New Project Bike

[Gerry Sweetland]

Hi all,
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a new Cafe Racer magazine.  I had a subscription to the first two years when it was just a little half size mag.  The new issue I got was full size and glossy as well as a lot of more content and articles.  One of the things I saw in the issue was a advertisement for a small company in California called Ryca http://www.rycamotors.com/.  They make a cafe kit for Suzuki LS650 Savage/ Boulevard S40 single cylinder motorcycles.
I thought it was pretty cool so I started looking for a used Savage.  Found a 1997 on CL yesterday and brought it home today.  I also ordered and put a deposit on the Ryca CS-1 Cafe Kit today.
So hopefully I am going to turn this...


Into something like this...

(Photo Credit to Paul DeSalvo from Ryca Motors customer gallery)

Here is a link to a YouTube video of Jay Leno's Garage covering the Ryca CS-1
http://youtu.be/D5r6rhQiT-k

I am going to try and do a build report here as I progress through the build.
I hope to do some customization for some items.  I have a 3 axis CNC mill and lathe in my shop so I am going to design and machine my own turn signals and various items as needed to add to the build.
Looks like a nice winter project.
Got the bike up on the lift, time to start dismantling
Stay tuned for more.
Gerry

[Sport-Touring]

[FZ1 Matt]

 

600 single and 350ish lbs after the conversion -- It'll be faster than my KLR! And look way cooler!

[CLAY]

Very cool.  One of our members did one in his school- it was sweet.  

[turbojim]

Way to go Gerry. I look forward to seeing your progress!

[Stripes]

 

[wibornz]

Very cool.  I can't wait to see the project move through the stages.  

[sleazy rider]

Pass the salt....

[R Doug]

Pass the salt....

 

[sammyseaman]

 

[motormike]

Very cool.  One of our members did one in his school- it was sweet.  

I think you're referring to member spd2918 who also is in Region 4, specifically the NW Wisconsin area (forget which High School).

Here is the thread...

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,70457.0.html

[sleazy rider]

Nope, D-Mac is also working on one.  His thread keeps getting bumped regularly for updates, but he got busy with life.

[Stripes]

Nope, D-Mac is also working on one.  His thread keeps getting bumped regularly for updates, but he got busy with life.

I don't think Dean ever worked on his at "school"...

[Gerry Sweetland]

Thanks for all the comments and support fellas  

I think you're referring to member spd2918 who also is in Region 4, specifically the NW Wisconsin area (forget which High School).

Here is the thread...

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,70457.0.html

Thanks for that link Mike.  That is a cool project getting the kids involved and such.

Nope, D-Mac is also working on one.  His thread keeps getting bumped regularly for updates, but he got busy with life.

Actually Dean is far braver and more clever than me.  He has been working on converting to a cafe a Suzuki 550 four IIRC.  I need the help of a kit like Ryca offers to help me finish.  You wouldn't believe all the fully assembled bikes I have purchased in the past to "restore" or "mod" and end up selling them as a basket case after they sat in my garage for years.    I have a 72 Bonneville in that condition right now    I would like to finish that some day but the Ryca kind of caught my attention, hopefully it will keep it.  

OK, a little update...
I spent the morning dissembling the Savage.
Progress so far...


I need to take the domestic rooster (the petcock) off the fuel tank as well as the gauge cluster then air it out good to get ready to ship to Ryca for them to modify.
In addition I need to cut the spokes from the wheel/hub assembly to send the hub to Ryca along with the tank so they can lace on a new polished aluminum 18" rim, oh yea, need to clean up the hub and polish that before the new spokes and rim are in the way.

Then back to the frame.  I need to get the rear fender, turn signals, etc. off the frame at the rear.  Remove the front wheel, forks and top and bottom triple clamps.
Then I am going to remove the engine.  After that I will cut off the tabs and other parts of the frame that are not needed as well as the cuts that Ryca require to prepare for the kit.  I am fortunate in that in the town next to where I live there is a abrasive media blaster that has facilities for folks to come in and rent their various cabinets and media types by the hour at pretty reasonable rates.  So I'll be sand blasting the frame and swing arm to get ready for powder-coat.

Next I'll be getting to the engine.  Not going to do a rebuild or any thing like that.  I read that the timing chain tensioner is a weak spot so I'll check into that.  New oil, then start thinking about how much I am going to paint on the engine and what to polish.  This engine is all silver and I like the looks of a satin black cylinder and I might paint the case too, not sure at this point.
And speaking of D-Mack I am going to go back and go through his build because if I remember right he had some pretty good info on painting the engine and stuff.
Thanks for reading,
Gerry

[wibornz]

I look forward to seeing it done.  

