My Suzuki 1100SZ Katana

I bought the Kat from a mate a couple of years ago with the intention of a ground up original restoration but for certain reasons originality didn't eventuate. This is the bike as purchased. Attachment 379439Attachment 379440

The most important thing to me was to source a new original exhaust system which at the time was impossible and anything second hand was garbage. The Italians make a great looking pair of mufflers at a price but not header pipes to suit. I could make them but getting them black chromed meant a cost I wasn't prepared to pay, besides, I have a few sets of new GSX1400 mufflers that might look OK. I fitted them on the original Katana mounts ... not too bad. Attachment 379444Attachment 379445

So the decision was made that totally original is now not happening because the mufflers are bright chrome instead of black & if I modify an exhaust I have then the only cost will be for bright chrome & less if I polish them myself.

Time for a strip down. An original Katana has a silver frame (this one is black) but I thought silver with the chrome exhaust would be too much so I decided to do it black again. One Katana frame ready for blasting.Attachment 379446 After blasting there's a surprise although I'm told it's common on these frames ... rust.Attachment 379447 Such is life so I welded the rust & prepared the frame for paint. What's the easiest way to paint a frame? A rotisserie of course.Attachment 379448 A couple of rattle cans later I have a black frame.Attachment 379449Attachment 379450

I was happy with the way the frame turned out and I know the engine internals are good so all that needed doing was an external clean up & polish here & there. I made a rough cradle then got to work cleaning.
Attachment 379470Attachment 379471
The engine looked OK but I'm also partial to a bit of bling so the rocker cover & oil filter got a coating of orange that matched the Suzuki logo on the tank. I also bought a couple of lengths of high tensile allthread then using that and stainless acorn nuts I made bolts to replaced every one in the engine. Attachment 379473Attachment 379472 The wheels got the same treatment of polish & paint but the rotors had seen better days so they all got a clean up grind.Attachment 379475

More later.

Wow, that rust is scary. And it's in a place where you would never see it unless you got under the bike.

I have fond memories of those. A wild 100 horses through a 140 tyre that was a hard as nails Phantom back in the day, meant judicious use of the throttle when cranked over.
Who'd have thought rust would be found there. Nice project, gives me motivation to finish mine. (project)

I was happy with the way the frame turned out and I know the engine internals are good so all that needed doing was an external clean up & polish here & there. I made a rough cradle then got to work cleaning. Attachment 379500Attachment 379501
The engine looked OK but I'm also partial to a bit of bling so the rocker cover & oil filter got a coating of orange that matched the Suzuki logo on the tank. I also bought a couple of lengths of high tensile allthread then using that and stainless acorn nuts I made bolts to replaced every one in the engine. Attachment 379502Attachment 379503Attachment 379504The wheels got the same treatment of polish & paint but the rotors had seen better days so they all got a clean up grind. I used to grind rotors on the old lathe with a toolpost grinder but now I've got a new one the grinder is used very sparingly. I did these at full speed on the drill/mill and rotary table. They turned out perfect. Attachment 379505

With most of the main bits finished it was assembly time but in a spare room where the finished bits were kept. Attachment 379506Attachment 379507Attachment 379508 Time for some power so with a few helpers the engine was laid on the ground, the frame wrapped for protection and then lowered over the motor & bolted in. Too busy for photo's unfortunately. It's starting to look like a motorcycle now. Attachment 379509Attachment 379510

Now for the body work which luckily is pretty good so no paint was required there ... except the tank that had a bad spot at the back. I can work around that with a black stripe but widening at the rear to cover that bad area. Unfortunately the paint was flaking off so the only option was to repaint the whole thing but that would mean losing the orange Suzuki stickers. Attachment 379526Easy fix, just buy from Suzuki but for some reason the orange stickers have the same part numbers as the red ones & the dealer can't guarantee getting the right ones. Luckily one of my neighbours runs a sign business so a few measurements were taken and at about the same time as I finished painting the tank the beautiful orange stickers arrived along with 3mm pin striping.

While the tank was being painted there was also lots of assembly happening.Attachment 379527Attachment 379528 The original seat needs to go but I need the tank finished & on the bike to get some measurements for the seat upholstery. Measurements taken so the seat was dropped at the upholsterer but asking him to raise it a couple of inches because I struggled to get my feet on to the footrests. So with the seat back & fitted there were only a couple of small things to finish the bike. This is what I thought was the finished product.Attachment 379529 That was until it came time for a test ride. Being old, fat and arthritic aren't the best attributes for riding a Katana so if I want to tide it more than one kilometre at a time I need to improve the riding position. So I raided my aluminium stock and managed to drop the footrest position by 3" which included making new pedals.
Attachment 379530Attachment 379531Attachment 379532Attachment 379533 Much better but I still wasn't happy with the handlebar position so I took the punt that the steering geometry wouldn't be affected too much & dropped the forks 30mm so I could put the clip-ons on top of the yolk.Attachment 379534Attachment 379535Attachment 379536 So it's finished although any more than 60 minutes in the saddle is too much. These last photo's are pre footrest mods & taken in my new shed.
Attachment 379537Attachment 379538Attachment 379539Attachment 379540Attachment 379541 While building the full size bike I needed something to amuse myself of a night.Attachment 379542Attachment 379543

Thanks for the pics of your WIP. BEAUTIFUL work on both lots of bikes.:2tsup:
Kryn