64Valiants 1985 Gsx1100

[64valiant]

Hello.

This thread is about my dads Gsx1100. It was purchased new by my dad back on the 9/08/1985 after his friend Steve went out and bought a Suzuki katana 750 that was now faster than my dads bike of the time.

It was the bike that my mum 1st meet my dad on after been asked to ride pillion on dads bike instead of his mate steves katana. To which previously my mum thought it was a big bike for a girl to be riding (dad had a huge plat). Turns out dad went fast with or with out a pillion and Steve didn't want to do that haha.

as the love story goes, mum ended up with dad. they had me and the motorcycle was apart of my life growing up.

me as a baby

 

me growing up
 

me having it as a birthday cake
 

toy runs
 

 

and so on. this image is at our house i bought off mum earlier in the year 
 

 

At this stage you can see why i might like motorcycles as an adult.

as most of you know my dad passed away from cancer when i was 15, the day of his funeral i got to ride pillion on his bike and remember reaching 180kph+ 

it was also the last day i saw dads bike for many years, mum didn't want it around the house and she had lent to to peter who dad use to race with and was a really good family friend who also had the same bike as dad.

over the years i had pested mum to allow me to have the bike and to which she said no. in fact one year i said if you dont allow me to have it i will go out and buy my own. she laughed, said i wouldn't. turned up home one 2005 gsx600 anniversary edition bike two days late. who's laughing now huh! she wasn't very impressed.

years went on and i think she gave it to me for my 30th birthday but i wasn't allowed it at mums home as she didn't want to see it still which is fair enough. 

i ended up picking it up in February 2021 as i now had my own shed. i didn't know what to do with it, didn't have the money to spend on it and maybe wasn't also ready to ride it. so it just sat for a few more years. got a cool photo of myself and my daughter on the bike copying a photo i had of myself and dad.

It continued to sit in my shed and when i moved back home i left it at @flyingbricks house up until recently.

I have been spending a bunch more time with like minded bike people and had done cold kiwi 1st weekend of September which dad did meany of times.

this sparked my interests in getting the bike going and on Friday i bought a new battery and 10L of gas, headed out to @flyingbricks house and we attempted to get it going.
 

new battery
 

turned it over a few times to get the oil moving around with out the tank on. 

then gave the tank a flush out with some fuel
 

chucked the tank back on and put it back together including putting some fuel back into it.
 

then realized we had no fuel coming through to the carbs. quickly unscrewed the bolts on the bottom of the bowels and got some fuel to them and gave it a kick in the guts.

1 hour and 15 minutes later and it was going.
 

the next day @flyingbrick picked me up and we got some new fuel line on the way out and replaced that as the old stuff was a bit brittle, took my gear and rode it home.

 

Gave it an oil change to make sure it had correct amount of oil in it and who knows how long that oils been in there.
 

a huge win that we made it home.

there are a few things that need to be addressed and the list has begun.

but id like to put newer forks on the front with a wider rim, try get a wider rim and tire on the rear with out having to change swing arms and i will probably remove the front fearing and run with it as a naked bike. you might ask why naked and no front fearing. 

well i would idealy like a gsx1400 which looks like this
 

and this is the gsx1100 with out the front fearings on it
 

same same but different.

I've gone down the rabbit hole pretty fast, which i'm happy about as if i don't i will probably loose interest in this bike and not ride it as much as i should.

and here is a bike I've found that has a bit of both going on for some inspiration.

 

 

 

talk among yourselves and enjoy watching me go down a rabbit hole as i leave you with dad doing a skid
 

 

[flyingbrick]

Umn, I'm a sicko but love the look of this with just the top fairing.

Maybe a good compromise between full fairing and full naked?

Also, this thing sounds fucking awesome. Video does not so it justice.

[MACKAZ]

Good stuff Greg. I like it

[64valiant]

5 hours ago, MACKAZ said:

Good stuff Greg. I like it

Cheers dude.

 

I should really just get some tires, rebuild the carbs and go over the brakes and just ride it for a bit.

 

Ive got a bit of a pay day coming up and it's easier to spend money on a bike that I've already got to get it going than buy another complete bike.

 

Be nice to ride it this summer if we have one.

[GregT]

I'd just put later 17's on it. It should be possible to get a 4.5in rear on without much trouble, a 5.5 is a bit of a squeeze. The 1135 donk is the king of the early GSX's, stock they are very quick. Judging by the pipe, pods and APE sticker your dad has already had a go at it. Any memory or record of what he'd done to it ?

Over the years I've built a few of those engines for road and track. Just ask if you need to know anything.

[datlow]

190mm tyre would look gooood on it... 

 

 

[Toucan]

Great history A+

I love the fairing

[Goat]

This is so fucking rad Greg! So awesome its been in the family for so long. Cool that you can keep the story going!

Looking forward to updates

[GregT]

Don't want to rain on anyone's parade - but an original or close to original one is highly collectible. Please don't do anything irreversible.