[CLAY]

I think you're referring to member spd2918 who also is in Region 4, specifically the NW Wisconsin area (forget which High School).

Here is the thread...

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,70457.0.html

Yep!  That's it.  Here's the finished bike if you are on FB: https://www.facebook.com/SpartanBikeBuild?fref=ts

He must have quit updating STN.  They finished it- pics are there.

[motormike]

Yep!  That's it.  Here's the finished bike if you are on FB: https://www.facebook.com/SpartanBikeBuild?fref=ts

He must have quit updating STN.  They finished it- pics are there.

Now, *there* is a proper comment since Clay was the person I was responding to.  

[OU812]

Wasting no time!
I had a Savage and it's really a bargain!

[Gary B.]

What kind of budget are you looking at for this?

 

[Gerry Sweetland]

Wasting no time!
I had a Savage and it's really a bargain!

Hi Steve,
I never knew how popular the Savage was till I started getting into this project.
The model has been around for ever and there is all kinds of info for it on the web.
I found this web forum  http://www.suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl and it is full of useful information.  There are even a couple of Ryca builds in the forums as well.

What kind of budget are you looking at for this?
 

Hi Gary,
I have budgeted around $4,000 to $5,000 for the build.  I was hoping to find a donor bike for under $1,000.  At the time there were 4 or 5 Savage's on CL for any where from $700 for a 87 that was not in very good shape to a 1999 that was going for $1,900.  The ones in between were either sold or not returning my calls or emails, however, I am getting call backs and emails from those people a week or more after I contacted them and already purchased a bike. I just happened to check CL one more time and a new listing was just posted an hour or so earlier.  I emailed that person and he emailed me right back and I was able to look at the bike that afternoon.  I was able to talk him down from $1,500 to $1,300 so that's the one I bought.  The Ryca CS-1 kit was $2,495 (I see on Sept 1 the price went up $200 to $2,695).  With a few extra's from Ryca I'm already over $4.000.  I ordered new tires and tubes yesterday, that was $160.  Don't see too many more big purchases so just the little stuff like carb re-build kit, a couple gaskets and paint.  I'm going to try and paint the bike myself with rattle cans and maybe have a friend shoot the clear coat with 2 part paint after I do the color.  The only other big expense will be shipping from Ryca, that'll probably be a couple of hundred, I already spent $60 on shipping the tank and rear hub to them yesterday.

Well, here is a update on progress so far.
Got the bike disassembled to this point


Had to get the tanks and rear hub ready to ship to Ryca so I first dissembled the rear wheel to get the hub out.  Ryca suggests just using bolt cutters to cut the spokes.  I just spent a few extra minutes unscrewing the nipples and that left me enough room to pull the hub from the rim and then remove the spokes intact.


I then removed the brake shoes from the hub along with the brake panel and mounted the hub in my lathe to sand and polish.


Here it is finished.


And here is the tank with the gas cap, speedo, and petcock removed.  I talked to Ryan at Ryca about the little ding in the tank and said to just draw a circle around it and put a note on it and he will knock the ding out after they have cut the bottom off the tank when it would be easy to get at.  He said just a little ding like that would not be an extra charge.  He said I would probably have to address the are when I prep the tank but it will be better than it is now.



So today I am going to work on getting the engine out of the frame.
In addition I am going to wash the engine, frame and swing arm with some degreaser and then start cutting the frame and swing arm as needed for the kit.
I need to remove the case covers on the engine to polish and I also need to remove the head cover and put a new gasket on that to solve a small oil leak up there.  I am also going to check the cam chain for stretch and and modify the cam chain tensioner as described on the Suzuki Savage forum.  That seems to be a problem area that needs a little attention.

I am going to paint the case, cylinder and head satin black.
I am still tossing around what color to paint the frame and tank, side covers, seat cowling and front fender.  Quite a few years a go I used to go to bike races at Grattan, Mid Ohio and Road America quite a bit with a friend who raced in WERA and AMA endurance races as part of his pit crew.  These endurance races were usually on the Saturday of a  WERA or AMA club sprint races.  I fell in love with a few of the really well prepared Yamaha TZ 250 and 500 2 strokes.  These bikes were painted with red frames and white tanks and side covers.  So I'm leaning towards that color scheme.  We'll see.

