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Project ginger stepchild - SZR600


regcheeseman
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Hello,

I've been a yammy man for a long time, since my first 350YPVS back in the very early nineties, I've built countless specials over the years and more recently I've been working through my bucket list, buying tired but low mileage cosmetically challenged bikes and restoring them back to mint original perfection, doing everything myself in my domestic garage, fabrication, plating, painting everything.

I've always loved the unloved underdog, nothing better than stuffing an underpowered bike past a wobbly sunday barstool racer on his 'superbike'

So I'd been half looking for a SZR660, they've always interested me, a nice single in a small light good handling chassis, the potential is there, just that Belgarda made a dogs breakfast of packaging it.

Then a bike popped up on ebay, yeah the fairing was fitted all wrong and looked awkward but it already had a few desirable bits for the special I already had visualised and more importantly was much cheaper than the overpriced original bikes that dreamers on ebay seem to think are desirable.

s-l1600 (1).jpg

 

As soon as it arrived it was stripped and the project started....

First up get that fairing off and suddenly it looked much lighterIMG_20210508_165911.jpg

The look I'm going for is naked, stripped down, lightweight - taking styling cues from the SDR200 and R-1Z, now the seat unit looked way too big as well so that came off as well, and then the engine came out and it was much lighter

IMG_20210514_122900.jpg

Few hours later and I was down to the starting point of a bare frame. I have a TIG but have never done any ally work so this was the chance to learn.....

 

 

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20 hours ago, regcheeseman said:

IMG_20210514_122900.jpg

I'm not a 100% certain that this is what people mean when they mention 'naked bikes'..!

Will be interested to see where you go with this! :D

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Ever wondered why you never see photos of an SZR left hand side? Hard to believe they have a good side but the right is it.

The first thing I wanted to do with the bike was to lose the horrible oil tank, and having owned a Buell I wanted to copy their idea - sort of.

The plan was to use the left frame spar to hold oil, the standard tank is around 2.5 litres so I had to equal that at least. The first problem is the standard frame has a load of holes in it and as it'll be naked there's a big ugly fitting on the side of the spar that needs to go as well. First job was to weld up the holes and fit a filler neck.

IMG_20210526_122853_sml.jpg

IMG_20210528_122901_sml.jpg197976090_sml.jpg

I didn't get any pics of the left side spar but it was the same thing, loads of holes to fill.

The spars oil capacity was tiny about 1.6 litres brimmed, so I added a large capped off pipe between the spars to add an extra 0.8 litres

IMG_20210602_204900_sml.jpg

This still wasn't ideal as the frame had to be brimmed just to get minimum capacity, so I did the obvious and opened up the joining pipe to use both spar and get the required capacity easily. After pressure testing with water at 10 psi (and welding up numerous pin holes)  I just had to add a fitting to get the oil feed and return attached.

Next step relocate expansion tank/battery/ecu/relays etc to keep the bike looking as clean and minimalist as possible....

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You might want to continue your posts in the same thread, that way it doesn't all get lost...

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Hmmm, it appears it is.
Either I'm having an episode, or someone moved it for you lol

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/8/2021 at 11:52 PM, regcheeseman said:

Ever wondered why you never see photos of an SZR left hand side? Hard to believe they have a good side but the right is it.

The first thing I wanted to do with the bike was to lose the horrible oil tank, and having owned a Buell I wanted to copy their idea - sort of.

The plan was to use the left frame spar to hold oil, the standard tank is around 2.5 litres so I had to equal that at least. The first problem is the standard frame has a load of holes in it and as it'll be naked there's a big ugly fitting on the side of the spar that needs to go as well. First job was to weld up the holes and fit a filler neck.

IMG_20210526_122853_sml.jpg

IMG_20210528_122901_sml.jpg197976090_sml.jpg

I didn't get any pics of the left side spar but it was the same thing, loads of holes to fill.

The spars oil capacity was tiny about 1.6 litres brimmed, so I added a large capped off pipe between the spars to add an extra 0.8 litres

IMG_20210602_204900_sml.jpg

This still wasn't ideal as the frame had to be brimmed just to get minimum capacity, so I did the obvious and opened up the joining pipe to use both spar and get the required capacity easily. After pressure testing with water at 10 psi (and welding up numerous pin holes)  I just had to add a fitting to get the oil feed and return attached.

Next step relocate expansion tank/battery/ecu/relays etc to keep the bike looking as clean and minimalist as possible....

hello

I like the general idea of an integral oil  tank very Mucho. Don't know how thick the metal is though. the bike I just bought (in bits) has a cracked engine /frame lug (bottom left, aft) and the prop stand bracket is gone.

I will have to subcontract the job. Any advice please on thicknesses, angle reinforcement. Thanks and merci bien.

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