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Project Bike -  GSXR 1340

Following the sale of my 7/11  I was left with the 1340 Big Block motor I was building  , that was originally planned to go into the 7/11 at a later date. I spent the money I managed to blag for the 7/11 ( plus a bit more ! ) on a brand new GSXR 1000 K4 , So unlike my previous builds , I haven't had the luxury of a 'pot' of money to kick start the next build. Fortunately , the engine was almost completed before I skint myself out buying the new bike.

It started with the purchase of a brand new Wiseco big block whilst lurking on eBay  - had already been 'piano wired' and was a bargain at just £200 . It was soon followed by some 85mm MTC forged alloy pistons complete with Teflon buttons from a chap on the Oldskoolsuzuki.info site for another £150. I polished the fins on the block , but really didn't like the dodgy looking Wiseco logo . I machined the old logo off , and replaced it with the '3:47' logo from yoshimura , finally a lick of black smoothrite finished it all off. 

I was then on the lookout for an engine , and managed to bag a fire damaged complete bandit 1200 engine , by the time I'd sold the block and pistons - it ended up owing a grand total of £25 - Result ! . The engine was stripped down , and the cases sent off to Roger Upperton for machining ( the oversize liners in the big block means that some material has to be removed before they'll fit the cases ). Just afterwards a trick crank & rods appeared on eBay . Advertised as a lightened 1127cc crank and new Carrillo rods - I won the auction for £380 . The guy had been building an engine to go drag racing with , but a change of plans forced the sale of everything he had 'spare'. After collecting the goodies and whisking them home - it turned out that the crank was an earlier 1052cc crank , as were the rods.

As the Carrillo 1052 rods are only 0.020" longer than the 1127 versions - I figured I could get away with using them , after all they were brand new and cost nearly £950 ( he showed me the receipt ! ) , but I was building the big block motor for the extra cc  , it didn't make sense using a shorter throw crank . Also it'd mean changing the clutch basket as the primary drive ratio's are different . Besides that , 1052 cranks aren't the strongest and on comparison with a stock crank , the 'lightening' work carried out looked a bit excessive to me.

After a 'chat' with the seller , he knocked £180 off the price and let me keep the crank for free , I was well chuffed with this obviously , and he then threw in a complete set of brand new bearing shells , big end shells , thrust bearings , cam chain , cam chain guides and cam followers - all genuine Suzuki , all for free !.What a top bloke :-)  I sold the 1052 crank on eBay and it fetched £200 - which meant that my spanking new Carrillo rods cost me fuck all .

I then sent my existing Bandit 1200  crank to WDB  who did an excellent job of lightening and dynamic balancing of the crank & starter clutch assy, I also had them weight match the MTC pistons and Carrillo rods , they also balanced the rods 'end to end' . With that work done , I could carry on with building the bottom end , and continue the 'Blue printing' process ( basically , ensuring that all the components are balanced , and all clearances and tolerances are exactly in the centre of the specified dimensions ) , this included using plastiguage on all the crank / rod bearings , which was a laborious and time consuming job. Thankfully my mate Jon Davies came round to help me , and stop me from going insane,  The whole lot was assembled using all new gaskets , oil seals , bearings etc that I sourced from the United States - everything is so much cheaper from over there , generally Genuine Suzuki parts work out at around half the price - Download this MS Excel table  that I used to keep a track on all the parts I used in the engine build .

1340 Build Costs   

I then turned my attentions to the clutch , first I converted it to a coil spring type  , then I fitted an MTC 'Snowflake' Lock up unit ( see here for details on how to do this) . I'd used a lock up on the 7/11 before - and found that the spacer plate required is a bit of a pain , especially with oil leaks and having to use two gaskets . This time I decided to kill three birds with one stone . I fabricated a trick windowed clutch cover , the bowl of which was deep enough to accommodate the lock up unit . I cut the 'bowl' at an angle to keep the profile of the cover as slim as possible . I made a securing  ring from alloy to hold the window made from makralon. The bowl is machined with two grooves ether side of the screw holes ( which are blind ) to accept 'O' rings . This means I only have one paper gasket that doesn't need to be disturbed , full access to the lock up can be gained  through the window for adjustment etc , and it looks cool too !

It was at this stage when I sold my 7/11 , and realised pretty quickly that I needed something to stuff this engine into - it would never fit into the GSXR 1000 K4 I'd just bought ,so I went hunting for a frame.

