SuzukiSavage.com - Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer

Bitterswede YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 14	Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer 07/31/13 at 18:28:34 Fun project with a 2001 Savage. 1960's Yamaha tank, 1960's Ward's Riverside/Benelli headlight, 1980's Honda 500 Interceptor chin fairing. Forks, swing arm, wheels and brakes are from 1990's Yamaha FZR600. Mono-shock is Yamaha R6, seat homemade Fiberglass. Exhaust is homemade mandrel bent 1-3/4" steel into 9" glass-pack and 3" turn-out.
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engineer Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 872 Gender:	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #1 - 07/31/13 at 18:55:20 Nice job, I like it. Must have been a lot of work. Clever use of all those parts from different bikes. And a piece of a Montgomery Wards Riverside gets to live on a little longer.
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paulmarshall Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1268 Carterton,New Zealand Gender:	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #2 - 07/31/13 at 22:36:33 Now that is beautiful. More pics please.
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justin_o_guy2

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #3 - 07/31/13 at 22:38:04

Manual decompression?
Thats gotta be the most radical Savage build Ive seen,,
Now that youve found this place, you have access to several guys who have done some pretty serious engine work. YOu sure put together an eclectic bunch of parts & came away with a cool lookin ride.

Hows that thing handle?

& what does it weigh now?

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WD Serious Thumper 2005 No Login Offline Professional "scooter trash". Posts: 5207 Rosemark TN Gender:	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #4 - 07/31/13 at 23:19:59 Sharp looking front sprocket cover, much cleaner than the stock piece.
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Bitterswede

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #5 - 08/01/13 at 08:37:19

Thanks for the nice comments. I'd like to put up a project thread but I think I'm doing this wrong, maybe a little help for the newbie. I have more photos of the more challenging work and happy to share.

Anyway, the inspiration is the Savage motor and the bike is a kind of tribute to the big AJS or Matchless singles but with more modern suspension, twin disc, mono-shock, etc. I love those old 60's Japanese tanks and have built a YZ490 powered Ninja 250 around a 60's Bridgestone tank (photo below).

I understand the horsepower thing; the "Ninjaha" only weighs 200-LB and makes about 50-HP. It will get to 70-mph in a blink if you can keep the front down through first and second. But you know, there's no end to that race. At our Cafe Racers meet-up on Tuesday, one rider brought his 6-cylinder, 160-HP BMW, and of course there's always the Hyabusa legend. So, I'll let others fight that fight, and instead, happily ride my 30-HP Savage and listen to that beautiful rumble, knowing it will always start, and always get me home. The reliability of that stock motor is appealing. I know there's a couple things to do, cam chain tensioner, cylinder head oil leak, and when I have the top end torn down someday, maybe a moderate cam will go in. I dunno, we'll see.

At this point, I want a ride that's unique, fun and reliable. I once pushed my XS 650 bobber 4-miles home.... whew. Now that I have the 22-cal long-rifle back fire eliminated, I'm pretty happy with the ride. I guess the weight at about 300-LB, the FZR legs are very nice and controlling, the R6 shock rebound damping is completely adjustable and even with the Savage rake the package has no ill handling and with the short forks and increased nose-down rake seems to turn just fine. Here again, I'm not a knee-dragger.

I'll add a complete thread on the project but need a little help so I don't do it wrong. Thanks again for the kind remarks, here's the Ninjaha:

Swede

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justin_o_guy2

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #6 - 08/01/13 at 09:32:56

If a guy wants to eliminate the potential problems, theres one more in there aside from needing a Verslavy. The clutch throwout is not an everyday problem, but it isnt exactly rare either. I Believe its sintered & some just fail. If I was keeping mine, It would get one made of steel, one piece. MIne broke, thankfully it was al low speed & only ruined a cam chain guide.

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teabowl13 Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 535	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #7 - 08/01/13 at 15:08:42 That's super sexy alright!! PLEASE post more pictures!!
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Jiggyfly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 144	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #8 - 08/02/13 at 01:05:18 Any info on that fork swap.....FZR6 is exactly what I thought on out using Seems their the sleeper of many a fork swap!
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Jiggyfly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 144	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #9 - 08/02/13 at 01:05:51 & great bike, BTW
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Dave

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #10 - 08/02/13 at 04:58:51

Looks like a fun bike......and one that will sure start a conversation wherever you go.

As far as your build thread.....you might as just keep this one going. The best way to do the thread is actually not on this site, as the questions can make the thread jump around a bit. Braveteacher did his build thread on another site....and it was fun to watch unfold.
http://suzuki-s40-ratbrat.weebly.com/index.html

He also has a thread on this forum:
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1361844966/0

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ToesNose Serious Thumper Offline Pardon me, do you have Hot Sauce? Posts: 1993 Mooresville, NC Gender:	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #11 - 08/02/13 at 19:24:32 Very nice looking bike, innovative mixture of parts
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paulmarshall Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1268 Carterton,New Zealand Gender:	Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer Reply #12 - 08/02/13 at 23:04:39 How easy was it to connect the Yamaha FZR600 swing arm? and how much room either side of the tyre is there?
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Bitterswede

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #13 - 08/03/13 at 09:04:34

The fork swap was a lot easier than I thought; the key seems to be finding a donor fork that uses the same stem head bearings as the LS and the FZR does. There are web-published sources that list stem bearing cross-references but the LS stem bearings seem to be very common in mid-size Japanese bikes. You also might be able to vary bearing cup/cone sizes if the bearing size in the donor forks of your choice happen to be different than the LS. I'm not sure about this but have past experience buying industrial bearings and expect this might be possible. You just have to do the research.

