My GS550 Chopper Project
a.k.a.
B C R
("Buzz's Chopped Rice")







       Towards the end of the summer of '98, I got a little restless and decided to take on a mega project. The chopping and complete redesign of my wrecked Suzuki GS550E.  It wasn't till I sat down in our basement, and looked at the bent frame of the GS, that I realized what potential this bike had.  It had a certain  style to it that I hadn't seen before in the bike. It almost seemed to yell out at me, "cut me up!!!!"

        It all started with a "Waffle House napkin blueprint",  and it remains in the same condition today!  You see, the bike is in my head, and I see no reason to limit my inspiration and creativity to a sheet of paper, or a computer screen.  I have always admired Harley's and similar cruisers for their style and purpose, but I am only a 16 year old guy in high school... so needless to say, my budget is seriously limited! hehe

        I started looking into the different aspects of bikes that made them so amazing to me.  There are many different things that go into a bike that all work together and create a gorgeous hunk of steel, so I gathered pictures of the bikes that display the qualities I desire.  I took these pictures and mixed and matched the different style tanks, fenders, seats, handlebars, chrome, stance, forks, etc...   until I found the exact type of ride I could see myself on!   Later I was to discover this bike I had pictured in my mind, just happened to look VERY similar to the Harley in the movie, "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man".  This bike was the creation of Mickey Rourk's imagination, and Bartells ingenuity, which he calls "Black Death 3."

        The next step was to create the bike in my head.  After hours of staring at my bent Suzuki frame, I saw it.  I saw how I was to change this crop toaster into another limb of my body... A low riding chopper.  I knew what I wanted to do, so I just pulled out some power tools and started cutin' !  My handy Black&Decker Jig Saw, fitted with a steel cutting blade, has done the most of the cutting of the frame.  I striped the frame bare and looked over it and decided the first thing to go would be the tail end.  If it was going to be a lowridin' cruiser, it couldn't have a long, 80's style seat.  *WACK* gone.  I cut the tails off of the frame right before you get to the shock mounts on either side. Oh yeah... If It was gonna have the close fitting fender(1/4" between rear tire&fender) , It couldn't have those damn shocks!  *Yank*  off they came. Unbolted them and pulled 'em off.  The frame immediately fell from the loss of support in the swing arm, so I took a piece of 5/8" steel tubing ,that I had left over from another project, and drilled out some holes in the ends of the pipe to accommodate the old shock mounting studs. I made the holes in the tubes close enough so that the bottom of the frame was at 5" clearance from the ground.

         Oh Hell Yeah!  Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!  hehe :-)

         This damn thing's starting to look like something, I thought to myself!  That was it. I knew that it was gonna work, and work quite well at that!  I stepped away from my creation in awe of what was being formed before me.  It WAS the bike I have always seen in my mind.  The bike that I have always dreamed of owning and riding.

        The next step in my chopper was the rake and stance of the whole thing.  So I decided I'd kill two birds with one stone and get rid of the front tubing that had been crimped (bent beyond recognition) in the wreck.  I cut the vertical front tubes about mid way to the tree from the front motor mounts.
        The backbone of the frame looked too flat for my taste, so I bent that mother up just a tad!  With the help of 4, 2x4's, and a Chevy truck tire jack, I was able to add about 5-6 inches between the area where I had cut the front tubes. this looked good. Yet again I went solely on the mental image, when setting the rake.   The rake came out to 40-42 degrees, right where I wanted...  wow.
this is even more sweet than before, I thought.   :-)

Uh Oh! :) oops! forgot somethin'!

        I forgot that by putting the jack in the place of the motor and cranking up on it, I would undoubtedly bend the motor mounts out of alignment! AARRGGHH!  daggumit! I knew I missed something!   So I went over to the bench where the HEAVY 4 cylinder 550 motor sat.  I lifted it, carried it over to the frame and plopped it in.  HOT DAMN!  IT'S RIGHT ON THE MONEY!  *must be a sign!*  How many times do you imagine that would happen? :- )