As luck would have it , one came up pretty soon - a crashed & part stripped '89 GSXR 1100 L  , complete with all the electrics , brakes , footrests etc - virtually everything minus the engine , carbs , pipe & tank .Most of the panels were goosed  , but It was perfect for my needs and it would work out a damn sight easier and significantly cheaper than buying a frame alone - then trying to source all the little bits & pieces one by one. After a quick clean up , the rolling chassis was  looking good .I managed to sell all the extra parts I didn't need , and even the few busted panels that came with it. This raised enough funds to blag a complete 1100N body kit and fuel tank which was going for a song. I knew that I'd eventually fit a GSXR K2 seat unit , just like I'd done on my 7/11  ( see here for details on how to do this) so before long the existing subframe was hacked off and the frame was smoothed off ready to accept a new one .

Whilst I was waiting to get hold of a K2 seat unit & subframe , I turned my attentions back to the engine . The stock head was stripped down , cleaned and painted and will eventually be packed off to Roger Upperton for a full gas flowing job. I couldn't decide whether I liked the yoshi logo in the big block painted red or black , I tried both and have decided to leave it as it is for now ! . I polished a load of the outside engine parts ( drain tubes , alternator cover , cam cover bolts etc ) and had them chromed - it wont add any performance , but I'm a bit of a stickler for attention to detail , it doesn't cost much ( apart from time ) and I like the results I achieve . The cam cover was powder coated candy red . I managed to score an extremely rare set of Yoshimura heavy duty engine covers , I'd never seen a set like them before , and after asking around - no one else has either ! .After asking on the forums , A guy from the states emailed me to say he'd seen them on the factory Suzuki racers back in the days of Kevin Schwantz ,when Yoshimura USA used to prepare the works Suzuki's .It sounds a bit far fetched to me , so  If anyone's got a pic of them on a bike , or knows their origins for sure , I'd love to hear from them ! .

That's as far as I've got for now , soon I'll be fitting the K2 subframe , then deciding what to do about the lack of carbs and exhaust etc , I promise I'll be back to update this page , as soon as I've got anything interesting to tell you !

Update 27 -Aug - 05

I've been looking for some carbs for my 1340 project bike , the trouble with buying used carbs is that despite 'good' appearances they usually turn out to be shagged , with chewed up jets and all sorts of problems .

The guy who bought my 7/11 took the Mikuni RS38's off as he couldn't get on with them , and replaced them with a set of B12 36mm CV's . He's recently decided to sell the bike on , and I did him a favour and wrote him a fantastic advert for eBay . I bought these carbs brand spanking new for £600 less than 2 yrs ago , they've only done  4000 miles and are still like new. The K&N Pod filters are in mint condition too - these cost me an extra £120 new .

On talking to him about the advert, I expressed an interest in the carbs myself and he agreed to sell them back to me at the  bargain price of £150 , including the K&N's and the (new genuine Suzuki) push & pull throttle cables - Result !  

I had some ram pipes for the RS38's stored in the shed  - I won them on the US eBay ages ago with a view to fitting them to the 7/11, , I dug them out ,de anodised them and polished them up today , the 1340 motor for my project bike is really starting to look the business now  

Update February 06

Oops ! -it's been a while since the last update , but I have been busy - well , sort of..................

The next job was to fit the mint GSXR 1000 K2 seat unit and subframe that I blagged from the USA eBay site for just £45. I'd already done this conversion on the 7/11 . I've already written a Tech Article on the conversion - Click Me  - so I wont go into too much detail here. The basic steps are pictured below ;

I had to strip the bike back down again to the bare frame loop , so it'd fit in my boot ready to take to the welders. Once welded up, and back home in the shed I took the opportunity to stuff the 1340 motor into the frame - ready for the trial fitting of all the ancillaries.

I decided not to refit the forks etc ,After having a bit of a think, I decided to change the 1100L USD front end - mainly because it's just too heavy , and secondly the chrome has gone on the stanchions ( they're all like that sir! ). I was loathe to spend nearly £300 rebuilding an old heavy USD front end , when I could buy something much more modern ( hence lighter & tricker ! ) for not a lot more money. The slingshot USD front ends usually fetch good money ( due to their long length , they are ideal upgrades for bandits & EFE's etc , so I decided to sell the whole lot  ( forks, wheel, yokes, discs, calipers etc) on eBay . Eventually they went for nearly £500 ! , Considering the whole rolling chassis only cost £450 , and that I would have had to spend the best part of £300 on the forks before they would be of any use to me - I thought I did quite well there .  

