F.A.Q.

Where does the name "SUZUKI 7/11 Boulevard" come from? - by Patrick Fonck
A small suspension setup guide. - by Mischa Hof
What should I look for when buying an 1100 engine? - by Patrick Fonck
What is a "Wheelie Wire"? - thanks to Mike Jensen
Choosing the right carbs. - by Patrick Fonck
CV's or Flatslides? - by Patrick Fonck
Should I keep the standard airbox or use K&N's ?
Will the exhaust from an 750 fit a 1100 engine?

Where does the name "SUZUKI 7/11 Boulevard" come from?
I grew up in Flushing (NL), where they had a boulevard where me and my biking friend used to meet. I you don't know what a boulevard is; It's a road which runs along a beach, usually with a wide footpath on the beachside and shops and hotels/restaurants on the other side. So it's a perfect place to show off your bike and get the attention you deserve after a full winter of polishing ;-) This site was meant to be a place where all 7/11 owners/builders meet to share and learn from each other's experiences.

A small suspension setup guide.
Usually the factory settings are not that bad for general use of the bike. My personal experience is that you should just try what suits yourself best, the thing is that you should feel happy with the handling, not someone else because we all have different riding styles (and not to forget body weights ;-) I will tell you some basic set-up guidelines. The first thing to do is to write down the actual settings, so you can always go back to what you have now. Adjust the "negative" travel by setting all damping to minimum. Measure the maximum length of the spring (maximum length of the front fork or maximum distance from rear axle to seat unit) if you pull the bike up. Then measure the static ride height when the bike is on its wheels. (Keep it straight up, but don't sit on it or put pressure on it). This length should be 10-15mm less than the maximum. Adjust this with the spring preload. Then when you sit on the bike the distance between the rear axle and the seat unit should be 30-35 mm less than maximum. If it's less, the spring preload is too stiff. This is in case of carrying a girlfriend or other luggage. Just find the best way in between. For the damping I think it's the easiest to set it to the factory settings and take it from there. Just try to increase and decrease the compression or rebound by two clicks and try to locate the difference. If you have little or no experience in feeling the bike, you can try to set the different damping forces one by one to a crazy low setting, to get the feeling. Just take care, 'cause the bike will react completely different from what you're used to. Increase the compression damping until the point where it makes the bike to harsh, then go one click back. Increase the rebound until the bike feels precise and stable, but don't make it more than needed, 'cause the suspension needs the possibility to decompress. Also during hard braking take care that the rear wheel does not leave the ground, anyway not to sudden. Probably all this shit doesn't make to much sense, but just try. As long as you write down what you do you can always go back where you came from. If you want to do a real good job you should find an expert in racing suspension, where you can go with your bike, because there is a lot of feeling involved, fed by years of experience.

What should I look for when buying an 1100 engine?
First... the engine you want is an oil cooled 1127cc out of a GSX-R1100K to N (1989 to 1992), any year GSX1100F or a Bandit 12. When you go shopping for a big engine for your GSX-R750 there is little chance to see/hear/feel the engine running because you will probably end up at a breaker's yard or in someone's shed where you'll be presented with an engine covered in a thick layer of a mixture of grease, oil and dirt. So what should you check other than if the engine hasn't been stolen in which case you take the nearest steel pipe and hit the bastard over the head...? Like checking a horse's teeth a good way of checking the state of an engine is taking the cam cover off, which only requires two allen keys, one for M6 and one for M8. When you have removed it, first check the cams for wear and pitting, which is like very little craters on the surface of the cam lobes. Then you put your clean finger into one of the head's oil pockets and check if there is any metal debris in the oil (like the glitter stuff in your girlfriend's makeup) which is a sign that something's worn inside the engine (not necessarily in the head... anywhere!). Though GSX-R engines are very reliable I would only buy a low-mileage engine because I think it's worth to shell out extra money for the most important part of the bike... a blown shock is much easier to replace than a 5th gear... which brings me to another subject... Because GSX-R11's have an enormous amount of torque many people just take it up into 5th gear and use the pulling power to cruise around countrylanes a.k.a. "lazy riding". This makes the 5th gear take all the load which in turn makes it wear faster than usual. You can recognize a worn 5th gear by a distinctive "whine" coming out of the gearbox when you shift into 5th at low speed and winding the power on. But as I said before that will be hard to check with the engine laying on the floor. If you decided you like the engine start negotiating about other parts you need, most important the 1100's wiring loom with the right ignition box and coils, a hydraulic clutch lever to go with the 1100's hydraulic clutch (all except the first GSX-R750's use a cable operated clutch) and all other small bits they have laying around which can come up handy and cost a fortune when you have to buy them later on like bolts, cables, levers, brackets etc. etc. because they will probably end up in the bin anyway if you leave them there.