In my case, the FZR stem was about 9mm longer than the LS so I cut that much out of the stem in the middle and cut a 45-deg bevel on each piece. Then mounted the FZR T-clamps and forks, slid upper and lower clamps together to the correct LS dimension and tightened. I ran a long bolt through the hollow stem to aid in alignment, just long enough to tack-weld, then removed the bolt and fill-welded the stem and ground it flush in order to permit future lower bearing service.

Of course you have to be comfortable with your welding as there are safety implications involved. However, if the stem were to part while riding, it seems to me with the upper and lower clamps secured to the fork tubes that the worse case might be some squirreliness in the front which should warn you to take a look. Anyway, the stem tubing wall thickness is about 4mm and carefully fill-welded should be just fine in my estimation and I am prepared to assume that risk. You have to make that decision for yourself.

Another option could be to press the LS stem into the FZR lower clamp, I don't have the equipment for this and didn't want to pay for the service and there are other implications here involving the dimensions of the top triple clamp and nut-arrangement as the LS threaded portion is shorter than the FZR creating fitment issues with the FZR upper clamp... My approach used all FZR forks, triple-clamps, and stem parts and all I did was move the FZR bearings and clamps to match the LS stem dimension.

With 200-300 miles on the machine there are no apparent issues. If I were antsy about it, I suppose I could pull it apart and take a look at the weld, but I'm comfortable the front end will not just fall off and riding is too much fun.

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Bitterswede

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Re: Projects: Rizzla+ Cafe Racer
Reply #14 - 08/03/13 at 10:04:41

I took a similar approach to the swing-arm as with the forks and mated the FZR rear-end components complete, at the LS swing-arm pivot. The FZR uses 530 chain and there are plenty of front sprocket and gearing options listed in this forum to make this a very easy part of the swap. Also, the width of the LS front pulley seems to provide plenty of space to shim the 530 front sprocket to match a wide variety of donor swing-arm/wheel assemblies. This also permits the use of all the FZR chain guide stuff and precluded the need to mess with wheel spacers and such. I am also very comfortable relying on Yamaha's engineering and know that rear-end was designed for a lot more HP than I will apply. Anyway, the LS swing-arm is not strong enough for a mono-shock and is extended to the left to clear the belt which is unnecessary with chain.

Now the hard part: The LS swing-arm mounts with a smaller bolt outside the frame and the FZR inside. This is completely different which requires cutting off the front end of the FZR swing-arm and completely rebuilding that using only the pivot-ends of the LS swing-arm. There is an important alignment challenge involved plus a lot of 16-guage steel welding to box-in a new swing-arm front end to mate the FZR swing-arm to the LS swing-arm pivots ends.

After careful examination, I decided that both the LS and the FZR swing-arm pivots were centered in their respective frames. Assuming the FZR swing-arm was not bent, I welded it to a piece of 3/8" steel, along with tabs to correctly locate the swing-arm pivot axis. Then I cut off the entire front end of the FZR swing-arm just ahead of the cross-brace. Since the LS uses a smaller swing-arm pivot bolt, I had to bush the tabs that I had welded in around the FZR swing-arm. This difference was 2mm in dia and I found the bushings at McMaster-Carr for a couple bucks.

I sacrificed the LS swing-arm, cutting out just the little cups that take the swing-arm pivot bolt. I withdrew all the spacers from inside the LS frame swing-arm pivot and installed all of this on the FZR swing-arm axis tabs welded to the 3/8" steel sheet, using the LS swing-arm pivot bolt. I tightened this gently, making sure it was all centered with the remaining FZR swing-arm, also still welded to the 3/8" steel. So, now I had the LS swing-arm pivot ends squared, centered, and secured to a heavy 3/8" steel foundation and could proceed with rebuilding the front of the FZR swing-arm to mate the little LS pivot ends.

I had cut the FZR swing-arm on a diagonal and made sure there was a lot of internal structure and a lot of overlap of my pieces to the FZR pieces. IOW, a lot of "diamond" overlaps, and few butt-welds. This did not take that long, really. Once I had it tacked-up solidly, cut it off from the 3/8" steel foundation and completed all the welding. Even though I did this slowly and split the welding action from side to side, the dimension between the swing-arm ends shrunk very slightly, maybe less than 1mm but it would not fit the LS frame. I threw the assembly over the front of my 6000-LB floor jack, repeatedly eased-in some pressure to spread the weldment and after 20-min of careful work, it fits perfectly.

I have closely followed this bike for miles and it's rear wheel tracks straight and true. The bike turns very nicely and has no bad habits that would be clues to some misalignment. Surely it's not within GP-bike tolerance but I'm perfectly happy with it for my intentions and the R6 shock provides a plush and controlled ride which helps with that seat foam, fully one inch...

Cheers.

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