Suzuki Demo Day Thoughts

Suzuki Demo Day Thoughts

Suzuki held a demo event of all their new models last weekend at Freedom 301. As a supporting Suzuki dealership, we went through on the Sunday, lovely sunny day with no wind. Gino rode his Honda VFR1200, oops, and I took my 1980 Suzuki GS1000S to show off, and it worked I got pride of place parking right next to the Suzuki stand while Gino had to park round the back.

As said Suzuki had all their new and not quite so new models which included the Hayabusa and the GSXR1000, really facelifts of the older models, and which I’d ridden them previously. What interested me was the new GSX-S1000, the GSX1000GT and the update Katana. So, after all the customers had finished their rides, we dealers had a go, and first up for me was the Katana.

First impression, really like the new satin dark blue and black, with gold/bronze wheels colour scheme, really don’t like the digital dash, most of it being too small for me to read without glasses and even worse totally invisible in bright sunlight. Riding position feels very Motard, you site on top of the bike and grab the quite close, wide handlebars, nice for town work not so good on the long open road. Motor, what a difference, all the previous low-down snatching has gone and its smooth all through the throttle range, very impressive, pity Suzuki couldn’t do that first time round. A great big-city bike and, providing you replace the ugly rear plate holder with a nice tail tidy, a very distinctive looking machine.

Next up the GSX-S1000, this really the same as the Katana apart from cosmetics, however, to ride feels completely different. First the looks, I like the twin stacked headlight and kicked up tail, very street fighter, some people don’t. Riding, you feel you are sitting in the bike as opposed to on top as the tank is much bigger than the Katana’s. The bars are the same as the Katana’s, I think, but you reach more up to them as the seat is lower putting you in a more upright stance, again which I liked. Same useless instruments but also same brilliant motor so that’s good, and, almost forgot, both bikes go around corners exceedingly well, way beyond my skill and bravery. Summary, again a city bike but this one feels you could take it on longer open road runs providing you don’t want to cruise at 160Kms+ all day, but then of course you wouldn’t, what with the 120Kms national speed limit.

Last the very new GXS1000GT, having read all the overseas magazine glowing reviews, I was greatly looking forward to riding this. First the instruments jump out at you, an almost tablet size screen that is big and easy to read plus it works in sunlight, amazing, and apart from not being analogue, full marks. Great looks, I am really liking the twin projector headlights and forward stance of the fairing. Riding I found the motor to be very responsive, even at small throttle opening, in fact a bit too responsive, then I realised the Suzuki Intelligent Ride System was set on Active, probable Basic or Comfort would have suited my riding style better, although being intelligent I would have thought it could have worked that out for itself, oh well not that intelligent then. The demo I rode had the high screen option and I found this caused quite a bit of buffeting at higher speed which was surprising, could be I just need the lower screen or a new helmet. All in all, and with the addition of the Suzuki panniers, a very capable and good value sports tourer. Gino was so impressed he’s talking about trading his VFR for one.

Right which one would I buy, well actually none of the three, they are all great motorcycles in different ways, but for me the jewel in Suzuki’s range is still the Hayabusa. In my eyes it’s looks are unique and super cool, apart perhaps from its new Kardashian rear end, it has a wonderful analogue dash, it’s comfortable to ride long distances, its planted and handles better than it should. Also, I love the way the speedo climbs faster than the tacho when accelerating in top gear, plus of course it’s got hyper drive.

Wednesday Workshop Special

Not quite the usual Wednesday Workshop Roundup today, but a special feature on the Honda CB750F Adrian’s been restoring for the last month or so.

It’s difficult to understand Honda’s product range thinking around the late 1970s as they had the CB750F DOHC, the CB900F DOHC and the CBX1000 in their sport bike line up, the 750 and the 900 being very similar. My take on it is that the CB750F and the CBX1000 were aimed at the American market and the CB900 at the European. Certainly the 900 was not initially available in the US and only customer pressure forced Honda to release it there, and while I remember lots of CB900Fs in the UK I don’t remember the CB750F being there. SA is a bit of a melting pot and just about every model of the Honda range of that period managed to find its way there, hence the proliferation of CB750, CB900, CB1100 and CBXs, seemly more so that the rest of the world.

This bike came to us as part of a job lot of classic Hondas we purchased about 18 months ago. It was in a dilapidated state, half disassembled, with what looked like many parts missing, the engine and other bits roughly sprayed black. Not good and we initially decided to use it as a parts donor. The redeeming parts were the tank and body work bits which had recently been nicely resprayed silver with blue decals, presumably the start of a previous owner’s restoration that never completed.

Adrian all fired up after finally completing his full nut and bolt restoration of a CB900F, after only 2 years! That’s actually not quite fair, the strip down, refurbish and rebuild took about 6 months, and some of that time was waiting for parts. Then it was discovered that during the vapour blasting cleaning of the motor, water and detergent had got in, so the motor had to be removed, again, then stripped and rebuilt and again so more waiting for parts from the UK.

So, as I said, fired up from the success of this CB900 project, plus getting both a CX500 and a CX500 Turbo up and running, he declared he was going to restore and rebuild this CB750. Great we said that should keep him busy for another 2 years. However, this time and unbeknown to us, he had a cunning plan, we also had a third CB750F at had already been stripped to component parts for spares and by using some of these parts he had most of the parts needed to complete a full bike. Plus, he seconded Robin to rebuild the motor right from the start. Major framework parts were quickly despatched to the powder coaters just around the corner, engine parts ordered from the UK and from Honda SA, and smaller parts sand blasted and sprayed in house. Big surprise was that Honda SA had piston rings and a few other parts in stock in J’Burg, they must have been sitting there for about 40 years, amazing, and even more amazing the parts were much cheaper than non-OEM parts from overseas.