What is a "Wheelie Wire"?
For some mysterious reason US GSX-R1100's have a circuit that retards the ignition in first gear. It's a BLACK/RED wire which is located behind the left side panel. Cutting it will make your GSX-R1100 respond like all other in the world... as Mike Jensen put it "Simply by disconnecting this will shed a claimed .5 seconds off your dragstrip time, but you may want to invest in a couple extra taillights because the bike will power wheelie like crazy. They actually speak about this a little in the October '97 issue of Sport rider magazine."
Below is a piece of the wiring diagram of a 1989/1990 GSX-R1100 on which (30) is the igniter and (25) is the neutral switch.

Choosing the right carbs.
Many people think larger diameter carbs directly translate in more power, which is a big mistake and I will try to explain why.
The task for the carbs is to create a perfect mixture of air and fuel. Therefore they need air to pass trough them at the correct speed. At low revs the airflow trough the carbs is also low and the carbs are having a difficult time getting the fuel to mix properly with the air. As the revs increase the air speed trough the carbs also increases and it gets easier to get a good mixture. At top revs the airflow reaches a maximum and the carbs struggle to move enough air trough their throats to satisfy the power-hungry engine. To solve this you can fit larger carbs to let the engine breathe more freely at large revs increasing top end power. But this also means that when the revs drop the airflow drops dramatically and the carbs can't create a proper mixture making throttle response very bad. In practice you get the following table.

Please not that this table uses a standard 1127cc engine. When you increase the capacity of the engine, the carb diameter needs to by increased proportionally to keep the same powerband.
So it depends on what you're looking for to decide what carbs you want to use... if you want mucho low-down grunt you go for the 34's and if you want the bike to go into WARP 9 as soon as the tacho reaches 10K you go for really big 'uns.

...which takes me onto the next subject...

CV's or Flatslides?
I will try not to get too technical on this...
When you open the throttle with CV carbs, they "compare" the throttle opening with the amount of revs (or vacuum created by them) to determine the perfect match that gives the best mixture. This means you can crack the throttle open at any given revs and the bike will accelerate cleanly, without hesitation. But the CV carbs always have this valve stuck in their throats, even when fully opened thus hampering the flow, which is where flatslides come in. Flatslides only have a big slide that opens as fast as you can jank open the throttle, but if you are at low revs this will bog the engine, so you have to carefully "feed" them yourself.

Please note that I'm only trying to explain the basics here and this is not a D.I.Y. tuning guide as every part of the engine needs careful matching for optimum performance. There is a big difference between "it goes" and "IT GOES!!!".

I got some comments on this from Ruud Fredriks, who is the Dutch importer for Dynojet (visit his site here);

"If only everything was that simple? On our Dyno everything goes much quicker and the results in the fact you won't have to ask yourself if it can be any better. Specially the theory about a flatslide giving more power because there isn't a valve in the way... have you ever seen a 600 SuperSports-class racebike go?... and the laptimes compared to the SuperBikes? We have often compared CV's and flatslides on our dyno and the CV is still the best carb in the world... for street use and racing. We have also worked on a 7/11 with 190HP on the backwheel which had flatslides and therefore wasn't rideable at all. I rode a comparable bike with CV's and with that one you can go on vacation with your tent strapped on the back no problem (and pull wheelies at 200km/h)."

Should I keep the standard airbox or use K&N's ?
The main reason people junk the airbox and fit K&N's is because fitment becomes troublesome because the 1100 engine is taller than the 750 so the alingnment is wrong. When K&N's are fitted the engine becomes very sensitive to air pressure (barometer readings), making jetting adjustment neccesary when the weather changes dramatically, so when the bike runs fine in summer it will run bad in a cold european winter. Inside the airbox there is allways the same pressure to make sure the jetting/mixture is allways right under all conditions.
As for the increase in power... you will gain some top end power, but low/midrange may suffer. I had to change the main jets from 112 to 140, and now need to stop at every tank station.

So here are the pro's and con's of K&N's;
Pro's: Easy removal of carbs, nice growl under the tank, slight power increase.
Con's: Fuel economy changes drastically (for the worse), makes carburation sensitive to weather changes.

Will the exhaust from a 750 fit a 1100 engine?
Though there are some differences in pipe diameter, the pipes allmost always fit into the head.
But in most cases the pipes from a 750 exhaust will not go down far enough to fit around the crankcase, since the stroke from the 1100 is longer.