Ring a ding ding, two strokes are where it's at in the custom scene right now. Whether it's an ex-farm bike converted into a street tracker or a race bred smoker given the retro treatment, smoking has all of a sudden become cool again. Between 1963 and 1977 Suzuki produced the two stroke T series of bikes that ranged from 90cc singles all the way up to a 500cc twin capable of making the ton. J & B Moto Co in Pennsylvania, USA found their T500 looking like something that mother nature had chewed up and spat out, but with some imagination and after a hell of a lot of hard work they produced this stunning result. Here's how the bike came together according to J & B Moto Co builder Joshua Long...
First order of business was the power plant. The T500 motor was pulled from the frame and completely rebuilt from the bottom end up. The top end was addressed with a small port just to improve the flow. After all of the mechanical issues of the engine were addressed the motor went through the look phase. We try to address every part of our motorcycles, making sure that the entire bike flows and that nothing appears to be "hodge-podge". The rust was removed and the cases were polished and barrels painted. The head got a speed treatment with some "go fast" holes drilled through the heat sinks to make it look like a racer.
For the rear brake we reused the stock system but rebuilt it entirely. We wanted the retro racer look to shine thru so up front a 72 Suzuki GT550 front drum was used. Now the bike was a roller and the motor and frame were complete! We were originally told that the tank was ugly and had no character to which we rose the middle finger and said watch this. The tank was acid dipped and all the rust was removed. We then took some sheet metal and created a classic body line to add the knee cutouts. For the tail we took a rough mold off the rear of the tank to create the speed hump. It was now time for the piece of wood, that had been slowly drying in the corner of the shop, to get involved. We carved and sanded the piece till it was just right. After we got it to fit into the seat section we still thought the body work was missing something. So we inlaid copper into the rear tail section to match what we laid into the front of the tank panels.
We had originally painted the bike in blue ...... 24hrs later it went back in the booth as it simply didn't work. So a one year only Porsche 930 color was chosen with some slight modification. The green was laid down with a green pearl over the top and inside the accent lines a white marble was applied. After all the work on the body was completed all that was left were the finishing touches. The oil injection was retained but we replaced the can with a 1920’s brass fire extinguisher. The headlamp is a antique GM fog lamp housing. The turn signals are antique Dodge Truck dash indicator lights which we mounted in the bar ends. The grips are leather wrapped and we used the same leather on the seat pad to tie things together (and to keep the splinters outta your ass).
The exhaust had to be unique and as to be expected nothing available that tickled our fancy so we decided to make our own. With a lot of head scratching and swear words we found the right equation to size our chambers so that we could run them in the under the bike. It took a full day just to make those pipes but they turned out great. We are very proud to say we did and still continue to do all our work in house. We love a challenge and this one was exactly that, but for all the headaches and all the late nights, this old girl really shows what we love about building custom motorcycles.
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