It's been a long time with no update. I've been doing a lot of waiting for parts lately but a biggie arrived today. Sean @ Roc City Cafe banged out a new tank for me. It took a bit of time, but I couldn't be happier with the result and I think it's really going to "make" the bike. Now that I have the tank, I can finish the frame mods and turn the corner toward reassembly.
I sent Sean my stock tank for reference along with some pictures/dimensions of the frame. He did a wonderful job of making the new tank to fit. Given that he didn't have a T500 frame to work off of, I fully expected to do some fitting to make the tank work but it dropped right on to the stock mounts. All I have to do is fabricate a rear mount on the frame (the new tank is longer than the original) and it'll be all set.
Zunspec4 wrote:wow, nice piece of work wingspan. Are you going to do any frame bracing mods?
Cheers Zunspec
All the credit for the tank goes to Sean at Roc City!
I don't foresee myself ever riding this bike hard enough to need any bracing. It's a street bike and will never see the track or any hard riding. I know bracing the frame is the racy thing to do though. Right now I'd say bracing the frame is a "maybe" but not high on my list of priorities. I need to do a bit of mock up and see if the braces would impact other aspects of the bike, such as the stock oil tank (which I intend to keep).
Oh my, that's a beautiful piece of work. Almost Honda CR750 shape and even the breather tower is like the big Honda. Very nice.
Frame braces will help make the bike feel more rigid and less like a soft jelly and they will also look cool too. That frame to my eyes at least, just looks "right" with a pair of bracing tubes in place. Unless they are done very badly and pull teh frame out of square, they can't hurt and sure can contribute to chassis stiffness.
tz375 wrote:Oh my, that's a beautiful piece of work. Almost Honda CR750 shape and even the breather tower...
It is indeed based on one of his Honda CR tanks. Judging from the pics on his site, the front was altered to more closely match the stock tank's shape for bar clearance and to work with the T500's tunnel. I also asked him to make the rear of the tank wider to match the tail I plan to use. I can only guess how much these changes altered the overall shape of the tank but to my eye it looks bigger and more "muscular" than the tank shown on his web site. Whatever he did, it works for me and exceeds my expectations.
diamondj wrote:WOW! Sean does nice work. Do you mind if I ask what that set you back?
Jim
I don't have the breakdown of the costs in front of me (I'm at work), but the total for the tank, monza style gas cap (an option, 1/4 turn style is standard), and shipping was $825.
PEDRO wrote:Nice tank wingspan, and you got it in a reasonable time, here in the uk the wait is about a year for such a nice piece of work, which is why I have just bought a english wheel and stretcher, see what I can knock up myself, lmao be a while before I can knock a great piece ofwork like that though
Sean's original estimate was 9 weeks and I received the tank in 12. As you said, that's quite reasonable. I didn't mean to imply that is was an excessive wait. I had hoped to get it before the holidays as I had some time off work, but no matter. As it happened I wouldn't have been able to devote that time to the bike anyway. Sean put in a lot if hours over his holidays to catch up on tanks and mine was one that got finished.
I can't imagine waiting a year for a tank! Hearing that makes me appreciate mine all the more.
Pedro
use imageshack you can resize to any size you need and it doesn't delet pictures like photobucket does after a while.
I use it all the time and some of my pictures have been on here years....
I've got all the unneeded brackets, etc removed from the frame. I'm sure my little old lady neighbor loved all the grinding noise this morning.
Next I took a load of stuff to the airport for bead blasting. The engine cases have been reblasted and look a lot better without the yellowed clearcoat. I think I'm going to leave the crankcase and heads as they are and paint the cylinders black. There were a ton of radial engine heads painted that way in the shop where I blast my parts and I love the look. It's not original per Suzuki...but that worry went out the window a long time ago and I think it'll help break up all the gray/polished tones going on at the front of the bike. I also blasted some misc. stuff like the air and battery boxes, along with the triples.
Came home and did another mock up, this time with the stock forks on. Lookin' like a motorcycle!
Here's an example of a GT500 running the frame braces and stock oil tank/side cover and clearing the carbs:
The builder posts as DrJames on the Kawi Triples Worldwide board
I'm not sure what he did to make that work. Perhaps spaced the oil tank out somewhat or reshaped the back side? I cut a piece of tube to mock up some frame braces and mine will not fit in that location.
Hey Wingspan.The Bike is Looking Very Nice. You'll want to watch one thing though.those 2 piece Headlight ears your using like to Vibrate Loose going down the road.
Hang me from the Tree of Shame.Damn! I forgot the Rope.
Jughead wrote:Hey Wingspan.The Bike is Looking Very Nice. You'll want to watch one thing though.those 2 piece Headlight ears your using like to Vibrate Loose going down the road.
Those are just some cheapies I used for mocking the bike up. They aren't going to stay.
