Ryca Cafe Racer Kit for the Suzuki S40 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Ryca Cafe Racer Kit for the Suzuki S40

The price seems okay. I see beater S40s going for cheap every year, before during and after riding season. If I do a build I'd go authentic British, so the cost would be significantly higher.

Besides price, anyone have opinions on pulling the trigger on this? I don't see that taking 40 hours.
 
I'm betting that would be a 40hr build. Your donor bike is 10-25ys old? so not everything comes apart as nicley as you hope and you'd want to be cleaning/fixing up bits that are staying from the donor bike. These projects eat more hours than you'd think, thats why there is always so many half finished projects for sale.

Good news is savage 40's are usually purchased by new riders and cruisers and dont have the balls wrung out of them. Lots in nice shape around.
 
It's always funny seeing Jay ride motorcycles because his chin hangs so far out of the helmet :lmao:
 
Have been considering this as well. However I was looking for a savage below $2g to make it worth while.
 
We're looking at between 3500 and 5k to finish the build in Canada assuming we pick it up from CBI and get an older Savage or S40. That's CLOSE to the same as doing a cafe racer build on a vintage Jap bike as far as I can tell from reading around online. They did mention a big bore kit in the works which would probably make me pull the trigger on this.

The difference for me is that while I love tinkering I don't want to make myself a proper cafe build until I know I like the riding style.
 
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Are new shocks/springs included? The s40's suspension, like many budget bikes, is terrible. No sense in converting the thing only to hate the ride. There's a short article floating around that details one rider's attempt at converting a S40 since he couldn't afford the Ryca kit. Maybe you could start that way--get a feel for the style before buying a kit.
 
Flywheel said:
Are new shocks/springs included? The s40's suspension, like many budget bikes, is terrible. No sense in converting the thing only to hate the ride. There's a short article floating around that details one rider's attempt at converting a S40 since he couldn't afford the Ryca kit. Maybe you could start that way--get a feel for the style before buying a kit.
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In the video they say new shocks are included. Watching Jay ride around, it doesn't look like they put a ton of money into the suspension. It is still being built to a tight budget, I think they spent all the budget on looks and almost none on go-fast parts.
 
Very cool. I like it.
In the end, you got a cheap bike made from something my grandmother would not ride.
 
GreyGhost said:
In the video they say new shocks are included. Watching Jay ride around, it doesn't look like they put a ton of money into the suspension. It is still being built to a tight budget, I think they spent all the budget on looks and almost none on go-fast parts.
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The price of the kit and base bike can buy you a good running 600 sportbike if you want to go fast. Trying to hot rod a Savage motor is an exercise in futility.
 
I was looking for a nice way to say the same thing. But you nailed it on the head.


RetroGrouch said:
The price of the kit and base bike can buy you a good running 600 sportbike if you want to go fast. Trying to hot rod a Savage motor is an exercise in futility.
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RetroGrouch said:
The price of the kit and base bike can buy you a good running 600 sportbike if you want to go fast. Trying to hot rod a Savage motor is an exercise in futility.
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Your absolutely correct, but I dont think thats the point of the kit. Its fun, looks cool and will be light on power, not really great handling and have crappy resale. Knowing that, I'd build one. I already have gofast 600s, I'd keep those and do this too.

original cafes were not great handling or well powered for the most part as compaired to anything you could buy today, this is just a fun bike project simplified into a kit.
 
I considered doing this with my GF's Savage, but decided it wasn't worth the money. I built my XS650 cafe/frankenbike for a whole lot less than what one of these kits + a donor savage would cost and it's a far better bike.

BTW, the GF's savage is for sale ;)
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