The Royal Stewart of Orange, a Suzonda of distinction.

[artyone]

The story is in bit's and pieces here and there on these forums but I'm basically helping out this old chap who's on his last legs to get his collection out to good homes and follow those trails so he can allow what might be broken dreams some new life in the hands of younger dreamers.

 

The FA50 got picked up by Guy (that's his name) from the 'Tron on Saturday morning who also happened to sell on an old racing bicycle here at mine... and I held back the big smoke surcharge, and looking back I feel a little guilty at selling it for $200 as subsequent stuff went much cheaper for what it was... but I didn't know and the monies went to Stewart so I can live with it.

Next sale, at the swap meet, was the Mk2 Villiers to an Electrical engineer who has a big collection of stationary engines and had racing single cylinder Matchless (6k) on the back of his ute. He got it for $100.00.

 

Then towards the end of the day the Gasuden 50cc went to a chap selling parts of behalf of Doug who owns Deus Ex Machina. This little rarity got put in the ute for $250.00 with a little message form the Rodeo Clown about past arrangements (long story but it involves regular upholstery fabric on HarleyD seats... OMG!).

 

As the sun is setting I'm around at Stewarts and hand him 490.00 (as I bought some tobacco and paid for the swap meet and bought some very old bakelite electrical testing equipment somewhere else and then swapped it with the Mk2 villiers man for an almost complete magneto) and, bless his heart, Stewart flicks of a red Rutherford for my troubles... but no, I'm fine Stewart... packet of tobacco's more than enough.

 

Now I'm not tryin' to convince y'all what an absolute Angel I am, and incidentally did get a few laughs on the start of wings growin' to which Stewart countered he could almost see my halo glowin'!

 

What it's about is... shit, I don't really know, I'm just followin' my instincts and my intuition and I just love seeing the old chap glowin' with happiness. I did something kinda like this years ago when an sculptor of unrecognised brilliance was dying and I painted up one of those traffic light boxes, near where he lived, in his honour... at Royal Rd in Henderson.

 

I got paid for the work by the council but I had to kinda hassle this bloke for info on some of his works and get permission etc, but I got through it, did the painting work then was so embarrased about hassling the man in his time of dying that I took photos at the end, copied them and then just stuffed them in his mailbox.

 

The next day he rang me absolutely full of beans... and a few times after that and told me loads of stories and it really felt like what'd I'd done had given him a renewed sense that his life was worthwhile. I was really chuffed about that and realised it's good to help our old heroes!!! He died not long after that and by then I was with a gallery in Parnell and we found time to do a retrospective show in his honour... more stories!

 

Anyways, and if you've gotten this far I applaud you, I've still got two of Stewart's Suzuki K125's left and I'm thinking one will go as parts alongside an almost whole example on trademe (see trademe thread of FS/WTD page Pg13)

while I've an idea for the other I want to put forward to you chaps here.

This little sweety is without a motor and after looking a various options I'd like to put a CT90 motor in it and add the upswept, down the side, chrome and safety guarded exhaust and create a hybrid I rename the Suzonda!

 

But I've got no money!

 

I'd kinda keep it as straight as possible, as in ride heights, geometries, but do some rather crafty metal work on the frame whereby I'd cut holes into it and then weld in gussets and tubes to kinda strengthen it whilst also making it a little lighter. Say like cutting 30mm holes along the swingarms then welding in tube so you could see through!

 

And then making a seat, adding some choice hard to find automotive lights and blinkers and then do some very elegant painting to envisage a Royal Stewart of Orange, which is totally made up of course, but could be quite interesting.

 

Then sell it or auction it in some high fallutin' venue, reward the participants, works done and parts supplied but without a profit motive, then give the money to Stewart.

 

So the sideline is a co-operative effort which would highlight the on-going ideas of places like this and the type of work being done as artwork whilst also trying to honour all the Old Boys out there who've kept the old bits we thrive on.

 

Am I a complete nutter or does this sound like a good idea?

[artyone]

So I've figured some stuff out... chops.

Nuded it down to the stuff I'll keep and to get a good idea of the bones and whether the idea of chopping it will work.

The idea is to cut the chassis at front and back, see black lines, then weld in some gussets in a triangular shape. At the front this'll drop down the centre section and doing at the back will achieve the same thing whilst also raking the shocks a little forward as the cut point pivots them up and forward.

[artyone]

Went up to Japnut's and got me a lovely CT110 engine and it doesn't look like it'll take much work to graft it in.

So it'll be the Suzonda 117.5 triple stroke as that's the cc's between the original 2 stroke k125 and this CT110 4 stroke... maybe!

 

The other thing is, which may not be a good idea, is to put a tiny sprocket on the rear and drive it in Low then be able to kick it into High and do about 200mph... like it'd definitely have the torque to do that!