Friday, 16 October 2009

SB Project FT Up-Date






Carl has been busy with a machete cutting back the dead wood on our FT. The seat unit Gary selected is from a 70s Norton proddy racer (the bright yellow one). The tank is trickier, as the headstock is very high and the frame wide where it meets the front of the seat. Shown here is the original steel tank and a svelte polyester XR750 style tank from the Red Max Speed Shop - which would need a lot of buggering about to make it fit. My own rule book says unless it's a chopper, then the tank must sit horizontal and be in-line with the seat unit. We are also keen not to go the classic but obvious, XR route for all the styling queues - but I do love those popper down seat covers. Carl has been trawling eBay for an alternative, and found some vintage Italian steel that should look amazing - but we're not telling you what, as we don't want any bidding competition! Forks are now beefier 38mm Yamaha TDR250. Renthal tapered bars. Stumpy Supertrapp muffler. We're going to go for some fashion-first tyres; Firestone, Goodyear, or maybe Monkee style trail type pineapple chunks. The Cheng Shin C186 that Giannis used on his SR look boss. We will keep the original square headlight, but not in the Bosozoku position shown, but pulled back as far into the headstock as possible. Death Spray Custom will be painting the tank and seat unit, the rest will be satin black. Piglets can fly. BP

9 comments:

YZ400BEN said...

Man, that's UGLY. Like the seat tho.

Griff said...

XL250S tank will fit and don't look too bad,all the XL's and FT of that era have wierd shaped frames that make mounting different seats and tanks a pain.

Marcus of MarcusMotoDesign said...

Cool to see some progress on the bike!
Try to raise the seat to avoid the "chopper" look as the steering head is so much taller than the subframe. Modifing the original tank maybe could work? Slim it down and change cap etc.

Fun to follow!! Keep the progress posts coming!

Cheers, Marcus

OUTTACONTROLLA said...

Yep , send the tank back - cos it ain't right .
Bin the headlamp or i'm coming round !!!!!!!!!
#59

Anonymous said...

why not race prep it 4get about all the lights and stuff, then let ben race it in thunderbike?!
stevie 28

Sideburn Magazine said...

Stevie #28
I'm liking the sound of that!
BP

Outtacontrolla said...

Yep , thats it - get out there Ben !
Then you can have a cool lil race tank !
#59

Anonymous said...

jobs a good un then!!!.
c ya out there on the dirt nxt yr.
rock and roll!!!!!!
stevie 28.

Bubble Visor said...

haha cool!
the supertrapp looks great

i bought a seventees square yellow hella verstraler headlight for my cb400f project :)