Thanks for reading,
Gerry

[spd2918]

I think you're referring to member spd2918 who also is in Region 4, specifically the NW Wisconsin area (forget which High School).

Here is the thread...

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,70457.0.html

Great, now I have to update that thread.    


The guys did a great job on the bike and we will be doing a RYCA Sportster kit this school year.



The RYCA guys will do a nice job on your tank.  They will knock put little stuff at no charge.  If you send them a really tank they can either replace it or charge a little shop time to fix it.  They are awesome to work with.

[D-Mac]

Looking forward to updates! My brother has a friend doing the same kit this Winter. The end result looks amazing.

Life (work) is kicking my ass right now. I will be finishing up my project this winter. Gotta get it done so I can move onto the next one

[Gerry Sweetland]

Looking forward to updates! My brother has a friend doing the same kit this Winter. The end result looks amazing.

Life (work) is kicking my ass right now. I will be finishing up my project this winter. Gotta get it done so I can move onto the next one

Hope you find the time to complete your project Dean, you have a beautiful start on it.
Gerry

[Gerry Sweetland]

Here is a bit of an update.

Sent the tank and rear rim off to Ryca last Tues.  They should have it today or tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll get those parts and the rest of the kit in about 4 weeks, maybe less.  In the mean time I have lots to do with what I have on hand.
I have separated the engine from the frame and made a home made engine stand like one I saw on the SuzukiSavage.com forum.


I want to seal the engine up so I can roll the "engine stand" onto my trailer and take it to a self serve car wash along with the frame and swing arm plus a can of Gunk and degrease every thing.
I drew a couple of plates up in CAD for the intake and exhaust and machined them out on the mill.
Here is the blank ready to run.


Here it is after machining.
 

When I machine thin material like this I set it up in CAM to have tabs, then I just put the finished part in a vise and use a Dremal with a cut off wheel to remove the part from the blank.  A little touch up on the belt sander and they were ready to attach to the engine, along with a piece of inner tube that I cut out using the cover as a template and a Xacto knife.



I also needed to seal the hole in the case where the starter goes.

I have read over on the Triumph.rat forums a procedure for getting rust out of an old fuel tank and sealing the fuel filler hole using a device used by plumbers for temporary sealing pipes as they work on them.  I went to Home Depot and was able to find the device.  It worked perfectly!

Here are a couple of after shots.



Next up was to address a small oil leak in the head cover.  This engine is weird in that the rocker arms are assembled in this head cover casting.




There quite a few bolts of various lengths that fix the cover to the head.  Another idea from Savage.com was a PDF you can download and print and use as a guide as you remove the bolts to be sure and put them back where they belong.


There is no gasket for the seal between this cover and the head.  You are supposed to use a high temp silicone gasket compound.  Some of the bolts were a bit rounded off and there are 5 bolts that get a O-ring type gasket under them when you reinstall.  I found a place on line that is out of Grand Rapids that seems to be a pretty good source for Suzuki OEM parts.  I called them yesterday with a long list of part numbers to make sure they have everything in stock.  The nice girl on the phone said to just put all the numbers in an email and she would advice on availability and current pricing.  I got a response back with in the hour and all the parts are in stock from Suzuki and would be at their parts counter in 3 to 4 days.  I can save shipping by picking them up.  The name of the place is Parts Pit stop, here is a link http://www.suzukipartspitstop.com/

Another issue that the Savage has is the cam chain adjuster over extends before the service life and specified stretch maximum is reached.
If the distance as shown in the photo below is at .71" or more you should modify the piston on the tensioner.


Mine measures .67".  I'm going to go ahead and modify my tensioner as shown in this link.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1191167029

While waiting for my parts to come in from Parts Pit Stop I am going to start measuring and cutting the frame as needed for the kit and work on the cam chain tensioner mod.
Thanks for reading,
Gerry

[Stripes]

Awesome!  



 

[mjauto]

 

Wish I had time and your ambition, well done. Look forward to seeing it through to the end!

Matt

[cage free]

I saw one of these in a vendor booth at the Concours bike show in Del Mar Ca a few weeks ago, gotta say not bad considering its humble beginnings..It was built by a custom bike shop using the Ryca kit.. They were asking $5500. I personally would buy a Honda CB 500 for the same cash and have a warranty but to each his own..

