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New Motorcycle (to me)


Mark

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I've had half an eye out for another Motorbike since selling my Triumph Tiger 800xc a few year ago. Acquired this Suzuki GSX 650F from a very good mate, we went to school together. He bought it new in 2008, but its sat unused for the last 6 years. Very good nick, my friend has always looked after his bikes with lots of service history. Never owned a Suzuki but I know they make good bikes. This is definitely no race bike, but more than quick enough for me, 0-60 around 3.5 secs top speed 135ish 1/4 mile under 12 secs. Plan is to do some touring with my nephews in the summer. Just needs a thorough going over, and getting it MOT'd. Not in a rush, still up to my neck with the Spitfire restoration, but I do miss not having a Bike.

Bought a new battery, but I need to deal with the alarm first. It has a Datatool S4 red fitted, the same I had on my Triumph, but looks like it's probably dead now after speaking with a Datatool tech. As the main bike battery has been dead for years, the internal alarm battery would have died and the memory/programming for the  alarm and key fobs would have been lost. Also  the internal battery is not replaceable. I could un-pick the alarm wiring, but I know you can get a bypass plug to terminate the alarm, or I've seen a  new alarm, different make,  that can plug into the existing wiring. May do that eventually but initially I'll just use a bypass plug until the bike is MOT'd,  and up and running. Yet another project, but looking forward to it.

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That’ll be a fun bike. 
suzikis are bulletproof 

I had a gs250t new x reg and the red line was a gear change indicator 

whilst it was a chopper style I still took on richer mates who had Yamaha 250 LC ( have you seen the price of them now!!)

later still had a 600 bandit s in teal green  

wonderful bikes 

enjoy and stay safe. 

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A good looking bike. Fair weather toy or commuter? Take care with the exposed fasteners, Suzuki are renowned for using soft metal where the head rounds out easily.  When I had a suzuki (and subsequent bikes)I swapped out for stainless wherever possible with a good application of anti-seize on the threads.

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Thanks, didn't know about the fasteners, I'll take care if I need to remove any. Going to used it as a general runneround at the moment. Have a large Givi back box which will come in handy. ULEZ expansion pushed me to get a bike sooner than expected. Been using the Gt6 and Vitesse, since having to mothbal my mk1 Eunos. I have a citreon relay van that ive owned for years and refuse to scrap it, diesel 75000 mile, used very occasionally, collected the bike with it. It's registered with auto pay for the £12.50 ULEZ money grab. The bikes ULEZ, congestion/charge compliant (for now) so will use it all weathers to give the Triumphs a rest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bike passed its MOT today. Went for a walkabout for an hour when I returned they said, they hope I don't mind but they took it upon themselves to carry out some work, as the bike had initially failed it's MOT. 

The fail status was 'repair immediately' (major defect). The major defect? Registration plate lamp inoperative. In my case a bulb.

Re-tested after bulb replaced, no advisories. 

No complaints with the garage who were very thorough and great, which iam very happy with,  but think the DVSA categorizing a number plate light as a major defect is over the top. 

Anyway first ride today on a bike in a few years and it was great, apart from torrential rain.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Been using the bike but have had a few issues to deal with, mainly caused by being laid up for 6 years. When I collected it both tyres needed air, and my mate said they only hold air for a few days. I suspected the valves. Both tyres had been replace a year before the bike was taken off the road and looked new. Soapy water showed leaks at the base of both valves. Penetrating oil and flexing the valve slowed the leak down, but a week or so after the MOT, decided I needed to sort it. No centre stand meant I needed to buy some paddock stands to lift both ends, and remove the wheels. I removed both tyres and valves which showed moisture had been corroding the alloy wheels around the valves. This was easily cleaned up. The front wheel had a small dig in the rim and was fairly corroaded, which I was aware of as my mate had warned me before I actually got the bilke. I had already started to look for a better front wheel several weeks before picking the bike up. There were a few back wheels all around £40, but the front wheels on offer rarely came along and looked worse than mine, curbed and damaged to various degrees, all around £100. Whilst the wheels were off I cleaned everything up, sandblasted the back wheel and repainted it.  A mint front wheel came up from a bike breaker 'Buy it now' for £150 so went for it. Tyres were date stamped 2014, so bought new ones, if they were on a car I would have used them, but on a bike, a bit different. Bulked at paying £300 for two tyres, but peace of mind. Bike ran well from the start but then noticed it holding back on hard acceleration. Suspected fuel starvation, looked in the tank which was clearly rusty. Pumps inside the tank, so removed the tank and pump. Looked like it had come up from a ship wreck. New Suzuki pumps are megabucks, so stripped it down. I wanted to try Evapo-rust, but at the time couldn't get any in 5 litres, contacted the suppliers who said there was a shortage for a few weeks, so instead tried Rust-E. Left the stripped down pump submerged for a week, and also the tank, rotating occasionally. Slow process but definitely desolved and softened up the the worst of the corrosion. The pump was then cleaned up with wire wool and scotch brite. Put an endoscope in the tank and there was some big chunks of rust that I couldn't get to. I made up a rotisserie that went in through the filler cap and out of the bottom of the tank where the pump mounts. Filled with a couple of hundred self tappers and span on a DIY rig using the front wheel bearings from the scrap front wheel to spin the shaft and tank. Made a hell of a noise, bad enough for me to put on ear defenders. Came out well. The pump filter, and inside of the pump was full of tiny rust particles, which where blown and flushed out. The filter is literally the size of a tea bag and sell for around £50, so thought I would try cleaning it first. The bikes back together, and on the road test, now and pulls strong again. If I get any more issues I'll have to replace the filter.

The front wheel will live on in another form. Made some shiny Yorkshire puds tonight, ready for another project.

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