my new summer scooter

[pELYgroso]

I bought the '77 Suzuki TS 185 from BrianP recently that he had listed, and I thought I'd post up some of my plans for it.

I've wanted a vintage enduro project for awhile, and this seems to really fit the bill!

I did a little research before I bought it, because I've heard that the old 2T oil injection bikes are prone to have problems w/ the oil injection. It turns out that the Suzuki TS series is one of the more reliable oil injection systems, as it injects the oil directly into the engine block where it's needed. As long as it's kept clean and full, it should last a long time.

I want to make it into a "brat" style rat rod bike to cruise to work on. I'm doing holsters full time now, so I pretty much drive about 3 miles to work and back every day, so this will be a little more economical than firing up the powerstroke every morning.

Starting with:

'77 TS 185 enduro (the more off-road friendly version)
Runs great, starts up first or second kick every time so far
signals have been removed but all of the wiring, switches, and the battery tray is still intact.
No headlight
awesome vintage number plate
leaks oil at the sprocket seal
threaded cap that holds the speedo cable in place at the front wheel just broke



and my plans:
lower front 2" or as much as the forks will allow
lower rear 2" by lowering the spring mounting point 1 inch and adjusting the spring the other inch
remove the fenders
trim the rear subframe and bend new tubes to a point, weld together
trim the seat lower and shorter, just big enough for me and my wife to fit.
paint tank black
fix speedo cable
fix oil leak
clean out gas tank, oil res
K&N style cone filter
front headlight mounted low-ish on forks
much lower MX handlebars
minimal rear fender
minimal front fender, hard mounted right above tire (it already has the mounting holes on the forks)
signals, street legal stuff. I'm not sure whether to go easy w/ the tusk kit that I have, or wire it all up to a 6v lead battery like it was stock.

not sure on:
fenders -black or chrome? I can probably find some chrome ones pretty easy and I definitely want to keep the chrome exhaust cover because I think it looks rad.
rims, drums, spokes -black or chrome? front forks will stay chrome.
keep new knobby tires or go with trials-ish less-knobby tires.
use existing wiring for all signals, or only for headlight and use tusk kit for the rest, which would require plugging in the battery every now and then.

Here is a quick mock-up that I did in paint (don't know how to use photoshop) don't make fun of my crude chop It won't be a show bike by any means, or a bike that I'll want to take out much further than to work or a close-by date night, but I think it will look be pretty cool and fun for what it is.



It should be fun! I'm figuring that with all of the random stuff I already have that I can use, I'll be into the project about $300 total (including purchase price) when I'm done. (not including registration, etc.) That makes me happy.

I've never modded a motorcycle before, so any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Caleb]

That's going to be a cool little project. FWIW, Tusk no longer sells their universal battery powered wiring harness. You could probably piece something together, but I talked to them a week or two ago and they no longer have the kit. That may decide your decision on the wiring harness...or maybe not

 

[pELYgroso]

Wow, why would they do away with that? I'm glad that I kept the kit off of my wr then. I should already have what I need. Caleb, when are you going to make a kit to sell? I think that would be a hot seller!

 

[Brian P]

Far out!
I'm glad it will get more use than I was able to give it.
Best of luck on the build!

 

[Brian P]

I should have added, I set the front springs on the softest setting and lowering the front should be a cinch as there are a couple pieces(spacers maybe) in there that are about 2" or so long.

 

[SAMI]

Hadn't seen this thread until a minute ago.

I'm leaning toward a similar styling for the '87 XL600R that I just picked up. I'm thinking something like madmax meets rat bike for mine.

 

[pELYgroso]

Hadn't seen this thread until a minute ago.

I'm leaning toward a similar styling for the '87 XL600R that I just picked up. I'm thinking something like madmax meets rat bike for mine.

That's exactly what I'm thinking!

 

[pELYgroso]

So I finally started the tear-down tonight and a lot of the plans that I had have now changed I think. Here is the before:

 

[pELYgroso]

And here it is after an hour of tear-down. When I detached the rear springs, I let the bike rest all the way down and realized how cool it looked, so I think that I'm now going to lower the rear about 5" leaving about 2 inches of travel, and try and find some shorter rear springs that will install onto the stock mounts. I'll cut off the rear sub frame that is hanging out so that the little fender in the pics (which I will change out) will be the rear most part of the frame/fender. I'm not going to touch the front suspension.

 

[pELYgroso]

After realizing that those pics don't really show the bike's rear-slant much, I took a couple more..



I think that instead of doing a padded seat just barely long enough for 2 people, I'm going to go for a minimal single-seat and make a bracket to attach a small pad that is easily removable for the wifey.

