture was taken in 1979, and although the bike isn't red any more, and the seat has changed, it still has that tank fitted, as you can see in my avitar picture.

[Craig380]

Wow, they sure don't make them like that anymore. In the mid / late 70s, that was a very popular look in the UK. Used to see many Triumph and BSA twins dressed like that, and Yam RD250s too. A former girlfriend's older brother had a disc-valve Kawa 250 twin in a very similar style, that had the LOUDEST intake roar I've ever heard as he'd removed the airbox

[T350guy]

Take off the red horns and rear bags would make a big difference..I actually like the bike.
Ian

[bill in okc]

Wow, they sure don't make them like that anymore. In the mid / late 70s, that was a very popular look in the UK. Used to see many Triumph and BSA twins dressed like that, and Yam RD250s too. A former girlfriend's older brother had a disc-valve Kawa 250 twin in a very similar style, that had the LOUDEST intake roar I've ever heard as he'd removed the airbox

I like it- an authentic period time capsule. Nice find. +1 on removing the bags, maybe horns and some TLC.

[oldjapanesebikes]

That's a nice find Fred I was wondering about the history of the bike and if the 'Cornwell' on the bag meant anything ?

[kettle kid]

Let's try to remember how it should look... No...... Here you go....found this..

http://youtu.be/beOYDBKEXDM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Alan H]

Not my particular style, but looks quite good actually.
I always did like the 500 Suzy.
The fairing is angled slightly top back so may not be the correct one for the bike, but it doesn't look to need too much work at all to make a medium fast solo tourer.
I wonder how standard the engine is?
Might be worthwhile finding out who the earlier owner was and googling him to find out what he did as a hobby.
I've actually fitted similar air horns on my 550.
They wake sleepy car/van/truck drivers up and help keep me safe - they were a 'period' accessory too and I had some on my 550J back in '72.

[Bloop2]

Don't have a lot info on the history of the bike, previous owner has passed on. Most of the accessories are from a UK origin.

The bags are off and so are the horns, it actually looks a lot better. The horns still work and sound absolutely fabulous. As with most bikes of this vintage, the closer you look, the more things you find wrong with it. The fairing has a lot cracks on the wind screen, almost every mounting screw has cracked the shield. Most of the mounting hardware for the bags, seat, and fairing look like they were fabricated with a chain saw, fairly crude in workmanship.

There is a lot of dent free, scratch free, rust free parts on this bike which will be swapped out to the other Cobra I'm currently restoring, hate to do it, but sometimes it takes two bikes to make one have decent one. I love the chambers/pipes, nice shape to them and will be used in another project.

Currently cleaning the carbs and trying to find an ignition key or ignition so that I can start up the bike, would be interesting to see how it runs. Obvious signs that the cases have been split and true mileage unknown as the speedo is not original. Engine turns over with good compression, always like to know what else is inside, no clue on what the tranny is like.

Riding position is impossible for me, arms to short, can barely reach the bars and for some reason, my abdominal muscles will not fit over the gas tank.

So, I guess I have already talked myself into making this a donor bike for my other project, the leftovers will have potential for another project later on.

Fred

[Lorenzo]

I think it's ugly in a way difficult to achieve, if you where to do it on purpose, thus making it almost a classic.

Looks like it has been (or has) inspired by the Goose's bike....




I personally like it, but I am a big fan of the "road warrior"

So why not keeping it? With a bit of TLC, a nice paintwork, a set of Tommaselli for the ergonomics, you might end up a with stunner....