Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Geep: introduction

A while ago i heard about a bike languishing in the suburbia, $200 later and I'm the proud owner of a tired but complete GPX600R. For an age I've longed for a project bike, something I can put some time and effort into, pour over every last detail, a proper project bike. This is not that bike.
I'm going to do this build on a close to non-existent budget and spend only as much time as necessary to make a few changes and get it on the road. It is going to be a cafe/bobber/tracker thing but I'm keeping very loose on the plan, we'll see what parts and ideas turn up along the way.

As it was when I collected it:



Parts: very rough RD400 (i think) tank , three unidentified rear guards:


still need to make a seat for the ZZ, anyone have an 03 ZX6 seat laying around...?

The first rough mock up with the tank cut apart:



Many major factors are still to be sorted such as ride height, exhaust, bars or clip-ons, to pie-cut or not to pie-cut the tank etc....

2 comments:

Sideburn Magazine said...

I like your enthusiasm, but I've spotted a potential flaw in your plan. All your inspiration bikes are air cooled and you've bought a very angular water-pumper. What gives, D? GI

Dan said...

Hey G, the flaw is a big one I know, but well known. What gives is that $200 is roughly €4.75 and hence a good price for any bike. I was just going to clean it and flip it, but I just can't resist the temptation of cutting into it.

It's not my ideal project bike but I can't afford the time and cash to wait for an XS, LeMans, or sporty to come around. I need to get this out of my system before going walk-about sometime very soon.

As such I'm just going to throw it together with whatever semi-suitable parts I can find at the time to get it back on the road soon. I'll be doing what I can to mask it's 80's-ness, it won't be a master piece, but it'll be unlikely to park next to another like it in this city!

I'll keep you posted