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Above image is of a stock '89 GSXR 750 Build History For those that know me ,and a few of you do . I’ve got a bit of a reputation as a bit of a blagger .Now I’m not tight or anything , it’s just that I like me bargains me .I was born with the gift of the gab , and I ain't afraid to use it ! The build of my 7 /11 owes more than just a fair bit to my blagging skills. I reckon it looks a million dollars , but in fact it cost an unrepeatably cheap sum to build . Actually – this bike was never meant to turn out like this, in fact it was never really 'mean to be' – at all ! . During the time my last bike was on the road ( the blue GSXR 1100M featured elsewhere on this site ) ,I had a bit of an , erm.. . 'incident' (it snapped it’s crank at around 160mph & yes – I bloody shat meself !) Anyway after I had repaired & replaced everything – I was left with a set of good GSXR crank cases. They sat there for a while , until a mint, low mileage Bandit 12 motor turned up on eBay – totally complete , except for ( you guessed it) a pair of cases – I didn’t bother bidding , but I rang the bloke up direct and managed to persuade him to end the auction early ,this was duly snapped up for the princely sum of £125 ! , I built the motor with a view to flogging it on at a vast profit , but I did such a ‘proper job’ of building it , and for what it owed me – I was loathe to sell it. A couple of months later , I was offered this very poorly GSXR 750K , it had been well abused , a half hearted attempt had been made a streetfightering it , and 2nd gear was Donald ducked .It was raving cheap (nice !) so I bought it with the intention to break it .
Now , for those of you that don’t know , eBay is a internet auction site – and eBay is KING !. You wouldn’t believe how much some people are willing to pay for some stuff – even total shite. Conversely , there are some raving bargains to be had also ( like my B12 engine !!) One mans coal is another mans gold an’ all that I suppose. I stripped the 750K and flogged virtually all of it on eBay for an obscene amount of money. So there I was , sat in the garage havin’ a tab – looking around me , I had the remains of the 750K , a mint B12 motor ( which I fitted the GSXR cams into ) and a small wad , sitting on the bench . Eureka !! I’ll build meself a 7/11 ! ( well – 7 / 12 really , but who’s counting ? ) . the plan formed , and I was gonna build it on the cheap & keep it light - specifically for Drag Racing. I’d already done a few RWYB’s on the 1100M , and really enjoyed it . It was powerful enough to be competitive - I entered and won the Flame & Thunder event at Santa Pod ( my first attempt in a competition ) , but it really needed a longer swingarm and stuff to keep it consistent , and I didn’t want to spoil it’s handling – it was an awesome road bike despite its ( and mine – Ahem..) weight. Hence the 7 /11 dragger was born. I started to build it up , and quickly found that stuffing an 1157 motor into a 750J / K chassis was probably the tightest combination for a 7/11 . It’s that tight , I can't even get the cam cover off without dropping the motor ! .You’ve got a little more room on the later L & M models – and positively shit loads on the earlier slabby frames .
