Not a GS, but a cool Suzuki cafe-style bike

[Guest]

Saw this cool iteration of the Suzuki Savage/Marauder 650 single. Nice re-imagining of Suzuki's thumper. The more I look at it, the more ideas I see for other similar bikes.

More at http://www.rycamotors.com/bikes/gallery/.

[pete]

I really like that! I always wanted a Savage but they seem to be very rare over here and I've only ever seen one on the road, and one for sale in my state.

That is really tastefully done and immaculate, a credit to the builder.

Anyone know where to get shocks like that? A black pair in that style would really suit my scrambler look...

[spyug]

Odd how things work in this life. A buddy and I are just talking about that bike on a local forum. He wants to build his first cafe and he mentioned his wife had a Savage. I remembered seeing this bike earlier in the year and it struck me as the perfect platform for a cool little cafe.

I've always liked the Savage as they seem light and agile. The only drawback for me personally is that they seem very low in the seat area which might make for a cramped ride ( I'm 5'11" with 32" leg). I suppose you can compensate somewhat by raising the seat.

I've always liked the look of a thumper done as a cafe and the Yammie SR500 and SRX are two of my favs. I 'll ad this one to that list.

Cheers,
Spyug

[azr]

Very nice design. Figures a NASA engineer would come up with that.

[Octain]

Looks fantastic. So much so that its easy to pick at.
Im not crazy about the fat front tire. In my opinion it needs to be a bit skinnier.

[12Bravo]

I have a 2007 S40 (Savage) and love it. I bobbed mine and made it even lighter. The RYCA kit looks very good. The S40/Savage is very light and nibble and lots of fun to ride.

[bonanzadave]

Looks fantastic.
Im not crazy about the fat front tire.

Agreed ! Thats sporty looking. Firestone tires. Where do you get them ?

[ChicagoBob]

I don't know that I'd like to ride a sport bike on those vintage Firestone replicas. You can get them from Coker Tire for about $75. Also, if you look at the Ryca photos carefully, you can see that they had to cut and weld the swing arm to fit the rear tire.

If I was building one of these, I'd use modern sport or touring tires.

[12Bravo]

The kit that RYCA sells is supposed to be a straight bolt on conversion according to their web site.

[ChicagoBob]

They admit in their web site that the Firestone tires pictured won't fit the stock swingarm, but who cares? Those tires look good in publicity photos, but they aren't really practical for everyday use.

On the other hand, the lack of front or rear fenders would probably limit the use of this bike to nice, dry days. Not that you couldn't add some splash protection in the rear.

I like this design a lot. The designer has taken the best attributes of the S40 (mechanical and visual simplicity, narrowness, outside swingarm and classic engine appearance) and used them to completely change the style and feel of the bike. Suzuki added a lot of clutter to this bike, trying to make it look like a Harley, but Ryca realized its inherent design virtue, and gave us something really distinctive, stylish and sporty, with attributes no one even realized the S40 had. Reminds me of the air-cooled VW-based designs of the past, like the Meyers Manx and the Beck Spyder. They were great and timeless designs with prosaic beginnings.

I hope Ryca's production plans come to fruition. Has anyone actually phoned them and asked abut their production schedule, or when the kits will be available?

[Big T]

I see two major problems with this bike

1. It's set up for people less than 5'8" or so. The average sized rider wouldn't even fit on it, it's too low and short
2. If the whole idea of the cafe racer is to make it light and nimble, why destroy that with old tech, square edged tires?

This bike is all looks and no action. Good for riding down to the cafe on Sunday, not much else

[12Bravo]

I ended up putting 4 inch extensions on the stock forward controls on my S40 when I turned it into a bobber.