Unfortunately Christmas and Winter came too soon , and the money I raised off the old front end soon got spent elsewhere. Just like every body else at this time of year I'm broke beyond belief , and I really need to try and save up some funds to buy a replacement front end for the project bike - before I can do anything else to it. It's gonna be a while before my other debts are paid off , and I can begin to save some cash for use on the project bike, so the outlook for progress looks slow. The other thing is , I'm building this beast in my shed at the bottom of the garden - and it's bloody minus 5°C down there most nights after work - So that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it !!!!. 

Update July 07

Right then ! , jeez - it's been a while hasn't it ? Well rather than bore you with the in's and out's - suffice to say I've had a lot on my plate and updating this site has rather taken a back seat. However , that's not to say the project bike has remained completely static . So , what's been done then ?

Well the first thing is - the new front end ! . I managed to pick up a mint front end from a GSXR 1000 K4 from the US eBay website , all separate auctions - but it wasn't hard to collect all the parts I needed for well under £250 which was a bargain at the time !

As a learning point from the 7 / 11 - I decided not to go the same route and use the yokes from a 1990 GSXR 750 (as  they use the same diameter fork legs as the R1 ( and K series GSXR's ) and of course will bolt right in to any oil cooled GSXR ) because as i found out  the spacing ( width wise ) across the yoke is different - this gave me a problem with disc to caliper alignment and  a wheel spindle issue too. Keen to avoid this , i went the same route i followed when doing my very first USD swap on Deans 750G - swap the stem instead !

So , easy enough to then . After heating up the yoke , i pressed the stem out of the K4 bottom yoke  and did the same with an old slabside yoke i had lying around ( they share the same stem as a slingshot & i knew it would come in handy one day ! ), then i offered up the slabby stem to the K4 yoke , the K4 stem is slightly larger in diameter, so it was like a prick in a shirt sleeve ( it needs to be a good tight interference fit ). To get over that little problem , I built up the diameter of the bottom of the slabby stem with weld , and then turned it down to the same dimension as the K4 stem . I pressed the now modified slabby stem into the K4 yoke and hey presto ! . The next thing was to fabricate a lock stop , i got a big lump of 12mm thick alloy , sawed and filed it to shap and pinned it to the bottom yoke in the same place as the original slingshot one , and had it welded up - done ! All that was needed was a 'top hat' spacer for the K4 top yoke to take up the difference in diameter's at the top and it was complete - everything else from the K4 ( wheel , discs , calipers , clip on's , and fork tubes etc ) bolted right up !

With the front end sorted the next job was to sort the back end out . I really wanted to have a trick swingarm that was extended with slotted adjusters & heavily braced . I also wanted to incorporate a reservoir for my air shifter kit , and have the swingarm accommodate a 6" 2004 GSXR wheel to match the front. I also wanted to do away with the torque arm completely and have the caliper hanger locate on the billet extension to save weight, and finally - i wanted it to look smart too ! - it was a bit of a tall order with nothing available 'off the shelf' , and with the likes of spondon & JMC charging in excess of £600 for a custom made swingarm , i made a decision , and ( with the help of some fantastic friends ) i made my own !

 i started with the stock slingshot arm , and promptly binned everything else including the heavy 5.5" wheel and all the other stock parts. I wont go into the details here - but lucky for you lot , I've written a full 'how to' article in my tech pages here.

I had the arm finished in satin black powder coat , and the frame will be done the same when all the fabrication is finished .With all that work done , all that remained was to fit all new bearings and seals , and slot the whole lot into the back of the project bike. Even with the addition of a shorter Ohlins shock ( from a B12 ) , the extra length of the new arm has jacked the back of the bike too high up. Shorter dogbones will be made to sort this out and a stiffer spring fitted to the shock.

Next on the 'to do' list , is to sort out some trick rear sets , mount and plumb a main oil cooler and an additional cooler for the cylinder head .

The next installment will follow soon ( promise ! ) , so please keep checking back for updates !

Project Bike -- GSXR 1340

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