I had a swingarm off a Yamaha R1 that I had lying around. I bought it for £25 from the BMF complete with hugger ( always an eye for a bargain ! ) . I bought it to chop the upper brace off and weld it to the swingarm of my 1100M – but as it was about 40mm longer , ( not to mention significantly stiffer & lighter ) than the stock 750K one – it was pressed into service. I’m handy with a hacksaw and stuff , but making it fit was not an easy job , but persistence won the day , and thanks to the machining skills of a couple of mates , and the supreme alloy welding skills of my mate Gordon , I got the bugger in there , and doing it’s job nicely – still keeping all the original GSXR linkages and geometry etc. A fair bit of jiggery pokery was necessary to get the chain alignment correct , requiring some surgery to the R1 cush drive , a smaller & lighter ‘Race Spec’ 520 pitch X ring chain (down from 532 ), and the sprockets from some obscure Japanese imports. The K shock was goosed , and I managed to blag a remote reservoir one off an 1100M which ( in a roundabout way ) cost me nowt !.I scored a complete R1 back wheel / disc / caliper etc – of my old friend eBay for a very reasonable sum .this had the advantage of slotting straight into the new swingarm and even weighed less than the skinny 750K 4 ½” back wheel – even though it’s a nice fat 6” ! ( ooh err missus ) . Now ,there was a guy who bought the 750K engine off me for his GS project bike , he also bought the back end off me too . He desperately wanted the whole front end also – I was keen to keep it , but he offered me such a wad for it , that it would have been a crime to say no. That left my bike , sitting on a milk crate for a couple of weeks , until a mint set of 2001 R1 USD forks presented themselves on eBay ( you see a theme going on here yet ? ) . With these safely in my grubby mitts I presented them to the GSXR 750M yokes I had rescued from the loft – Bugger me – they only slipped straight in didn’t they ? – cool ! . I sourced a front wheel / discs of a Thunder ace ( cheaper and easier to find than R1 ) from a local free ads paper , as well as a set of R1 calipers – these all pretty much bolted straight on , and I was rolling again
It was at this time , my Blue 1100M was at the NEC bike show , on the SF stand , as a result of this a bloke contacted me about buying the M off me . this guy wanted the bike bad – really bad ! . But didn’t quite have the full amount to pay for it . he also expressed concern about the rather ‘excessive’ performance of the tuned 1216 engine. My brain clicked into ‘overdrive blag mode’ and I offered him the deal of the century . He could buy the bike off me for a massive (sic) £700 less than the asking price. The catch is – I’d rip out the GSXR engine and replace it with the fresh built B12 motor sitting in my 7/11, (check out the spec panel and YOU see how much that GSXR engine is worth !) , I also wanted to take my Earls 19 row cooler and all the Goodridge hosing , and put the stock GSXR one back on. Oh yeah , I wanted my Ohlins steering damper back too………. The deal was done , and I was bike less , save for another fat wad & this 7/11 project that was rapidly spiraling out of control . My plans changed yet again – and the decision was made to build a fuggof 7/11 animal . The GSXR engine had a hard life in the M chassis , so I pulled it down for a check over –luckily everything was super cool , but whilst it was apart , a little further tuning was called for ( well , it would have been rude not to ! ) so the head went back to that tuning God , that is Mr. Roger Upperton . Whilst he was busy fitting some oversized stainless steel valves sourced from the USA ( stuff is so much cheaper over there !) further porting to the head and mods to the inlet tracts for the newly ( and cheaply) acquired NOS kit , I cracked on with the rest of the bike . I hacked off the existing subframe , and positioned the seat unit and subframe on the bike. I jigged the position of the back end with wooden blocks until I was happy with the 'lines' of the bodywork ,
& fabricated some new mounts to accept the 2001 GSXR1000 subframe & seat unit .
whilst this was being welded I had the frame braced around the headstock for good measure .The Y2K seat needed a little of the foam trimming to suit the shape of the K tank, and I had one of the lads in the trim shop at work , recover it in leather ( free of course ).I then reshaped the rear of the fuel tank to blend in with the new seat unit and hide the upper subframe mountings. All the stock Y2K battery tray is retained , tidied up with the use a carbon fibre under tray and LED rear lamp from ART , who also supplied the chain guard. The 2.5 lb NOS bottle is mounted on quick release brackets , hidden under the pillion hump , with just a little of it poking out through the tray. And all the solenoids / distribution blocks / relays etc . are mounted on a stainless steel tray in the space where the air box used to live.
I was a bit stuck as to what to do with the front light arrangement , so it was a case of ‘once more into the loft my friends’ and I returned valiantly , clutching a very dusty Kawasaki KLE500 headlamp / fairing unit .that I originally intended to go on my GPz750 Fighter . I cut the fairings about until I could get it as close to the yokes as possible , then fabricated a framework to support it , and the instrument panel .I’d always fancied one of those trick SPA stepper motor tacho’s with the built in shift lights, and integral digital Speedo ever since we fitted one into my younger brothers GSXR 750G Streetfighter a couple of years ago . Unfortunately on this occasion – ‘the power of the blag’ had run out , but as I’d successfully managed to get this far on luck and favour – I decided to splash out and get one anyway. I had the upper hand in the end though , cuz after getting chatting to the nice people at SPA , I got a bargain on the trick digital oil pressure / temp gauge to match it. I made a panel from carbon fibre to house the gauges , as well as the NOS arming switch , and the modified warning lamp cluster from the 750K.
