Moving swiftly on

With the frame now all but ready, a start has been made on the engine. It's been removed from the frame, stripped, completely degreased and this afternoon i removed all the crankcase studs ready to have the crankcases machined for the planned big block.
The standard Suzuki GSX barrels can only be bored (with the standard liners) to 1260cc - which the bike is already. To go any bigger really requires an aftermarket set of barrels, so that's the next step. And rather than a small increase I'm looking to go for a 1500cc set-up suited to nitrous.



There's the possibility that the 40mm Lectrons might be too small for 1500cc, but then again they were super rich for the 1260 motor so may be perfect for a bigger cc motor. The combustion chamber and exhaust ports are proof of just how rich it was running, everything was very oily black.

Interestingly, whilst examining gearbox parts in the hope of finding a reason for last years 5th gear problems, it turns out one of the shift fork shafts is a little bent as can be seen here.
Also the welding on the Pizza Cutter needs a little filing off as it's possible for it to foul the edge of the indented portion of the shift drum. I doubt it ever did but it needs sorting just in case.

The frame is going to a friend of mine for welding on Thursday. Mike Woods is a metal sculptor and runs Albion Ironwork in Lancaster. I've already apologised for the amount of work I'm asking him to do, there are somewhere in the region of 100 welds to do. Many of them need to be airtight too as air will be stored in the back half of the frame. In addition, some need to be fuel tight as the fuel tank is now in the frame as well. The only bits I've decided not to do just yet is the footpeg and rear brake master cylinder mounts. I thought it best to have the chassis built up with tyres on and off the jig so i can sit on it and find the best place for them that still allows clearance for the exhaust and brake lever.

And lastly, i pulled the forks apart a few days ago with the hope of shortening them as easily as i did the others. It's not going to be quite as easy but thanks to some advice off the oldskool Suzuki forum i at least have the easiest way sussed out. Unlike the last forks i won't be shortening the spring, instead the whole lot will be compressed in the hope of getting a decent amount of preload. Currently they are way too soft - as you would imagine off a 125.