SuzukiSavage.com - Building a cafe without a ryca kit

srinath

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Building a cafe without a ryca kit
11/28/19 at 07:38:50

So I'm thinking I'll do a café this time - not the chopper I cheated my way into ~10yrs ago. Though I may still do a cheater chopper out of my son's bike if he so wishes.

Anyway I want to keep the stock tank - not cut it like RYCA does. Keep the airbox and battery box, though I am OK with refabbing/modding the battery box to accept the side covers I have in mind.

I plan on using a skateboard deck for a seat, raise the rear 2", drop the front 2" and put a plastic skateboard and sort of run it into the tank maybe 1" above the stock location.

I'm thinking I'll put the ignition key in one of the handlebar riser holes - saw that on you tube, thought it was an awesome idea.

Whatever it is, it will look like it left the factory that way.

My chopper pics are here - built in 2009, and crashed into by a young lady a week after it was done.

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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #1 - 11/29/19 at 08:56:35

My idea is that if I lift the back end 4", by going to an 18" wheel and spacing up the shocks or fitting longer shocks, so the rear edge of the frame is 4" taller than where it sits now, Lower the front 2" via suspension and maybe get a 17" wheel in the front lowering it another 1-1.5" so 4' higher rear, 3" lower front, would it allow me to put a seat with a curved base seat pan to sit 1" above the frame rail and look right as a "brat" style bobber ?

I dont want to cut stuff I'd regret.
I dont want to buy stuff I dont like the look of anyway. That straight seat tube with the narrow seat put on top of that looks awfully painful to me, and yes I sat on a RYCA cafe a few yrs ago, and the seat and whole stance made me want to cover my jewels like Mike Tyson was going to kick them.
If that caterpillar pattern seat had a nice concave cup shape I'd be a lot more comfortable on it. Besides I can make that from a plastic skateboard deck.
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Gary_in_NJ

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #2 - 11/29/19 at 09:04:52

You can absolutely make a cafe racer without a RYCA kit. The one item that is tricky are the rear sets. If you can weld, you’re golden.

Keep in mind that part of the tank cutting is do to the odd appearance the tank has when the bike is leveled out. The rear of the tank really droops. There are several inexpensive cafe type tanks on the market that you can replace the OEM tank with.

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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #3 - 11/29/19 at 09:25:59

The tank's bottom edge is level on a stock bike. Lift the rear 4" and drop the front 3" and the front of the tank will be 1-2" or so lower than the rear. Front droops. IMHO, not a terrible problem, rear drooping will be worse.
Anyway I'll start with the wheels and go from there.
Heck, I'll lift the back with my lift and see where that leaves me.
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batman Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 3806 osceola new york Gender:	Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit Reply #4 - 11/29/19 at 09:48:42 The front of the tank being lower leaves you little, to no, reserve ,you might want to rethink that. You could test by lowering the tank level to the reserve ,before jacking.
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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #5 - 11/29/19 at 09:58:58

batman wrote on 11/29/19 at 09:48:42:

The front of the tank being lower leaves you little, to no, reserve ,you might want to rethink that. You could test by lowering the tank level to the reserve ,before jacking.

Great point, seeing as the savage is the only vehicle I have owned that I manage to consistently run out of fuel on.
More like a ton of fuel left in it past reserve that I cant get access to. The main tank is smaller, the reserve is the same, and the tank has fuel I can not get to unless I lifted the bike 1 foot. and will use that fuel only when lifted LOL. The inaccessible fuel comes out of the main tank.

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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #6 - 11/30/19 at 05:03:18

Batman - I however see what you're saying, the reserve capacity will be reduced a little, the maximum capacity is when the horizontal line at the top of the petcock pickup for reserve is parallel to the bottom edge, That gives you say a slab of fuel the height of the reserve pickup tube. Tip it in any direction and the slab starts to run into the bottom edge. Making it a slab tapering to a wedge. OK all the more reason however to not slice the tank up, cos that would eat into something. Anyway early planning stage, I want to not have to touch my powdercoated frame, hence café, else I'd do a chopper - a real one this time, I have 3 of those long front ends. This frame needs a long a$$ FE flipped left to right and a 21" aluminum dirt bike front wheel like my cheater chop. Which I did by making triple clamps with a 9 degree and calculated a 12 degree was doable.

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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #7 - 11/30/19 at 05:17:01

Some more pics of the cheater chopper here. You can see the angle between the neck and fork leg. It looks like a weird pic showing nothing useful LOL. But the legs flipped left to right end up giving the bike 0 or close to it for trail. Negative trail bikes handle like a wheelbarrow. There was a chopper some bike builder (indian larry or Billy Lane someone like that) built, had a ridiculous long FE girder too if I recall, but he had an arm of sorts the axle went through and it looked like it was needlessly complicated, and he explains that its 0 trail and that's why it handles with light effort.
Anyway, I constantly feel Suzuki made a mess of that front end ever since I built this, and I am even more acutely aware of what can be done to improve it.
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srinath Serious Thumper Offline I love YaBB 1G - SP1! Posts: 5349	Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit Reply #8 - 11/30/19 at 05:19:29 How to attach more than 1 pic ? I cant find the overall pic, and man do I suck at taking pics. Cool. Srinath.
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srinath

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Re: Building a cafe without a ryca kit
Reply #9 - 11/30/19 at 05:33:59

Harley risers. I also had it fitted to a savage headlight. Making triples you can fit it to what you want. I can not find the other pics of it, had a smooth upholstered seat with a little skirt in the back covering up some electrical stuff, hid the regulator in the airbox and that was almost the only mod I had to make, I chopped up the rear fender and mounted a tail light on the fender using the holes for the regulator - which matched like it was made for the tail light. It got crashed and sold it before I could clean up the machining in the triples.

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