Picking a Model/Year/Engine for a project bike

[Guest]

As much fun as my 750 has been to get tuned (sarcasm) I'm actually playing with the idea of buying a bike just to chop up and make into something like a 'scrambler' or cafe-racer type thing. I picture it being a bike at a good price, maybe a little worse for wear. A bike that is probably got many more years on the motor yet because the body looks so terrible it appears to be worthless. Something no one is going to say, "Jeez, that was a nice bike, why'd ya ruin it?". I just want a bike that's all me that I don't have to feel guilty of ruining it's purity. lol

So I realize it's gonna end up being a matter of what's available when I have the money in my hand, but just for curiosities sake what your opinion on what I should shoot for? Is there a particular engine that is going to be easiest to make run cheaply. I'm thinking availability of parts and possibly opportunities to add performance. What's the most fun motor to own of all the years. I'd like to go big, but for a play bike sometimes reliability is better. Maybe I'd be better going for a later Katana setup?

I want this to be a project that is not limited by my wallet. I want a solid motor and a frame that might have the best chances of swapping newer sportbike parts onto but is made of steel that I can easily cut and weld. It's possible maybe the engine and frame don't match and I'll have to do a lot of fabbing.

Because that's really what I want to do. Take an old bike and change it radically into something new and cool. Doing it by reducing the bike only to it's necessary parts and then augmenting them. Nothing that someone else hasn't done a million times, but something I have yet to do. I think this would end up being a bike I would want to ride all the time and probably have more fun than on brand new bikes I have owned.

Let me know what you think

 

[gustovh]

I have a 83 550 Es that is scheduled to receive a 600 RR F4 engine, possibly the swing arm and forks. You might consider something like that.

V

 

[dorkburger]

Cafe and scrambler have been done to death which puts a crimp on your plan for something different. I?m not one to tell another how to build a bike, so do whatever makes you smile.

 

[Guest]

Well I’m not trying to fit in to any trends. Also don’t have any grand delusion that my bike will be anything remarkable. However, in my research of tuning GS carbs I found a young guy with a GS850 on youtube who built a pretty respectable bike outa just an ordinary GS. He cut everything off he didn’t like, hung a light 4-1, and gave it a handsome period paint job. It’s nothing to write home about but looks like a bike I’d have fun riding to work and around town without worrying about the things I worry about with my nicer bikes. A beater so to speak.

 

[dorkburger]

Understood.
If you're planning suspension mods and wheel swaps, the shaftie is very limiting.

 

[Guest]

Yeah definitely no shaft drive. That didn’t start until like 81 right?

 

[dorkburger]

Not sure of model year details, but all 850s were shaft drive.

 

[Steve]

The 850 was Suzuki's first shaft drive, it appeared as a '79 model. The 1000 joined in '80, then the 650 joined in '81.

Because there were so few of them, the GS450GA is often forgotten. That was the two-speed semi-automatic, and it also had a shaft.

.

 

[wymple]

Most guys will start with a Yamaha 650 twin. There is a heck of a lot of support on that, as well.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

There are many worn out v twins available, nobody GAF what you make with those.
Lot's of 600 street fighters for cheap. Love the 600s myself, hate to see them trashed.