I'm considering doing a hard tail but don't like the idea much of the sucky ride with a minimalist seat. Anybody have experience? I'm thinking that if I can get even 1-1.5" of rear travel, it will make it much more bearable....

 

[pELYgroso]

While the handle bars look way better with it lowered in the rear, I think I'm going to go with some high bars. I'm using this pic that I found as my inspiration:



He did a hard tail and his rear fender is a bit longer than mine will be (I plan on only riding on sunny days, so I'm not super concerned about water spray) and I think I'll have some sort of padding on my seat. He also does't have any lights besides the headlight. I'll be using the tusk stand-alone kit that I had on my WR which has everything but the headlight.

 

[Corban_White]

I would go hardtail with a springer seat.

 

[Cascadia]

I think that looks cool but so uncomfortable.

 

[Corban_White]

If you are only going to have 2 inches of travel in the shocks it will be the same. 2 inches of travel in the springer seat will be easy to get.

 

[pELYgroso]

I need to update a little...

I started to detab the rear sub frame to clean it up, and I took the tank and bars off to expose all of the wiring. As I inspected the wiring, I went back and forth between using the existing 6v system that was all there but tucked behind stuff, or ripping it all out and using the tusk kit that I already have that is a stand-alone kit all connected to a rechargeable battery.


I decided to rip it all out. I pulled everything out as I inspected it, leaving only what I thought were the critical lines from the ignition, coil, etc. I left only 3 wires, and after consulting a great TS185 wiring diagram, it looks like I did it right. I will still pull power for a headlight which will run through a regulator, and I'll run it all through the key switch, but that will be it. The rest will be the tusk kit.


Ths is what I pulled out. It doesn't look like much after pulling some car wiring, but it was a mess to figure out on such a little bike!

 

[Brian P]

Coming right along!

 

[pELYgroso]

Next was figuring out the seat. I played with a few different materials before thinking to modify the old seat. Here it is torn apart:


I marked a good shape and cut it in half. I like the new single-seater shape.


I attached it to the front hinge and presto! Great fit that still covers all of the ignition and leaving access to the oil reservoir.


I also decided that the rear sub frame had to go, so I chopped it off. Here it sits at ride height w/ about 2" of travel. Still need to figure out springs at this point

 

[Brian P]

Great idea with the seat!
I don't think it would work out quite as easily with a springer.

 

[pELYgroso]

I realized my next problem when I sat on it after I first cut the seat and installed it on the stock hinge. The bike had a cool stance, but when I sat on it, the pegs were right under my butt, and I was way too close to the handlebars. the straight up and down rider stance looked awkward in comparison to the squatty bike. I had a few options. I could move the foot pegs forward and get taller bars and cant the bars forward a little, which I had already decided on, but I'd have to extend the brake and clutch lines for taller bars which would be a pain, and I'd have to extend the brake and gear shifter levers to move the pegs forward. Also doable, but I didn't really want to do all of that. So, I decided on an easier approach for both of those mods that I think looks a lot better now and gives me the stance while sitting that I want. I'm going with straight bars, which will be able to fit the stock cables. (and it will save me about $75 bucks since I'll use some old 3/4" steel stock for the straight bars instead of buying riser bars) I'm also moving the seat back about 5 inches towards the rear. I won't be able to use the stock hinge this way, but that's ok because I also decided to hard tail it and do a springer seat. I tried to cut down the springs that I had to lower it, but it was on the bumpstops while sitting and higher than I wanted it when I was off the bike, so I scratched that idea and I'll be putting the suspension in the seat. I'll need to hinge the seat in the front to do this. Moving the seat back gives me the rider stance that I was going for. I won't need to move the foot pegs from stock either.

I also decided to start the patina on the tank and side panel. I found out quickly that the bike used to be yellow, which yielded a really cool patina when I took the flap disc to it. here are some pics:



I'm going to add padding to the seat and then take it to my guy at SugarHouse awning (where we get our holsters bound) for some sort of seat cover. I think I might try and utilize the "suzuki" printed part of the old seat somehow. I'll put some valve springs between the seat and the frame rails or something for a little bit of comfort.

I'm going to do tiny round turn signals at the point where I cut of the sub frame and a bullet tail/brake light combo on top of the rear fender.

These pics are how it sits right now. I really like how it's turning out, and can't wait to get it on the road.

 

[pELYgroso]

Great idea with the seat!
I don't think it would work out quite as easily with a springer.

The stock hinge would have been really nice to use, but I think that the springer seat will be much easier to make than extending the brake/clutch lines and moving forward the foot pegs and the brake/gear levers. I really want to have a cool stance while riding that matches the bike's look.