RAINBOW’S GS850 TRIKE FRAME.

This one was supposed to be a quick strip-down & tidy up job but, as usual, got a bit more involved than that.
Sara, (“Rainbow” on the forum), & I saw each other for a year or so before going our separate ways. In that time she graduated from a 125 Sachs to a 600 Fazer & decided she fancied a trike. No problem! A few phone calls & a suitable donor was found. Summer & Gypsy of Aztec Bikes just happened to have a ratty old GS850 Suzuki trike-thing sat in their lock up. It was truly horrible -all matt black brushed on paint & chequer plate, but had the potential to be a good -& more importantly, cheap run about. The deal was done & it was swapped for an equally ratty XS1100 Yam that I had sat in my lock up.
Sara went off on holiday for a week & I started to pull off the bits I didn’t like. By the time she came home I’d reduced her new acquisition to a pile of scrap metal. The more I looked at it, the less I liked it. The axle was welded directly to the frame which, as well as being poor engineering, also made it impossible to strip apart & service. The seat was too high & the rear wheels too small. The various frame tubes were only welded from the top so I’m guessing the bike was never completely stripped down, just hacked about & an axle added while it stood in someone’s back garden. When the logbook eventually turned up it transpired it was also illegally registered as a bike & sidecar. Hmm. Time to pull it all apart & start again.
I decided to keep the original Suzuki front frame down tubes to give me the engine mounts & the correct spacing for the 4 exhaust down pipes, then the rest was thrown away. This is a variation on the Reliant frames, but obviously has a higher headstock to allow for the extra height of the Suzi motor. The original steering head was cut off & re-used but pulled further back & given more rake before lots of additional 3mm steel plate gussets were added. In the end I plated in the underside of the headstock to create a smooth, sculpted look. The top tube is 38mm, (1 ½”), bore, 4mm wall ERW, while the rest of the frame was created in 25mm bore. When we built Critch’s rolling chassis he gave us a standard Harley Sportster tank which fitted Sara’s frame perfectly with just a bit of cosmetic plate-work at the front to fill in the tunnel so that it sat higher on the top tube.
The seat was the same large solo pad we’ve used on Darren, Simon & my own trikes & ended up at just a tad under 20 inches off the deck. The front end is the original Suzuki set-up, but I had the wheel shot-blasted & powder-coated in nice sparkly metallic silver & a new tyre fitted as well as new wheel bearings. The rear wheels were donated by Nige from his own rebuild of my old green trike & used to grace a Rover I think. They were wrapped in metallic silver powder-coat to match the front & re-booted in 30 quid 225/50/15 remoulds.
Had I finished this one it would have been put in for the new MSVA trike registration exam. This is the only project I’ve had to abandon & it really hurt me to see it go. Although Sara & I split up after a year, I’d planned to continue the build, but finances dictated otherwise & I had to reluctantly sell the Suzi to raise some much needed cash. It went for 1200 quid to a guy in Exeter, who planned to pull out the GS850 motor & fit a BMW boxer twin. I had a vision in my head of exactly how this would look, down to the smallest detail, & even now, I’m sad I didn’t get to see it through. I set myself a budget of around 1000 quid & was well within that. It was going to be bright red with a gloss black engine, to match Sara’s Yamaha Fazer, with a high level stainless 4 into 1 pipe down the right side. It looked very sporty & I reckon it would’ve really flown too.   
We took the bare metal rolling chassis along with us to the 2006 South West bike show down in Shepton Mallet, where it got loads of attention & favourable comments. I didn’t get to see Sara ride it but who knows, maybe it inspired someone, somewhere to build something similar for themselves.

-Andy.