Your specials: Bike 7

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Your special: Bike 7. Barry Holder’s 1988 Suzuki GSX-R100J.
When I was about 20 I had a 1985 GSX-R 750 and always wanted the 1100. But I couldn’t afford it and ended up away from bikes for around 11 years because I kept getting nicked for speeding. Then a friend mentioned he had one for sale for a grand, so I thought “Why not?” and bought it.
I’ve carried out a few mods to it. It was blue and white , so I prepared it all and also cut the side panels down and had it powder coated in black. The 17 inch GSX-R750J were fitted as the standard 18 inch versions were too restricted in terms of tyes. A friend polished the rims for me, and the centres were sprayed black with the rest of the bike. They’re now fitted with Pirelli Diablos.
I bought an Ohlins rear shock for it and had the forks revalved by Maxtons. To scrap the anti-dive system I made some blank-off plates. And although the frame was polished when i bought the bike, i had to do the forks myself. I also fitted new EBC brake discs to the front and bought a set of Nissan four pot calipers off a mate. Another mate made up the caliper hangers for me and i polished them up.

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I have fitted a bottle resevoir brake master cylinder from a GSXR750J and a bottle clutch resevoir from a Kawasaki ZXR 750 to replace the standard item all the brake lines and the clutch line have been changed to braided lines.The ignition block is now bolted by means of an ally plate to the starter motor,as the keys kept scrathing the polished top yoke. I also managed to track down an original one-piece seat cowl, as they aren’t even made as pattern parts any more.
The seat was re-upholstered in black, as the original was blue. The exhaust is a Laser race pipe with an intermediate pipe made by a tube company. It’s a straight-through pipe so it sounds loud. All the foot pegs have been cut down to remove the pillion pegs.
At the rear, I set the number plate light back in under the bodywork and finished it off with some ally mesh.The engine is still standard but i fitted a Dyno Stage 3 Kit with K&N filters. I took it to Debbens and on the Dyno it produced 119 BHP at the back wheel.
I am now on the look out for a braced JMC swinging arm and maybe a newer motor for it, as they are more powerful. I think the hardest part of the project was the fitting of the front wheel and the brakes, as the new wheel is wider than the original fitment and also the spindle was different. I had to put the 18 inch wheel bearings in the 17 inch wheel as the outer circumference was the same and use the original spindle. The speedo cable is from a Suzuki Bandit, and as the worm drive was different, a mate milled it down so it would fit between the fork legs and also line up the discs to the calipers. All this work was carried out during two winters, probably around 18 months in total.