Cousins of Organization - A two-wheeled build

[Capt. Obvious]

Since I decided to sell the Passat and the Porsche is more or less "done", I needed a new toy/project to keep me entertained over the winter.

I grew up riding dirt bikes and I've always wanted a street bike, but I'd just never got around to actually buying one. Finally, this summer I decided it was time, so I started looking for a bike. At first, I started looking for a mid-80s bike like a Yamaha Seca/Maxim or something along those lines that I could get for really cheap and make a project out of. However, a buddy of mine had a bike in his garage that he'd had for quite a while but hadn't ridden in over two years that he was thinking of getting rid of. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I bought it.

The bike is a 1996 Suzuki Bandit 600S. It had 10k miles on it and overall was in really great condition. It's been down once before, but not while moving, so there is some random cosmetic damage here and there on the right side, but nothing major or worth worrying about.

The day I brought it home:



My biker bitch posing with it



First mod: taking the tank bra off.



Like I said before, the bike hadn't been ridden in at least two years, but it fired right up after replacing the battery. Besides the battery, all it needed was an oil change, spark plugs, fuel filter and new rear tire and it was ready to go.

A week or two after I bought the bike the starter switch starting acting weird and I had to push start the bike a couple times because it wouldn't turn over. So, I stripped the fairings off and found this rat nest:



I think I found the problem...



The bike looks WAY better with the fairings removed, so I left them off and ordered a standard 5 3/4" round headlight for a Harley and mounted that up.



I also cleaned up the rear of the bike because the factory undertray is ridiculously huge.

Before:



After:



Being an entry level bike, the suspension sucks and is super soft on these things, especially if you weigh close to 200 pounds like I do. So to solve that issue, I scored a rear shock from an '08 GSXR off Craigslist for only $35. As an added benefit, it raised the rear of the bike a bike which helped it turn better and made it more comfortable for me since I'm 6'4". While I was at it, I also flushed the fluid in the forks and replaced it with a higher viscosity oil to firm them up a bit (kind of a ghetto way to do it, but it worked for the time being).

[Capt. Obvious]

And that is more or less how the bike stayed for the rest of the summer while I rode the shit out of it and put over 2000 miles on it.

However, once it started to get cold and rainy in October the fun began.

The first thing I did was bring the bike and my tools into the basement so I had a warm, dry place to work. My wife was thrilled!



I've had zero intention of leaving this bike alone from the day I bought it and I plan to go more or less nuts on it over the winter.

The first part to get purchased: a seat from a 2011 Ducati Monster. The entire rear subframe will be getting chopped off and a new subframe fabbed up to accomodate this seat.



With the bike tucked away in the basement, I started stripping it down. Man, I LOVE working on bikes! In under two hours, using barely more than an allen wrench and 10mm socket, I had the bike pretty stripped down.





And a few hours later...



Where we're going, we don't need wiring harnesses.


(about half of that should be going away once I have my way with it)

[Capt. Obvious]

So just what the hell am I going to do with this thing?

Well, I'm not really aiming for any one style in particular with this project, but I'm hoping to incorporate several styles into it; most notably the cafe racer and street fighter looks, with a little bit of chopper thrown in. What I want to end up with is a bike that is pretty much stripped down to the basics, is light as reasonably possible, is sporty and quick, but is still comfortable/reliable enough to do all-day rides on.

Over the last few months I've collected a handful of pictures of bikes that I like a lot to give myself some inspiration for this project. Here are a few examples of bikes that I think are a good representation of where I hope to go with my bike:















General plans for the bike are:
- Ducati Monster tail swap
- Fork swap
- Swingarm swap
- New (bigger) brakes
- Everything painted/cleaned/detailed
- Simplified and tucked wire harness
- Digital gauges
- Other stuff as I think of it

[Capt. Obvious]

To get the party started, I scored myself a 2001 Triumph Speed Triple parts bike off Craigslist for the princely sum of only $300 (!). It was basically a giant pile of parts, but that's all I really needed anyway. Once I sorted out what I did and didn't want, I was able to sell what was left for $200, so I'm a bit ahead on the project now in terms of cost.

I ended up with a pretty impressive pile of parts (it was more or less a complete bike minus the frame, tank and plastics).

Items of note that will be making it onto my bike are the 320mm 4-piston Brembo front brakes with braided lines, some nice aftermarket adjustable clip-ons, full front suspension, wheels and the the complete single-sided swingarm.