*This is the stage where I have taken the pictures below.*
 

    After a small break of a few weeks, I started back up with the welding of the frame and the replacement of the frame's backbone.  This was done by my uncle (Larry) and I, at his house in north Georgia.  We messed around with it for a while till we got it just like we wanted it, flipped the switch on the big ole' welder, and let the sparks fly!  (my first time welding...oohh what a joy!)   Once I got it home and back in the basement, I gave it the "Louisville slugger test". :-)  Though the welds aren't all that purdy (nothing a little primer'n bondo can't fix), they are strong!
    I decided to make a pattern for a custom set of handlebars out of PVC pipe and Copper inserts within the PVC.  I duck taped (I know... duct.. not duck.. but duck tape is a BRAND folks... get over it) a coat hanger to the handle bar mounts, and held out my hands where they felt comfortable, then bent the wire up to my hand.  With the wire pattern, I transferred the angles of the bends to a sheet of paper, then marked where the bends in the PVC pipe would go
    At the moment, I'm working on a seat pan (thanks to the easy riders magazine, "tech annual").  I made a template to cut the sheet metal, but I'm still having doubts about it. I'm not sure if I want a fender and a seat pan, or both all as one unit.  Since I only want  a small sliver of a fender, I don't see why I should make the two separately, but I do have a plastic fender that I intended to use as a pattern for a steel one.  Oh well.. we'll see :)
    I spent about 2 nights on polishing half the motor.  I only polished half so far so that I could see the comparison (yeah yeah... so what if I get kicks out of little things :)  ) and it looks great :)!  I used 4 different grits of wet sandpaper on the flat (or slightly curved) surfaces and a wire brush bit in my drill for cleaning in between the fins.
I then went back with a drill with polishing wheels... I used a fine rouge first, then I dropped down to ultra fine for the mirror shine.

enuf of that... here's the pictures of where I am now :)

                   This doesn't show the polishing I've done.

1/19/99--
Last weekend I was in Savannah with my folks for one of mom's conventions. While I was siting around the hotel room I decided to call around the local shops to see if I could pick up a used tank fairly cheep. I called Bouchillon Body Service (912/352-3525) and he said he had one that he'd part with cheaply, and I went over to check it out.. well I bought the tank (50 bucks by the way.. not too bad for a FXDWG tank with a slight ding in the side) and sat down to talk with some of the guys hangin' out  there at the shop.  I got to talking about my bike and what I was doing, and one of them asked me what I lacked in the way of parts.  I told him I was looking for a 21 inch front rim next... well a guy up at the counter hollered out "hell man, I've got one back at the house!" so we swapped phone numbers and I called later and arranged to meet him.
Well we pulled up at his place the next day expecting to get a front rim for around 75-125 bucks... ha.
we got there, and he had 3 boxes of crap he'd pulled off his (formerly known as) softail custom (now looks about like a heritage), and some stuff he had bought that he just didn't think ~worked~ with his bike's look.
We got to talking and he said that he'd give it all to me for 40 bucks.  holy cow.  How much better deal can ya get than that? :-) It's nice to know that there are good folks out there like him.
I got a set of custom chrome grips/pegs,  softail headlight (H4), forward controls that can be modified to work with my frame, Arlen Ness mirrors, '90 softail turn signals... oh yeah.. and the rim. :)

It was a good day.

2/16/99
Today I went over to a friend's house to borrow a tool, and in the process we went in his back yard where I noticed an old Yamaha dirt bike that was TALL.  I asked him what he planned on doing with it, and he said nothing... he'd rebuilt the motor out of boredom and that's all.. he had a frame, a fork, 2 wheels, and a motor (no electrics). I offered him 20 bucks for the front end and we grabbed the wrenches.
I got it home, and it's sooo long.. it's perfect! lol... it's 41 inches from axle to top of the trees!! :)  well... not too long... but much longer than the cheezy ass 28 inches I had before...

so now I have about everything needed to start putting stuff together and working the aesthetics of the whole deal..
(it's actually happening! I see it now..)
 

2/28/99
well, I took some new pics of it and am gonna have them developed and scanned probably by Wednesday evening..
I decided against the style bars I made out of the PVC.. I'm gunna go with a set of drag bars with 6 inch risers.. it oughta look pretty slick when I get those..
I'm working on a seat pan at the moment... I'll let ya know how that's goin' another time....