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Building a Suzuki GS425/GS400 for vintage racing - classes, allowable mods etc.

Discussion in 'WERA Vintage' started by Chuck78, Oct 8, 2019.

  1. Chuck78

    Chuck78 Well-Known Member

    Very nice bike... PM'd for details.
     
  2. JBall

    JBall REALLY senior member

    I think your main problem is an overabundance of choices...

    Pick one and start building!
     
    jksoft and rd400racer like this.
  3. 2Big4Bike

    2Big4Bike Well-Known Member


    Well did any of these 3-5 bikes get built and ready to race...or was it just pipe dreams and a bunch of talk? :Poke:
     
  4. Chuck78

    Chuck78 Well-Known Member

    2 of us are still building them, slow, always too busy, too many hobbies + everyday life on top of that...
    3rd guy is still a pipedream but will eventually get it together.
    I still need to get my GS400 frame titled. I was going to build mine out of a GS425, but it's complete and in decent shape and bone stock, and a few months back I got a free junkyard GS400 frame and seized engine & crates of parts, + GS450 wiring harness, and I already had a ton of spares, so the track bike build was a no-brainer to change platform to the bare GS400 frame...

    With VMD getting cancelled or hopefully just rescheduled until end of summer (September is what I heard rumored from inside sources), it could still be a possibility for us to at least run at VMD... but I'm also highly tempted to run the hare scramble there on a '77 Suzuki PE250B (would have to run in the class with 80-81 PE's due to longer travel suspension mods), or an '83 Suzuki PE175 Full Floater... If I had more road racing slated, I'd probably opt for the road racing at VMD especially because Formula 500 runs only at AMA VMD from what I recall. Best class of choice for my chosen vintage twin racer platform.
     
  5. kenessex

    kenessex unregistered user

    Chuck,
    I believe you( and many others) are overthinking the whole vintage thing for the smaller bikes. If you just put something together, there will be a class to run it in. I still hold that for the most part, the smaller vintage class performance is based more on the rider than the bike. Mongo has made it very clear any number of times, if you show up with a safe bike, he will find some races to put you in. One, that is a smart business model and two, he really wants people to be able to race. You can run it v3 any weekend that has vintage and also bump it to clubman and D super. Many weekends those two classes have very few entries.
     
    dave3593 and 2Big4Bike like this.
  6. 2Big4Bike

    2Big4Bike Well-Known Member

    Hey Chuck,
    Thanks for taking my "prodding" in stride. As Kenessex said, put a safe bike together and show up. You'll be able to "race" against other bikes on track even if they aren't in your registered class.

    The bike doesn't have to be perfect to have fun...believe me I know...heck I had fun even when I was sitting on a bike that was on fire and the marshals grabbed an empty fire extinguisher...lol

    Regards,
    Chad
     
  7. cyclocrossfool

    cyclocrossfool Well-Known Member

    if you want to read more , go over to cr.net, stuff from 2017. don't hold your breath.
     
  8. dave3593

    dave3593 What I know about opera I learned from Bugs Bunny

    Put it together mostly stock, put on good tires based on the size of rims and take it to the track. The "nice 425" may be the fastest way to the track and you do not have to chop it up. As for the other frame, many race only bikes have no titles.

    If you're building a motor, swapping suspension, going to newer wheels and brakes, I would rethink using that bike.
     

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