Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126023
. ~ _ _ . ~ , T \ ., The things that begin with a phone call ... By Lane Campbell scrounge. Th e club , founded spe cifically to do o ff-the-wall b ike projects, has so fa r demo nstrated a real talen t for creative scroungin g. F'rinstanc c: , the front sus pe nsio n, co mp lete with disc brake, is from a Su zuki GT 3 80 triple, which now sits on mo 'cross le gs and kn obbies so we ca n roll it aro und t he shop wh en it gets in th e way . The rear legs are from Re d Wing, the electric. (most of 'e m) were lifted off a TS400 loan ed by U.S. Suzuki, who also fro nted us the GT 380 and the TM 400. The p ipe was designed by Mike Murphy aro und a Murphy Muffler (natch ) and was fabricated fo r u s by Precision Cycle. To begin to bring th is hodge-podge It began with a phone call. (Don't all bizarre happenings?) Call it a called bluff, whatever; after months (years?) of soapboxthu mping on the idea that the typical banzai motocross bike could be made into a better cafe racer than the typical banzai cafe 18 racer, the guy o n the other end said, "OK wise guy , let's sec: you do it" and gave me a motorcycle so I couldn't back out. The motorcycle is a Suzuki TM 400, 19 75 vintage, a machine we all know is in -er - embarassing oversupply at the momen t. As received, it makes pretty adequate horsepower, has a head angle of 29 degrees or thereabouts, and weighs just under 240 pounds wet. If y ou just fitted street ti res to it, you wo uld h ave an extre mely quick, responsive bike t hat un fortunately is overly tall, has excessive suspens io n travel, doesn't st op to o well, and ma kes grossly illegal n oises. Not to me ntion no lights. Ration al e: What th is th ing needs is a qu iet pipe , street legal elec t rics, an overall low ering j ob and a de cen t fro n t brake. After th a t, we'll see if it has any other c u ra b Ie vices. Oh ye ah - forgo t to mention th e other co nst raint o n th e proj ect . The neces sar y m ods ha ve to be made with off-shel f, read ily available parts, o r they have to be o f a simple, grass-roots machin e shop nat ure, some thing nearly anybody co uld duplicate. Resources: The project has beencarr ied o ut, with a bit of help from several suppliers, by the Motorcycle E ngi neeri ng T e chnical Society (M.E.T .S.), a /k /a Phantasy Phactory, in the back of McCall Gri nd ing, a shop owned by one of the mem bers. Fred's bench lathe , m ill, d rill p ress and grinding faci lities gave us the cap ability to make m ost anything we co uldn't Figure 1 1 DIA. Footpegstub to gether, the firs t step was to peel the TM 4 00 down to its essentials and swap The GT 380 forks suspensions. transplant st raight across, as the spindle Ist eering head design are co m mo n to both models. This lowers the front en d abo u t three inch es. Slipping 11.9 inch shoc ks in place of the stock 14. 5 inch units lowers the rear an equivalent amount , sin ce the '7 5 model carries the shocks moved up two inches. So the head angle rem ain s near 29 degr ees and trail decreases sligh tly . moved- up sho ck R e t a in i n g co nfiguration is an unab ashed ex pe ri me n t which may be scratc he d in favo r o f a diffe rent swing arm after we get the thi ng run ning. As a first NOT ES AI S h ou ld be light force-fit in 7/8 ha ndl ebar st ock B) Shou ld be free runn ing fil in rea m ed 7/8 handlebar stock C) Dimensions and shape nominal. Part is then selectively hand fitted to stock hinged footrest . DIA. Footrest sub frame NOTE A 3/8 NO M -r-~-r-1JL......---l SEE NOTE C .262 RE AM TO FIT FOOT PEG PIN 7/8 H A N D LE BA R'I, -ST K - - - - - - S ~, - - - - - -- -