Suzuki 2 Strokes

finally [nearly] finished the reed valve conversion for a normal t/gt250. can't try it yet, even though it's now in a frame and all piped up with fuel and oil. haven't got a throttle cable, so i've got to wait for that, and the supplier sent me the wrong battery, so i'm waiting on that as well. barrels milled out to an oval, and i built the rest myself, all the plates and everything. a 'mate' welded them for me, then relieved me of £70 rd350 reeds in atm. will try them first and have a mess about with the carbs until it's something like, then eventually [hopefully] road test it. this is the engine sat on its perch before i slotted it into a gt250a frame. boost bottle not fitted there due to breaking it. i made my own out of 28mm and 16mm copper pipe, soldered together. unfortunately i was a bit heavy handed and snapped one of the 'legs' off when i was fitting it
cheers, dd.
p.s. yes, that is an hydraulic clutch

gt250 reed valve engine:


oops, fogot to post the other side:

Interesting upgrades. Looking forward to see how they work out.

finally ran properly for the first time this morning i had to build 2 slopes for the inside of the box section [at the bottom], which i made out of square section aluminium and involved a lot of filing. where they sit was originally filling up with fuel, so these are acting as a kind of stuffer, as well as directing the fuel up to the intake manifold. should really have done it in the first place, but i got over excited. no exhaust on atm, due to a complete lack of room to fit them, but hopefully i can take one of the other bikes out of the shed and make myself some room. engine just sitting in a frame, wired up and temporary fuel tank on. but it runs, so that's the hard bit done
cheers, dd.

slope number 2:


very smoky, untidy shed after she ran this morning:

after several weeks of bad luck, including locking the engine up and it stopping dead, from about 3000 revs to 0 in a millisecond, i'm finally up and running again. this time properly.
[a], the tab on the tab washer on the crank nut broke off and the cranknut undid itself until it reached the clutch basket, then it stopped dead.
, sorted that out and unfortunately i could never get it to run quite right after that. whether it twisted the crank slightly, i haven't checked yet.
[c], rebuilt another bottom end. different crank, new seals. it would only run on the right pot. it would not run on the left. changed the reeds over left to right, no difference. rebuilt another left carb, no difference. tried new b6, b7, b8 plugs, ditto.
[d], rebuilt another bottom end, different crank, this time with 16mm gudge pin little ends [more on that later], changed all the reed valve gaskets, and smeared them with 3 bond. stripped the carbs again and rebuilt them. new piston rings, no difference.
[e], by now getting mightily miffed, so treated myself to a pair of microns and fitted them. no difference. then i happened to notice a piece of insulation missing off the electronic ignition pick-up. the ignition timing must have been all over the place. bought a new pick-up and fitted that, timed it up to the standard marks on the rotor, and away she went - both cylinders.
[f], with the rotor on, the missing piece couldn't be seen [well apart from the fact it wasn't there], and believe you me, there's a hundred other things i've missed out of this post with other things i tried. otherwise it would have been about 6 pages long.
[g], with standard gt250 carb settings, standard jets, etc, which i will change in due course, flick the choke on, kick her over, switch ignition on, kick her over again and away she goes, every time. now she's starting and running ok like my gt250's do, i'm buying a set of rd250 piston kits for her. the windowed ones - which is why i went to 16mm gudge pins. then i can start setting the carbs up properly
cheers, dd.

sorry no updates for a while, but really busy tbh. anyway, this is how my monoshock reed valve ramair gt250 sits as of today. several bits off for powdercoating and fuel tank/sidepanels getting ready for paint. if i get chance later i'll post some inbetween photo's of all the work i've done on her
cheers, dd.

reedy gt250:

Saw it in the 'flesh' yesterday and it just shows what sort of thing can be achieved in a shed - as with your other projects, of course.

thanks alan, one tries one's best you really don't want to know what garry double r has just offered me for a project, you really don't. anyway, here's a few more piccies of the reed valve build
cheers, dd.

reedy1:


reedy2:


reedy3:


reedy4:


reedy5:


reedy6:

Seen it. Gawd knows where you'll put it or what Deb will say.....

That looks huge fun..

I've no doubt missed earlier postings..

Did you make the grab rail - looks good . and what about the swinging arm - where's it from??

hi dax, sorry for the late reply, but i keep forgetting about this post grabrail is off either a 750 or 550 gt, suitably bent, rebent, rerebent and modified to fit the 250, couple of extra brackets welded on and powdercoated chrome the same as the wheels. looks far better out in the sun. the shade in the shed makes the colour look like silver. rear light now gone and a proper gt dogbone rear lamp fitted. swingarm is off a yzfr-125 yam, as is the rear wheel, hugger and shock. front end is gt250 - mostly - with suzuki gs450 wheel. front mudguard was just bought as a bare 'blade', so i added some gt stays and brackets to it, drilled all the holes in the right place and fitted. best of it is it's stainless. just needs the hole for the speedo cable guide drilling and it's done. very enjoyable build, just wish i could stop changing things
cheers, dd.

how she looks atm, BUT, i decided now it was running right i'd try some dual stage reeds just to see what difference they made. unfortunately they aren't here yet so all the reed bit is stripped down. while i was at it i also ordered a set of v-force reeds and i'll have a play with them when they get here. i'm pretty pleased with how she's turned out - just need to road test it now
cheers, dd.

reed valve gt250 monoshock:

Nice work dd