[Gerry Sweetland]

I saw one of these in a vendor booth at the Concours bike show in Del Mar Ca a few weeks ago, gotta say not bad considering its humble beginnings..It was built by a custom bike shop using the Ryca kit.. They were asking $5500. I personally would buy a Honda CB 500 for the same cash and have a warranty but to each his own..

To each his own, for sure.
I guess part of what I'm paying for is the enjoyment I get out of sourcing the donor, tearing it down, repairing and updating where needed, modifying to make it my own where I can and putting the whole thing back together and riding a bike that I somewhat built myself.

Time for a small update.  I'm waiting for the kit and options I ordered from Ryca to arrive.  Hopefully I hear from Ryan this week or next with the final invoice and shipping details?  
In the meantime I have put the cases back on the motor using new gaskets and I have painted the cylinder low gloss black.



Part of the fun is picking out a color for the bike. At first I was going to go with a red frame and white tank, seat cowl, front fender and side covers.  I am going to go with a rattle can paint job so I can paint it my self with out investing in spray equipment and all that goes with a two part epoxy type paints.  I have always liked the white that Ford used on the Shelby Mustangs.  It is called "Wimbledon White".  So I picked up a can of Duplicolor in Wimbledon White and a can of Duplicolor "Chili Pepper Red" and did a sample.  Probably can't see the true colors in the following photos but any way, I didn't like how the white was more of a cream color than white.


So then I started thinking about a different color.  Maybe a silver frame with a somewhat British Racing Green on the tank, etc.


That looked OK, the silver sprayed nice but I wasn't sure if I liked that either.
My wife bought me a new poster to hang in the shop that she found down at the local antique mall.


I have always loved Ford GT40's and the new Ford GT.  So I did some Googling and found out the colors for the Ford GT in the poster are "Performance White" and "Sonic Blue Pearl".  Found that these colors are available from Duplicolor and made a sample.


I like this, I think that will be the color combo, Performance White tank, front fender, seat cowl, and side covers.  And two Sonic Blue Pearl stripes on the tank and seat cowl with two somewhat narrower blue strips on the front fender and then some how have the two blue stripes on the side covers with some how integrating the Ryca logo in them the way Ford did on the sides of Ford GT.

One last thing for today, I was going to modify the stock top triple clamp by machining out the material between the reinforcement webbing in the casting but decided to just go ahead and model the casting in SolidWorks and make my own out of billet alum.  In addition I wanted to integrate the turn signals, high beam and neutral lights in the top clamp using LED's.  I have the clamp modeled, still doing research on the LED's
 

I am probably going to start making chips on that today.

Thanks for reading,
Gerry

[veefer800canuck]

Mad skillz!  

[Gerry Sweetland]

Been a while but time for another update.
I got to say I am new to this sub forum, I usually post over in the Region 4 forum but the Admins. moved my build thread over here.  The last Suzuki I had was new 1986 GSXR 750.  Rode it for about 4 years, had a lot of fun with it.  Like a lot of other bikes I have owned over the years I wish I would of kept it.  
I'll hopefully get to know some of you Suzuki folks as I continue this thread.

Right, well I finally got around to machining the top triple clamp.  Here is a photo of the stock set up in the mill and a link to a movie of the mill doing it's thing...


http://youtu.be/2KFnijWxUZY

And a photo of the part almost done, still need to machine the pockets for the forks and steering stem...


And here is a photo of the finished top triple clamp as well as a full size card stock mock up of the dash panel I am designing to hold the tachometer and the speedometer I purchased with the kit from Ryca.  The standard Ryca kit has the turn signals and high beam located in the top of the fuel tank, I would prefer them up on the top triple tree.


I may even try to locate the ignition switch up there as well.  Gonna have to play around with it in CAD to see if I have the room.

I received my shipment from Ryca yesterday.


Every thing came well packaged and well marked with identification, especially the hardware ...



The rear sets, wish I could get this nice a finish on my machined aluminum  


Here are a couple of photos of the fuel tank...



I'm gonna work on the dash and get that figured out and machined than I can start putting the bike back together.
I am probably just gonna assemble all the fiberglass parts and the fuel tank with out paint for the time being.  I need to find someone with a heated paint booth if I am going to paint this winter.
Thanks for reading,
Gerry

[Papa Lazarou]

 

[MisterSmooth]

...I have a 3 axis CNC mill and lathe in my shop so I am going to design and machine my own turn signals and various items as needed to add to the build...

In-house CNC, eh?  That's all kinds of awesome!  


I kind of like the Wimbledon White and red, don't mind the cream color at all.   Although all of your color choices are good, you can't go wrong there.


