Suzuki S40 / Savage - Ryca Scrambler Conversion

Hi Krasniewski,
you seem to be quite good with tools of any sort, so what about this:
I remember an old issue of Classic Bike or Classic Motorcycle showing an elder English gentleman who repaired dented motorcycle-tanks. He had a big amount of steel-balls of different sizes welded to steel rods in different sizes and shapes. He clamped the rods into a vice, inverted that steel-ball through the filler-hole into the tank, placed it at the right point (I guess that's the real magic) and knocked the dents off. Ok, you'll damage the inner lining of the tank, but that has to be renewed after cutting and welding, too ...
Kind regards, Bambi

Hey Bambi - interesting idea - never heard of that! My buddy saw a thing with CO2 and a heat gun to pop the dents out with pressure from heat changed, but I'm scared to even try with all

Right or wrong, I actually already took to the tank today. I can't stand doing nothing on this bike - a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

Ok, the idea is to cut out the dented piece and try to pop the dents out. If I can't, that's cool, no harm done, I'm going to cut the same piece out of a used tank and tig it in.

Anyhoo-



Then -



And Finally...



Close, but no joint. As with everything it's pretty easy to get 90% there, but the final details are just so hard to get right, especially without the right skills, knowledge, and tools... and patience.

I found a damaged tank that should fit my needs for $50 shipped... more money than brains, and not enough of either. I'll trace the piece I cut out onto the new tank, steal that chunk, and see if I can make it happen.

In the meantime, I'm sure there's a few things I can do.

I use a stud gun/welder and a slide hammer to pull dents from tanks.I'd rather not cut into a tank and then have to make sure there is no pin hole leaks in the welds.

Yeah, I've done the whole pinhole leak thing before - I really hate that shit...

I think I saw a how-to on the slide hammer once - looks much better if ya got it.

Spotted this in Chattanooga a couple years ago. Thinking outside the box!





I wouldn't go touring but I would make space in my garage for it.

Cool - so many ways to go on this bike.




I was hoping for a change of luck, but had another crap day on the bike today.

Started off alright with some soldering - the ignition wires need to be extended a couple of feet:






I threw the bars back on, along with the gauges this time. Messed up the clutch lever bracket bolt by overtightening. Not a huge deal, I'll figure something out.




I went next to put on the stainless braided brake line, but was missing a banjo bolt - the kit comes with new washers but not bolts - I had one factory bolt, but don't know what I did with the other. I figured that would be no big deal, since I have extras, but those won't work b/c they're not fine thread. $5 on bikebandit.com for a new one... oh well.

I then noticed that my front tire was flat - so I swapped the tubes - but I think I pinched it again as it's not holding air again. I hate tubes...

Whatever. Thought I might do the exhaust today, which I've really been looking forward to. I did a couple of steps, but realized the header needs the factory piece that holds the header to the head (flange?). I hope mine's in storage still...


Next I moved on to the rearsets.



Interesting design - I like it for the shifter side.



Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't like the brake side at all. The problem is that it rotates freely. Having no upper limit stop, it doesn't allow you to take the slack out of the rear drum. Usually the pedal has an upper limit, so the rear adjustment nut allows you to do this, if I understand this correctly. The rear nut here is useless, as it just keeps rotating the brake pedal up. I'll have to look into this one more - it makes for an almost unusable rear brake now, and I use the rear a lot.

Fuck me - what a week. I really need a beer. A new bike wouldn't hurt either.

If I wasn't 7 hours away I'd bring you a beer. I'm really enjoying the build so far, I at least owe you a beer for that.

Ha - thanks man!

Actually got to go over with the fam to a buddy's house last night for some beers, bangers, and brisket... then brownies - so that hit the spot - sorry, no pictures. Also, I scored a free tube that had left over - maybe third time's the charm?

Anyway, a big public thanks to Brian & Co. for everything!

I remember that bike, TruckinDuc's build over on Custom Fighters:

http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26316

The first weekend he had it out he ran just fine with the fast group.

Somethings should stay in the box :eek1

I'd call up Ryca and see if they didn't accidentally pack two shift pedals instead of a brake and a shift.

Went up to Mule Motorcycles for some motivation today. Small SoCal operation doin' nice trackers and scramblers - good stuff. The guys were good enough to show me and a friend around.






Tragically, the motivation was wasted on the tank, which still isn't looking good. A donor came today in the mail. After cutting, the fill piece fit more or less - I should have just used the piece I had. Tigging was... OK, but smoothing with the flap disc didn't go well. Overall, I feel like I've patched and polished a turd, and after all the work, it's still a piece of shit.