With the acquisition of an R1 front muddie (eBay !) the bodywork was ready for the painters. Keith of Nasty Paint , deserves a special mention. Not only is Mr. Farley a bloody good mate , but there’s no one else I’d let paint one of my bikes. His brief was simple (ish)– I wanted to continue the ‘theme’ I had on my 1100M , but it wanted it in a different colour ( I fancy keeping the kinda ‘ripped up / flaming chequers’ as my sort of ‘trade mark’) – knowing I’m a fussy bastard , he executed it perfectly. The results speak for themselves. Still waiting for my engine bits to come back from roger upperton ( he spends a lot of time in the states , supporting a top team over there ) , and whilst Keith was working his magic on the panels , I dropped the suspension of with John at Rev’s Racing . After I had the tubes anodised black , he rebuilt the R1 forks with Ohlins internals , and rebuilt the M rear shock too. I cracked on with the polishing , whilst my brother dean and my mate john , fabricated all the one off brackets that I needed making .
Lady luck shone on me again with a double whammy – in a round about sort of way , I traded the very tired 750K carbs and £125 for a brand spanking new set of Mikuni RS38 flat slides and K&N filters , and I met a guy called Tom Sawyer in the ‘States , who scored an ultra rare & very exotic Yoshimura Duplex , full race exhaust system , made from thin wall stainless steel from the American eBay site – the last time these were available in the UK ( back in ’95) the were over £950 – needless to say , I bought it cheaper than is probably legal. Tom works for FedEx , so he came in handy on the postage yet once more when he got me a set of ridiculously cheap Cam Motion cams ( yet be fitted ), also yet to be fitted , and ,again sourced direct from the states , is an MRE Lock Up kit (thanks this time to Dave ) – to beef up the already modified clutch assy. Keith rang up to ask what I wanted to do about logo’s and stuff for the paint work . I had two options Loud & Proud or keep it subtle . Since I’d already hidden the NOS bottle for the ‘stealth’ approach , and since the log book still says it’s a 750 ( well you cant tell from the outside can you ?) - I could hardly have ‘LOOK AT ME ! - IM A 1216cc /NITROUS / MOTHER FUCKER WITH 200 + BHP’ down the side of the tail piece could I ? . But I still wanted those ‘in the know’ To realise there was something special, about this special . So I bastardised the Yoshimura logo to read 7 /11 in a subtle kinda way – and left it at that – simple .
Time was against me , as I was booked to go to the TT in only a fortnight . Eventually with all the parts safely back form their various journeys , I built the bike from the frame up , and apart from physically having to squeeze the engine in the frame – it went together with little fuss.
Once on the road ,it was time for a serious shakedown run prior to the big unveiling , but a few intermittent electrical gremlins reared their ugly heads , which meant I was unable to make it to this years TT on my new 7/11 . Once home – I completely re loomed the bike , and thankfully all is well , after a little running in and a quick trip on the Dyno, my wishes have been granted , and then some ! . Like Dr. Frankenstein - I have created a monster ! It is so much lighter than my 1100M – it’s hard to believe . The combination of the lighter , smaller frame & the lighter / stiffer wheels & suspension – shit hot brakes and of course that great big dirty engine is phenomenal .It’s a total fuggin monster , even though it handles & stops superbly , it scares me shitless every time I dare to cock my leg over it.
Once the bike was finished , I ran it for over 2 years , in which time it appeared on the front cover of SF magazine , complete with a 6 page , studio shot feature and the centre spread ! . It won a competition for the 2005 Crossbow Calendar and appeared at numerous shows around the country . This is by far the best streetfighter I've built to date , and had no intentions of selling it - in fact I was in the throws of putting together a fresh built 1340 Big Block motor to shoehorn into the 750 frame for some even more mental performance. However , all good things come to an end - and when a guy called Phil contacted me by email with a serious enquiry about buying the 7/11 , I thought "why not ?" - I really didn't expect him to make me an offer that I couldn't refuse. Of course once he's seen the bike in the flesh , he did ! So , the 7/11's gone to a happy new owner , and I'm left with a void in the garage , a lump of cash and a tasty big bore GSXR motor with nothing to go in. Isn't that where we came in ??.....................................................
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