LET’S GET IT ON!
Dangerous loves a bit of undressing, and so do his mates. Fast Bikes’ Moto3 Suzuki’s been made a hell of a lot lighte er, if nothing else.
If stripping a bike to pieces can be considered constructive, then it’s fair to say we’re making good progress with our Moto3 project. Over several brews, and far too many tall tales (on my part), an afternoon with my mates Clive and Jack saw a perfectly functioning and capable Suzuki RM-Z250 get ripped apart.
Now, for those of you that missed out on last month’s introduction, the plan is to reconstitute my RM-Z250 as a Moto3 wannabe. But not just the kind of bike that’ll look pretty at dinner parties and collect dust in the corner of a room. No, no, no! This bike’s destined for the race track, and we’ve got BSB’s Motostar championship in our sights. Just to get it out on the grid would be a result and, after the other day’s assault on the Suzuki, we’re hopeful we can turn this into a bike that’ll not just turn heads, but deliver a decent perform too. Or, at least hopefully.
99 Problems
Thankfully, we don’t have quite as many problems as Jay-Z, but there are numerous hang-ups standing in our path. First is this bike is categorically a dirt bike. It’s been designed to be ridden off-road, fly through the air and plummet back down to earth on its long and rather bouncy suspension units.
Nothing about it says circuit racer, with a seat height that requires a step ladder and wheels the size of a lorry’s. Then it’s got an awkwardly shaped fuel tank, and you’ll be pissing in the wind if you go in search of a starter button; it’s kickstart all the way. That’s not ideal for road racing, and I’m pretty sure they’d rule against us whipping out such a starting device on a BSB grid – even though it would be pretty hilarious – so we need to work around a few challenges. But that’s all they are; hurdles. We’re not the first to transform a dirt bike into a road racer, which goes to show that it can be done. And done pretty damn well with the right people on-board. The other kick in the balls is the cost. I’m not the world’s richest man (I think I’m ranked 21st?), so this bike’s going to be built on a shrewd budget. Donations are most welcome, especially if you’ve got some old forks and yokes kicking about your garage? Some 17in wheels wouldn’t go amiss, either.
Shopping list
Truth is, there are a hell of a lot of bits we’re going to need to buy for this bike, but after a natter with Richard from Maxton suspension, we’ve now got a bloody good idea of what those essential bits are going to be. Richard’s converted a shedload of crossers into road racers, so he knows the process better than most. And, more importantly, he’s got a proper grasp of what kind of wheelbase and ride height we need to achieve. That’s music to the ears of a man such as myself who wings it with 99.9% of everything he does, because I really do want this bike to work well.
The first bit of advice Richard gave me was to put the RM-Z back together and flog it on eBay. Then, appreciating my desperation to morph the said bike into a Moto3 machine, he told me I needed to get some GSX-R bits for it. “It’s a funny thing, but 600cc components from the same manufacturers seem to work a treat on these kind of projects.
“Get yourself some GSX-R600 forks and yokes, but don’t go for the later BPF-type, because then it’ll be over damped.”
So, that’s what I’m after, with the intention being to completely bin-off the Suzuki’s current front end, as the rake, trail and fork length’s a million miles out. The same goes for the rear shock, which’ll be replaced by a special unit Richard produces exactly for this kind of conversion. Even though the new unit will still be ma-hooosive compared to what you’d normally see on a sports bike, because we’ll be allowing the swinging-arm to sit closer to the frame, the shock’s length will be reduced; which will help us to achieve a better handling, less pogo-ing bike.
While we’re on the topic of swingarms, the thought was there to try and make something especially trick for this bike, but the standard Suzuki part appears perfectly adequate. Of course, we might find that there’s too much flex in it, or it makes the wheelbase too long, but that’s the risk we’re just going to have to take. You’ve got to love a gamble, and that’s exactly what this project is. Of course it will be fine. Things always work out, don’t they?
Size matters
While I was on the blower to Richard, we also got nattering about wheel sizes. The plan is to get the bike running on a 110-front and 140-rear. Anything bigger will just slow the handling down and add weight to the bike. That means we’ll need to do a bit of spacing to accommodate such small wheels in the GSX-R’s broad forks, but that shouldn’t prove too much of a problem. The other decision we’ve made is to run just a single GSX-R caliper up front. Dual four-pot radial Brembos would be a bit overkill and, again, we’re thinking of the unsprung weight we’ll save by lobbing a caliper and disc out of the equation. Come to think about it, running no brakes would save even more weight. Now, there’s a thought!
At the risk of banging on too much, the other big thing to factor in is the fuel cell. Right now, having stripped everything MX from the bike, it looks like we’ll keep hold of the stock fuel tank and find a sporty tank casing to mount around it. That’ll save a shed load of time and money, plus we know what’s there works perfectly with the bike and all its fuelling components. Happy days. The future
So, with a bit of luck and a hammered credit card, the next time you see this bike it should look a little bit more, well, bikey. Road bikey, to be precise. If we can get the wheels and suspension sorted, Clive’s convinced that the bodywork and all the other relevant fixtures and fittings will be a doddle, and considering that’s his remit, this
really is music to my ears. On a closing note, do you see that bike in the background of these pics (p100-101)? The red and white one. That’s Tito Rabat’s 2014 Championship winning Moto2 bike. No, really. And it’s giving a lot of inspiration to us with this build. There are some cool little features on that machine, and it’s got us buzzing about how we can splice a bit of its magic into our build. Hopefully we’ll be able to elaborate more on such stuff next month, so don’t forget to check in and see what dramas have arisen. And, if you find yourself at a bit of a loose end, drop us an email if you’ve got any ideas of how to make this bike next-level. We need all the help we can get.