Too bad a new Ryca tank is $1,000... $650 (plus tax and shipping) if you supply a tank. Holy fuck buckets... not sure what I'm gonna do.

I can't believe it's already March - I'm supposed to deploy next month... I really need to wrap this thing up.

The godfather of street trackers. I bet that was a cool trip.

Brand new day. Started off feeling much better and got crackin' early. Went to the storage unit and found that I no longer have the exhaust flange I need - came home and put one on order for 30 bucks. I got a couple bucks off with AMA discount (join today!) and then had some bandit bucks from previous purchases, so I really only paid 20. One of the best things I did months ago was sign up for some BikeBandit membership which gives you free ground shipping for a year. I had to pay for it, but I love it as it's saved me a bunch already, and I don't sit around waiting for a parts list to accrue before I put an order in to save on shipping.

...but I digress.


Got crackin' on the controls and switches. I don't think I have a pic, but the clutch lever bracket bolt stripped the soft pot metal threads, so I drilled through the whole thing and put in a longer bolt with a nut on the end. Easy peasy, Japoneesy.

The switch controls have a little nub on them, so next was drilling the bars so that they fit on and don't rotate. I was reallllly tempted to just grind the nub down, but I didn't. So proud of myself for that... Drilling was easy, but I really need to buy a punch... I keep forgetting.



For the record, both sides are not the same size nub. :huh


With a new banjo bolt having arrived for the front brake, I put the SS line on and bled the brake. The grips went on using the friction tape & gasoline trick, and the bars look complete! New throttle tube came in last week and was from some other Suzuki Boulevard, iirc. Not much out there for used parts, and the fiche shows that the cheap plastic tube can only be bought with the big, stupid, expensive grip - the guy at the parts counter said it was due to a lawsuit. New generic throttle tubes are basically only for 7/8" bars - mine are 1".




I wanted the intake on since she sits outside, so I threw on the RR to make sure I get the clearances correct:



Guesstimated and taped:



Exacto-knifed and applied - side cover thrown on for the photo op!




Lunch break - leftover pulled pork sammich:



Had to share - can't say not to eyes like this:




Got back to the bike, getting after the front tube again. This time I used soapy water, which got the tire back on soooo much more easily. I always knew I should do it, just never did. I *think* I did OK this time - knock wood - and the bike's feeling good again - not too much more to get her on the road methinks.

I need to play with the wiring a little and buy a battery - then there's the whole tank and paint thing...


EDIT: Regarding the rear brake setup - I watched this vid - I don't understand it... I feel like one of us is missing something (prob me).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFkgr5kSNEc&feature=youtu.be
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IFkgr5kSNEc?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

cheesey set-up is what that is. basically the break pull rod is bottoming out on the drum lever due to the angles in relation of the two. you basically have to adjust all the play out of the pedal. the shoes are almost all the way out and almost dragging on the drum. there's wear indicating arrow at the output shaft of the drum. he's got that all the way back to the limit by rotating the shaft. he removed the return spring that wraps around the output shaft. watch it again. you'll get it.

i like how he says, "if done correctly. if done correctly." if not done correctly your break will drag.

see the difference in the break lever angle?

Yeah - it's a two man show (from what I can tell) and the guys were really cool. It was a fun time up until he said something like "let's go see your bike" - at which point I almost died of embarrassment (see KLRE build). In the end - he gave me an 'atta boy for trying and a pep talk about how each subsequent project will be better - just keep working and setting the bar higher. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

EDIT: I think I got it - it's a real... original idea. Holy shit - can't say I'm a fan of that part.


On a separate note - I spent a lot of time on the tank, and it looks worse then ever. This would make for a great rat bike tank if I did the rest of the tank like this.... or maybe I'll take a hammer to the other side. On the plus side, it was a lot of good practice with the tig. Downside - I was running my gas flow WAY too high by accident, and went through almost an entire giant bottle. I'm sure the tank will need more welding and I need to do up some brackets for the blinkers - don't think I have enough gas left for everything. Also, I'm thinking about doing an upper limit stop for the rear brake... even when I get the adjustment right the Ryca way - I still don't know if it's really right.

Setting it up the Ryca way may give you crude anti-lock properties. The extreme agle of their set-up is far from ideal. The arm should be near 90degrees for maximum leverage.
The bends in the brake rod will flex as well , so, maximum leverage will be wasted on this .
Seems the Ryca guys have some more homework to do.

Can the brake control system be flipped so that it pulls the rod and lever instead of pushing?I have done this to some older DBs.