I just picked up another project bike, its been sitting for at least 10 years untouched in a house garage. The original owner bought it, rode it for a year or two, then up and died. It sat where he left it until last week. I spotted the ad in a local free paper and took the ride to go look at it. The price was very right, and it came home with me.
Cosmetically, its not bad, there's a lot of light surface rust on some of the chrome and a ton of cheap add on bits all over the bike, including a pair of unknown brand drag pipes with no baffles.
Its my first newer Suzuki, a 2005 model.
Does anyone have any opinions on these? I'm assuming its basically just a renamed 1400 Intruder with some minor changes?
Does anyone have one with drag pipes? How do you access the rear brake reservoir with the header pipe passing so close to it? There's a chrome cover on the brake reservoir but you can't remove it with the header in place. I guess to check the brake fluid the header has to come off? How about heat transfer to the reservoir?
I've had it running on car cleaner shot right into the carbs so I know it'll run, but the carbs, tank, and petcocks are all gummed up. I've got the tank soaking half full of carb cleaner hoping to melt down some of the solidified gas.
I was suprised to see how much rust there was on the chrome bits, even the factory chrome. The bike was in an attached garage and nearly all the chrome has some degree of surface rust or even some pitting.
So far the bars, forks, and shocks have cleaned up perfect, the rear shock mounts or handles are pretty well rusted on the inside, but the outer chrome cleaned right up. The head covers cleaned right up, and the headlight ring came up like new as well. The big challenge is the spokes, they're covered in light rust, but the rims are aluminum, which will limit what I can use on the spokes.
Were the rims on these polished or just plain aluminum? They don't look like they were ever polished, they look more like plain bare extruded aluminum to me? I've seen a few older Intruders with rims that looked like chrome, but I'm not sure if these are the same rims on the Boulevard model?
Cosmetically, its not bad, there's a lot of light surface rust on some of the chrome and a ton of cheap add on bits all over the bike, including a pair of unknown brand drag pipes with no baffles.
Its my first newer Suzuki, a 2005 model.
Does anyone have any opinions on these? I'm assuming its basically just a renamed 1400 Intruder with some minor changes?
Does anyone have one with drag pipes? How do you access the rear brake reservoir with the header pipe passing so close to it? There's a chrome cover on the brake reservoir but you can't remove it with the header in place. I guess to check the brake fluid the header has to come off? How about heat transfer to the reservoir?
I've had it running on car cleaner shot right into the carbs so I know it'll run, but the carbs, tank, and petcocks are all gummed up. I've got the tank soaking half full of carb cleaner hoping to melt down some of the solidified gas.
I was suprised to see how much rust there was on the chrome bits, even the factory chrome. The bike was in an attached garage and nearly all the chrome has some degree of surface rust or even some pitting.
So far the bars, forks, and shocks have cleaned up perfect, the rear shock mounts or handles are pretty well rusted on the inside, but the outer chrome cleaned right up. The head covers cleaned right up, and the headlight ring came up like new as well. The big challenge is the spokes, they're covered in light rust, but the rims are aluminum, which will limit what I can use on the spokes.
Were the rims on these polished or just plain aluminum? They don't look like they were ever polished, they look more like plain bare extruded aluminum to me? I've seen a few older Intruders with rims that looked like chrome, but I'm not sure if these are the same rims on the Boulevard model?