Story for context. My old business partner raced big Suzukis back in the day. The year that the NZGP was held on the Sydenham street circuit he was running the same model as you have in F1 and senior Production. On the second row for the F1 GP, got a good start - 3rd into turn 1 (as verified by the photo he had on his wall)  Then the gear linkage fell apart leaving him in 2nd gear. Rest of the race in 2nd gear and still finished fourth. 

[Bistro]

This is great, nice work mate! 

[Kimjon]

Fuck yeah!

[xsinclairx]

Yeah agree with everyone else. This is sick! 
Headlight and no fairing looks mint!

[2052NV]

cool story bro! like actually

[jakesae101]

Awesome story, I have my step dads last bike before he passed away a few years ago he got me into riding as a teen ( also much to my mums dislike) and although nothing special model wise nor my regular kinda bike it holds a special spot.

[64valiant]

On 12/09/2023 at 06:56, GregT said:

I'd just put later 17's on it. It should be possible to get a 4.5in rear on without much trouble, a 5.5 is a bit of a squeeze. The 1135 donk is the king of the early GSX's, stock they are very quick. Judging by the pipe, pods and APE sticker your dad has already had a go at it. Any memory or record of what he'd done to it ?

Over the years I've built a few of those engines for road and track. Just ask if you need to know anything.

Yeah as i was doing this post originally i was reading a Suzuki forum about what people do with putting a fatter tire on the rear. there seems to be a really good option that works out perfectly from what i could find.
 

Easiest way is a 600 bandit rear wheel, gs500 twin sprocket carrier, 530 chain conversion, GS500 rear caliper and hanger so you can use the OEM torque arm.

Running all makes of 150/70 rear tyre you will have no issues , some manufacturers 160/60 will also fit

 

you can squeeze a B6 front wheel in between the forks with just enough clearance with the B6 disc's, spindle sizes are different though. then you'll have to make a caliper mount bracket for what ever calipers you use.  B6 speedo drive might be too wide so will need machining down a few mm


so ill see what kinda parts i can find easily and i might go down this option as of now and see how i like it and if it works and go from there. trade me seems to have plenty of wrecked bikes of the parts i would need so should be easy enough to do.

[GregT]

FYI  I took 15mm off the width of a GS1000 speedo drive for a road bike change to modern rims. You'd be surprised what can be done.

Any info turned up about dad's engine mods ?

[xsinclairx]

Basically described what I’ve done with my katana. 160/60 on the back is pretty toight. 

[64valiant]

Have been doing some more reading on a air-cooled suzuki forum and came across this bike.

 

 

Pretty clean exam with newer forks on the front and a different rear swing arm in the rear.

 

Definitely like how it looks.

 

Bought a 2023 GSX-S1000 rear shock for 143 shipped. Same eye to eye length and the bike is only around 20kgs lighter than mine. should be a good replacement for the price.

 

It currently has a weird air shock of some sorts in it and that's completely clapped out and even with 90psi it's still bottomed out.

 

Even if this one's not the best it will be a good option and something I can base things off and should be good to role around on as well.

[GregT]

Air shock is probably a Fournales. Very active agent in Aussie back in the day - and not a lot of alternatives.

[64valiant]

Hey.

 

While i was in Japan i visited a few up garages and a couple of them had motorcycle section in them. I came home with some 04/05 Gsxr750 wheels. I grabbed these with out thinking as they were roughly $120 Nzd with the rotors and sprockets on them. I had been eyeing up some in nz and saw the basic wheel alone with nothing where asking anywhere from $150-$250 pending the condition.

the front
 

and the rear
 

pretty happy with these.

slight issue was getting them home for free. not the exact end of the world as so far my luggage was all carry on. but i had a weight limit to be under.

following images are how i saved on some weight.
 

 

thankfully @Kelvin had a knife on him and i was able to cut the tire off. wasn't going to try and get the tire removed the day before we flew out.

had to cut it into 4 peaces and chuck the tire in the bin at a pa.
 

I picked up this muffler and one of the other lads chucked it in there checked in luggage 
 

 

I think this was $25,000 yen and worked out to be around $280 nzd at the time, It is a WYVERN Sten muffler. Think it was for a Kawasaki of some sort if i remember correctly.

got back to nz and just continued on the trade me hunt. Just to see whats available and if anything new pops up that i haven't seen. Came across some upside down forks out of a 1996 zxr750. They were 30mm shorter than the gsx ones and at an alright price. Hit up @Snoozin as they were local to him to see if he would mind picking them up on behalf of me and placed a bid on them. it was only a few weeks later they arrived at my home while richie was passing by.
 

 @Kimjon had suggested we make some things happen at his house as hes got allll the tools in the world.

so i continued scrolling trade me for further parts. Had a wrecker locally that had a few zxr750s and 900s listed on trade me. Flicked him a call and got myself some zxr750 triple clamps and an axle to suit.
 

Kim made a trip into town one day and picked up the bike for me and we made a start on disassembling it.