However, after taking some quick initial measurements, it became apparent that the swingarm was not going to work out for me as it's about 1" wider at the spindle than the frame is on my bike.



After doing some more research, I discovered that a swingarm from a Honda Hawk NT650 would fit on my bike and the hub/brake/wheel from the Triumph would be a direct swap. I managed to find one of Ebay for pretty cheap, so I ordered that and got to work once it arrived.



After a few days of effort, I got the Triumph front end mounted, along with the Honda swingarm. The Ducati seat is just sitting on there for now to give you an idea of how it will look. When the bike is done, you won't see nearly as much subframe under the seat.



Now that the swingarm is mounted up I can turn my attention to the susension that attaches to it. One of the toughest parts of the swingarm swap was my decision to go with the Hawk SSSA. On most modern sport bikes, the rear shock utilizes a cantilever link between the shock and suspension to save space and allow the use of lower spring rates on the shocks. But as you can see in the picture above, the Hawk swingarm uses a non-link suspension, with the shock going straight from the swingarm to the frame. Right now, I just have my factory shock in there to hold the bike up when I'm rolling it around, but with the shock in a position like this, it can barely hold up the weight of the bike, yet alone handle me sitting on it (if I sit on the bike, it compresses to the bump stop).

So, I had to put on my suspension nerd hat on to figure out spring rate and shock length for the new suspension geometry. After many hours of researching, reading and scribbling, I think I have a solution figured out. I'm pretty sure I need a 1200ft/lb spring and the shock should be mounted at roughly 40 degrees to handle the weight of me and the bike. As luck would have it, it turns out the factory shock from the Speed Triple is the right length to fit where the new mount will be, has enough travel to match up with the geometry and should be able to handle a 1200# spring without blowing out. I won't know for sure if I'm right until I can get the shock mount welded up, but I'm pretty confident it will work and the bike will still handle good. Worst case scenario, I'll have to get a custom Penske/Ohlins shock or something.

[xAHx]

Nice...this is already headed in the right direction.

[CubbyChowder]

I know nothing about motorcycles, but I look forward to seeing what you do with this. I love the bike in the second picture you posted

[Raarasutra]

That is pretty cool dude, I'm going to watch this closely

[Rinku-Bitch]

Watching this, my best friend has this exact bike, only modded for a little more speed

[Nick475]

Very cool. In for updates

[Randomofodication]

Loving that more and more bikes are showing up on here. Looks like a lot of work

[Capt. Obvious]

Watching this, my best friend has this exact bike, only modded for a little more speed

They're fun bikes. Does your friend have a 600 like mine or the 1200cc model? For now, I'm okay with the power/speed of the 600 as I'm more of a cruiser type when it comes to bikes, but the bike is still powerful enough to put the front wheel in the air without much effort and it's faster than pretty much anything on the road besides other sport bikes.

I'll be doing a few power mods like jets and exhaust as part of this build, but without going for broke, I'm not going to get much more than ~100 horsepower out of the bike, which is is plenty enough for me since the bike will only weigh around 400 pounds when I'm done with it.

[FunfGang]

This will be great.

[Rinku-Bitch]

They're fun bikes. Does your friend have a 600 like mine or the 1200cc model? For now, I'm okay with the power/speed of the 600 as I'm more of a cruiser type when it comes to bikes, but the bike is still powerful enough to put the front wheel in the air without much effort and it's faster than pretty much anything on the road besides other sport bikes.

I'll be doing a few power mods like jets and exhaust as part of this build, but without going for broke, I'm not going to get much more than ~100 horsepower out of the bike, which is is plenty enough for me since the bike will only weigh around 400 pounds when I'm done with it.

He has the 600cc, it's the same color as yours too! But I imagine it puts out a tad more than 600ccs since it's bored out, jetted, and it has chopped off racing exhaust.
I rode on the back once.....

Never again.

[motocaddy]

This is awesome and looks to be progressing a lot! Great vision and execution on the upgrades so far.

Much rather see a full build on an entry-level bike like this than few bolt-ons with a new sport bike. This looks like something I'd really enjoy riding when done. Mellow power for normal speeds but potential to be a blast in the corners. What are future plans for fork upgrades?

[244Brick]

WOW



man you make me want a bike so bad now!