[CBR 46]

Now that it's supposed to be summer I put away the project for continuation next winter. It's taken almost 2 years to get to this stage but I got it running about 3 weeks ago so I'm happy with the progress.

Attached File(s)

•  project.jpg (130.21K)
  Number of downloads: 58

[Darkcloud]

Nice job Alfie .....you doing all the work yerself?

[marum customs]

Looks the dogs!!

[renegades]

Any more pics or a brief history,,,looking really nice

[CBR 46]

This was bought by one of my brothers around 1987. It's a 1995 RG400, only made for the Japanese market, so it's a grey import. It's a Walter Wolf model and was originally purple and gold. Around 1990 he went off a cliff in Donegal. The bike landed in a bush and he hit the ground very hard. About a year later the bike was rebuilt and resprayed in the Kevin Schwantz Lucky Strike colours. It was last ridden by me for about 6 months around 15 years ago.

What I can say about it is that it's only built for speed. It's totally impractical for anything else. The steering lock is so tight that the turning circle is about the size of Croke Park, so if you're in town and in traffic you can't weave in and out and end up overheating. 16" wheels, skinny tyres, single seat, head shakes and the power starting at around 8,500 rpm and it's absolutely brilliant fun.

I had LC's, he had this and that's what we grew up on. He ended up with an R1 and I had a Blade but we both agree that there's nothing as thrilling and satisfying as keeping a two-stroke on song.

I got it about 2 years ago for my young lad to work on for his transition year project. He gave up after about 5 minutes so I decided to press on with it.

Anyhow, to the practicals...My brother is a guntherer. It was held together with cable ties and chewing gum. His idea of disconnecting wiring was to cut the wires and twist them back together, the coils were given to a bloke for his jet-ski about 10 years ago but miraculously appeared in the back of a hiace that's rotting away in his back garden. A design fault on the RG's is that the bolts holding on the footrest dig into and wear holes in the swinging arm. The original had holes on both sides about 1" and 1.5" in length. Because of the positioning of the bodywork this is hard to see and it's not something you'd be looking for. Lots of little things were missing and Two-Strokey from the other side put me in touch with a guy who happened to be breaking one. He used most of the bits for a 500 he restored to showroom condition and I got some of the stuff I needed from him, including a swinging arm that showed evidence of the same wear problem, but nowhere near as much as mine. I replaced all bearings and seals, repaired wiring, rust treated the tank (thanks to Valkeire for his electrocution link), repainted wheels and black bits but will probably end up getting them powder coated. A bloke who has a fantastic RG570 (yes you read that right) that looks like something from a racetrack gave me a banana swing arm and I found a link to a german page that shows how to adapt it to fit. You have to cut the V's off the original and weld them onto the banana and make a couple of spacers.

I started it up about 3 weeks ago and got 4 pipes blowing blue smoke so happy days

I'll try and attach some pics so that you have an idea of what it was like when I got it.

Attached File(s)

•  060.JPG (55.43K)
  Number of downloads: 15

[junker87g]

CBR 46, on May 3 2010, 02:35 PM, said:

This was bought by one of my brothers around 1987. It's a 1995 RG400

Lovely bike, good luck with getting her finished when the time comes

This post has been edited by junker87g: 03 May 2010 - 01:43 PM

[skipper]

that's a nice project
keeping a 2 stoke suzuki on the road

[CBR 46]

CBR 46, on May 3 2010, 02:35 PM, said:

This was bought by one of my brothers around 1987. It's a 1995 RG400, only made for the Japanese market, so it's a grey import. It's a Walter Wolf model and was originally purple and gold. Around 1990 he went off a cliff in Donegal. The bike landed in a bush and he hit the ground very hard. About a year later the bike was rebuilt and resprayed in the Kevin Schwantz Lucky Strike colours. It was last ridden by me for about 6 months around 15 years ago.

What I can say about it is that it's only built for speed. It's totally impractical for anything else. The steering lock is so tight that the turning circle is about the size of Croke Park, so if you're in town and in traffic you can't weave in and out and end up overheating. 16" wheels, skinny tyres, single seat, head shakes and the power starting at around 8,500 rpm and it's absolutely brilliant fun.

I had LC's, he had this and that's what we grew up on. He ended up with an R1 and I had a Blade but we both agree that there's nothing as thrilling and satisfying as keeping a two-stroke on song.

I got it about 2 years ago for my young lad to work on for his transition year project. He gave up after about 5 minutes so I decided to press on with it.

Anyhow, to the practicals...My brother is a guntherer. It was held together with cable ties and chewing gum. His idea of disconnecting wiring was to cut the wires and twist them back together, the coils were given to a bloke for his jet-ski about 10 years ago but miraculously appeared in the back of a hiace that's rotting away in his back garden. A design fault on the RG's is that the bolts holding on the footrest dig into and wear holes in the swinging arm. The original had holes on both sides about 1" and 1.5" in length. Because of the positioning of the bodywork this is hard to see and it's not something you'd be looking for. Lots of little things were missing and Two-Strokey from the other side put me in touch with a guy who happened to be breaking one. He used most of the bits for a 500 he restored to showroom condition and I got some of the stuff I needed from him, including a swinging arm that showed evidence of the same wear problem, but nowhere near as much as mine. I replaced all bearings and seals, repaired wiring, rust treated the tank (thanks to Valkeire for his electrocution link), repainted wheels and black bits but will probably end up getting them powder coated. A bloke who has a fantastic RG570 (yes you read that right) that looks like something from a racetrack gave me a banana swing arm and I found a link to a german page that shows how to adapt it to fit. You have to cut the V's off the original and weld them onto the banana and make a couple of spacers.

I started it up about 3 weeks ago and got 4 pipes blowing blue smoke so happy days

I'll try and attach some pics so that you have an idea of what it was like when I got it.

Attached File(s)

•  061.JPG (77.08K)
  Number of downloads: 8
•  062.JPG (72.46K)
  Number of downloads: 8
•  063.JPG (75.83K)
  Number of downloads: 14