Just bought a 1969 t500 project bike

[1969suzi500]

Here i a pic of the bike when i bought it.

[1969suzi500]

And here is my inspiration.

[titan performance]

Ok...we get the idea now....as Pedro said, some numty has put extended forks in it. The bottom halves look stock though. Dump the comedy forks and seat, and you have the basis of a good bike there.
These old strokers don't have massively high compression, but you would certainly know that you are turning an engine over....it does have plugs in?
The kick start operation sounds suspect from your description, so perhaps the mechanism is broken, and is not turning the motor? What about selecting a gear and trying to bump start it...
......does that feel any better?

Ps. your pictures are good, but huuuuuuuge !

[1969suzi500]

Yeah i figured out what size the pictures needed to be on the last 4. To answer your questions the engine does turn over i can hear it and actually see it through the exhaust port, and the spark plugs are in but i havent actually tried to turn it on because one of the carburators mounting flanges is ripped off. That is going to be my next buy. Plus everything on the bike is stuck, brake lines clutch lines, pedals... I got some work to do! BTW can i sell parts on here? Do i need to make a different post?

[titan performance]

There is a for sale category, go there and advertise what you have,

[Frank T]

Below is a pic of my '69 T500. The front end is off a GT500.

[1969suzi500]

Frank thats a beautiful machine you got there. I like the idea of at least the front being disk but i'm not sure if my wallet agrees with me. How much do you think i can find a gt front end for?
Pedro, what your saying is right up my alley! I suppose that everything else except for the longer forks is from the original bike right? which is why this would work??

[titan performance]

Frank....that's a beauty !

[Coyote]

Not saying this is so, but it's possible that somebody replaced the stock pistons and rings with Wiseco pistons with dykes style rings. They were the hot ticket in the day. Dykes rings have very little compression till the bike fires.

[1969suzi500]

Coyote, thanks for the heads up.. i"ll have to open her up and find out. A little update of the work i was doing on it last night. I'm taking Pedros advice and cutting the forks myself. Here are some pictures. I am also including a picture of the front drum. It seems to me to be in good shape. What do you guys think?

[titan performance]

Steve, your brake hub looks all good. But to be honest, if there is a problem, it is more often than not in the hub. They have been known to wear off centre, which gives a horrible jerky action when the brake is applied. You may not be able to detect the fault until you ride the bike down the road. Hopefully yours will be fine, but if not, the machine shops we have approached, need the hub stripped from the wheel in order to true it.
Fingers crossed yours is ok !

[1969suzi500]

Titan thanks for the heads up. I want to restore the wheels completely, maybe now is the time to get it machined and take care of all of that. Yes its an a65... Thats my brothers. its actually been hardtailed. He bought it that way.

[1969suzi500]

I remembered a few more questions. 1. What do you guys recomend for rust removal? for the tanks and miscellaneous parts? 2.
Does anyone have an extra bolt (the one that goes at the top of the forks) that they want to sell? 3. how do i know on this particular bike when i need to get new seals on the forks?

[1969suzi500]

Check out this article i found in "the horse" magazine

[1969suzi500]

I bet you thought I forgot about the project, well no. I just ran out of money and time, but I'm back at it. I've come across new problems (expected from a bike that had been standing for over 20 years). One of the forks was completely rusted inside. So that means I need new forks, but my attention has shifted to getting the bike running.I cleaned out both tanks with muriatic acid and unfortunately the oil tank had to much rust to salvage. As I was figuring out what tank to buy or make, it dawned on me that I could make it per mix and save some weight that way. The only problem is that I don't know exactly what I have to do to the crankcase to do so. The article on ozebook.com doesn't go into details on how to do it and I can't find much else online so I was hoping someone can give me an idea of how to do this and if it is even recommended.

Thanks and greetings from sunny California!