In just over a week the powder coated parts were back, total cost R1800, not too bad, and the rebuilding commenced. Parts arrived from the UK and Robin build the motor putting in new piston rings, cam chain guides, cam chains, valves and refurbished cam shafts, the rest was in spec so reused. Carburettors cleaned, several times, and new jets, seals, floats, and needles fitted. More parts ordered from both the UK, David Silverman, and the Netherlands, CMS, unfortunately we can never seem to identify all parts needed one time at the outset of a project, which is a bit frustrating. Nevertheless, progress was made at an almost alarming rate, at the end of about three weeks the bike was basically complete, black plastics had been polished with boot polish, switch lettering repainted, instruments rebuilt, brakes refurbished, reflector boots resin cast, and electrics sorted. Wow, time to see if it will run, excited!

Well not quite yet, first the tank had to be acid cleaned and then epoxy coated internally, this is now standard practice for us as these old tanks may look fine but rust in the seams and other hidden places is a killer for the carbs. Not wanting to wait the 72 hours for the epoxy to dry, we set-up a small feeder tank and try starting, a few spins of the starter and the motor splutters into life, it runs. Well, sort of, after fitting the newly dried tank we discover one of the carbs is leaking, and then after that, its running very rich, carbs out again, adjust and now its running lean. Right now, as I write, Adrian and Robin are again removing the carbs for another look, but we have faith that all will be sorted soon. So not 2 years, not even 2 months this time, but about 4 to 5 weeks and around R10k spent on parts and outside work and we have a fully restored Honda CB750FA. Well done Adrian and Robin.

The picture of the finished bike shows it with a nasty black four into one exhaust, this is temporary while we wait for a second-hand original chrome four into two to arrive from the UK.

Yamaha XJR1200 Cafe Racer

Yamaha XJR1200 Café Racer

Way back when Café Racers were all the rage, as in 2013, I purchased this black Yamaha XJR1200 with the intention of turning it into a café racer, muscle bike style. It’s a 1995 model, just before the 1300 upgrade, and I think I paid around R30k for it. Rode it around a bit before starting any modifications to check all was ok and immediately noticed it would not pull above 180km/h, well not quite immediately as I had to first find a nice quite long road, otherwise it was a very sweet ride, lots of torque all through the rev range with very planted easy-going handling. The picture of it above the Hugosriver Bridge N1 just before the tunnel, shows it in its original form, just after, don’t quite remember, I found it wouldn’t go fast than 180.

So back home and the wonderful world web quickly disclosed it must be a grey import from Japan land and hence restricted to 180, ah thought so, even an older air cooled 1200 should be somewhat quicker than that. A further rummage on the web revealed a small red electronic device at when wired into the speedo removed the 180 restriction, made in Japan of course, so this was immediately ordered. As an aside, apparently in Japan all vehicles are limited to 180km/h, given that the national speed limit is 100km/h, don’t understand how the Japanese bureaucrats came up with that restriction speed, seems a bit pointless, but then again that’s bureaucrats for you, pointless.

Anyway, while on an internet buying spree, clip-ons, bar-end mirrors and various other bits and pieces were also ordered from various suppliers around the world, and the wait for exciting parcel deliveries began, remember, the Post Office still worked in those long-lost days.

Some week later parcels did duly arrive, but as with many a project stalled awaiting parts, my enthusiasm had turned to some else and it was many months until I returned to the Yamaha Café Racer. Finial found some time and motivation to remove the handlebars and then play around trying to fit the clip-ons, turned out not so simple, with the clip-ons fitted below the top yoke the switch units hit the tank, why is it on these Customising TV shows everything seems so easy. The solution was to push the fork tubes up through the yoke and fit the clip-ons on the top of the yoke, obviously changing the geometry of the bike, but it worked, the handling did not seem to suffer, and with the fitting of the speed de-restrictor and other trinkets I had my Café Racer, sort of.

It went ok but it seemed rather dull and non-descript, when it sat in the showroom nobody noticed it, we began referring to it as the black hole. It needed colour, Kenny Roberts Yamaha type colour, so off it went to the spray painters and back it came in glorious yellow, and white with black speed blocks. Wow, now everyone noticed it, and everyone wanted to buy it, but by now I had already invested quite a lot of money and wanted to go even further and make it distinctly special.

The standard double seat looked too big and stuck out the back, I wanted a short single seat but with the standard duck tail design so as the rear wheel would extend further than the seat. So off it went to Retro Prestige and into the hands of David and his then customising team. They took a mould of the original seat unit, then cut it down and created a single seat unit cunningly incorporating the original locking mechanism, and with this again sprayed in Kenny colours, a new single leather seat was fabricated to fit. In addition, the rather chunky rear footrest hangers were removed and replaced with CNC cut custom exhaust brackets, and the rear shocks lowered in line with the lowered forks, and the centre stand removed to aid ground clearance.

All this work was completed over several years but finally I had a muscle café racer, ironically just in time for the end of the café racer phase. The bike is now used and maintain by Gino and normally lives in our service reception. As point to note for anybody thinking about trying a similar customisation, the final cost of the customisation work was twice the price of the original bike. Makes you think, does it not. ~Bob