Thanks very much for sharing this with us, as the British say, "It's mega."    

[2RR2NV]

GT 40 colors FTMFW!!!!  


a CNC in your home?  WTH??????  so not fair.  

[Dan K]

One day when I retire, I will build a bike like this.

Awesome job so far, looking forward to watching as the progress continues. And that's my favorite color scheme on a bike - the blue and white Gen2 Tuono's came in that color scheme.

- Dan

[CLAY]

Gerry- totally cool.  I LOVE seeing bike builds like this.  

[Nodaclu]

I'm keeping this GIF around...

I learned from my KLR project that I enjoy rescuing bikes from the dead and restoring them even more than I enjoy riding them.    

I certainly don't have your fabricating skills or equipment, but I'm still watching this one with interest.

[Gerry Sweetland]

Thank you all for the kind comments.  
About the CNC, when I was working I was doing some design and CAD work supplying drawings and documents to the CNC guru's out in the tool room where I worked.  Never really ran CNC or did any setup but worked closely with the fellas in the tool room and was always fascinated by CNC.  So when I retired about three years ago I new I wanted to start building some bikes and thought a CNC machine would be nice to have.  At first I was going to convert a small dovetail column milling machine from Grizzly or similar to be CNC.  I would need to buy servos and drivers, ball screws, ball nuts and have the ability to machine or have machined various aluminum parts for the conversion.  It would be quite a project and a lot of folks have done it quite successfully.  In doing my research I stumbled across a company called Tormach http://www.tormach.com/ out of Wisconsin.
They had a pretty good reputation it seems and I really thought their products were quite affordable.  So I purchased a PCNC 770 turn key system and have been very pleased with the machine, software and the support I get from Tormach even going on two years after warranty.  
Thanks again for reading!
Gerry

[MisterSmooth]

Thank you all for the kind comments.  
About the CNC, when I was working I was doing some design and CAD work supplying drawings and documents to the CNC guru's out in the tool room where I worked.  Never really ran CNC or did any setup but worked closely with the fellas in the tool room and was always fascinated by CNC.  So when I retired about three years ago I new I wanted to start building some bikes and thought a CNC machine would be nice to have.  At first I was going to convert a small dovetail column milling machine from Grizzly or similar to be CNC.  I would need to buy servos and drivers, ball screws, ball nuts and have the ability to machine or have machined various aluminum parts for the conversion.  It would be quite a project and a lot of folks have done it quite successfully.  In doing my research I stumbled across a company called Tormach http://www.tormach.com/ out of Wisconsin.
They had a pretty good reputation it seems and I really thought their products were quite affordable.  So I purchased a PCNC 770 turn key system and have been very pleased with the machine, software and the support I get from Tormach even going on two years after warranty.  
Thanks again for reading!
Gerry

Gerry, every person on the Forum who reads this is both mildly jealous and thinking, "I wonder what Gerry would charge me to CNC machine a  _____."  

Fill in the blank with "upper triple clamp", "GPS bracket", "big block of Wisconsin cheddar", what have you.  

[2RR2NV]

Thank you all for the kind comments.  
About the CNC, when I was working I was doing some design and CAD work supplying drawings and documents to the CNC guru's out in the tool room where I worked.  Never really ran CNC or did any setup but worked closely with the fellas in the tool room and was always fascinated by CNC.  So when I retired about three years ago I new I wanted to start building some bikes and thought a CNC machine would be nice to have.  At first I was going to convert a small dovetail column milling machine from Grizzly or similar to be CNC.  I would need to buy servos and drivers, ball screws, ball nuts and have the ability to machine or have machined various aluminum parts for the conversion.  It would be quite a project and a lot of folks have done it quite successfully.  In doing my research I stumbled across a company called Tormach http://www.tormach.com/ out of Wisconsin.
They had a pretty good reputation it seems and I really thought their products were quite affordable.  So I purchased a PCNC 770 turn key system and have been very pleased with the machine, software and the support I get from Tormach even going on two years after warranty.  
Thanks again for reading!
Gerry

  almost $7k?   ouch!

mildly jealous? not even close. how about ...  selling the kids. oh wait, can't do that.  

[Papa Lazarou]

Will you grind the Suzuki logo out?

[Stripes]

Keep it coming Gerry!  

[spinalator]

Nice work!  

[mugwump58]

Great stuff and the skill set to use it . I've got, umm, lemme look over here, umm never mind.  Where's the jealously emoticon?