PerversePolisher's GSX-R 7/11

I'd had a GSX750F (known as the "Teapot" everywhere except the U.S., where they call it a Katana) as my first big bike, which I had enjoyed although the bike was somewhat bland looking and not really even close to being a real sportsbike, although I did try my best to keep up with mates on blades and other bikes.

After a few years the engine was getting rather tired, having over 80,000 miles on the clock (I had done over 55,000 of them) I decided it had to go. I never got over how torquey that 750 engine felt and after crashing an FZR600 at very high speed, I had the opportunity to purchase a GSXR750L. All the right work had been done to the bike, such as polished frame, braided lines, K&N air filter, stage 3 jets, etc. but although I expected the engine to be similar it obviously wasn't.
This GSXR was a completely different animal, same noises, but once the throttle was rolled on it took off like a bat-out-of-hell.

It was at this point I realised what could be done with a simple bit of tuning. A lot of mates had said to me that I should fit an 1100 motor, as it was a bolt in job. I wish I had.
Unfortunately, the 750L had to go when I moved into a new flat and had nowhere to keep a bike securely.

Move forward a few years and having had a desire for a GSXR for some time, and always keeping one eye open for a bargain, when a 1985 slabside frame came up for sale on this site for the right money, I snapped it up.

I had no real idea about building a bike, or how much work it would really involve, or quite how much money. The guy I bought the frame from didn't have any parts like engine mounts, loom, or any of the essential bits that will keep costs down substantially. I wasn't too phased as I had a few mates who were breakers, and a lot of trade contacts. Along with the frame, I also acquired some rear plastics, a swingarm, a badly dented fuel tank and a headlamp cowl with no mounts.

The Next Day
It was too dark by the time I got home that night to see what I'd bought but the following day, I had a look at the paperwork and try to figure out just where to go from here. I was surprised to discover that this bike was once owned by the Heron Suzuki race team. The previous owner had photocopies of the original logbook and all the MOT certificates meaning that I could at least see some history.

The History
It appears that the bike had seen time racing at the Isle of Man. By strange coincidence, a bloke I work with knew the second owner of the bike. He'd apparently bought it straight after one of the races. One of the main attractions to the original bike was the specially made one-off Harris single-sided swingarm (which now adorns Brians 7/12's Slabside). Brian had bought the bike just for the swingarm, and got rid of almost everything else. A large amount of which I now owned

I figured a budget of £2000 would be enough to get her on the road. So I started making phonecalls; within a few weeks I had a complete front-end, brake calipers from a GSXR1000k1, a Bandit 1200 rear wheel a set of footpegs and a Metmachex underbraced swingarm.
Not long after this I managed to purchase an 1100 motor of the 1052cc variety.

Looking over the parts I had, and being mates with a journalist from StreetFighters Magazine, who was currently building his own project 7/11, I figured building a streetfighter was the way to go. After all, if he was capable of building one, why shouldn't I be able to?

Having made the decision, the frame was taken straight to Steelheart Engineering in Kent, to have a subframe made. Luckily, Lee also had a small selection of bodywork, so I could choose what tailpeice I wanted. I decided on a 1998 R1 single-seat unit with the undertray. I left it there with instructions to make somewhere to house the battery and electrics, and to repair the broken lockstop (a common problem with early GSXR's). I also asked for some adapter plates to mount the GSXR1000 calipers to the GSXR750J forks

Whilst the frame was away I compression tested the engine. Admittedly compression testing a cold engine is never going to be as good as if the engine was warm, but when the best reading from all 4 cylinders was 20psi, I started to wonder what I had let myself in for!
I didn't know if I should sell the engine on ebay, and deny all knowledge of there being anything wrong with it, or strip the motor and go for a full rebuild. I decided that a full rebuild would be better, as if I bought a different engine, what's to say that the next one would be any better?
Of course, the engine would need to be big-bored, so away went the barrels to Big CC Racing to be taken out to 1109cc's with a set of Wiseco pistons.

The frame came back looking a million dollars with the R1 tailpiece, so I had to get the polishing mops out and start removing the lacquer from the frame. It was about this time that I also decided that I didn't like having mismatched wheels (Bandit rear and GSXR front) so I hunted for either a Bandit 1200 front wheel, or a GSXR rear. Once again, luck ws on my side and another of the members from this site agreed to buy my rear wheel on the same day that I found a GSXR one on ebay. I didn't know what sort of finish I wanted, but fate kicked in when I had to collect a set of polished wheels for an SF journalist. When I saw his wheels, I knew immediately what I wanted. I borrowed some sand-blasting equipment and removed all the enameling from both wheels and started to polish them both. Probably not a good choice, as wheels are about the hardest items to make a nice job of - especially on the limited equipment I have - believe me, I know why professionals charge so much for these sort of things!!

So far, this is as far as I've got. Rich from Bikes, Trikes 'n' Stuff has been helping me with the engine rebuild. So hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can start assembling everything and she starts to look something more like a bike again....