Howdy Folks, Last week, I was helping out a friend who has physical limitations. I noticed that the neighbor across the street had an old steel locker sitting on the curb, so, needing such a locker to store flammables in my shop, I knocked on the door to make sure that this was indeed a "free" item, and still up for grabs. The guy that answered the door was more than nice, and said yes, I could have it. I mentioned to him that I had noticed an old Suzuki 750 at the curb the week before, and he said that he had just sold it for.....$200.00!! I was like "Gee, I wish I would have known". to which he replied, as he pointed over my shoulder to the driveway "That one's for sale". I looked, and there sat the bike pictured below. I gave it a quick once over, and decided to open up with a lowball offer and said "I'd go 200 on that one". He put his hand on his chin, rubbed the 2 day stubble there and pondered for a few seconds. "OK I'll do that" he said. We walked toward the bike and I replied "great, I'll have the money in 3 days". As we got to the bike he said "I really can't do it for $200.00, but I have the fairing, how 'bout 300?" I asked "Is the fairing in good shape and complete, and is it original to the bike?" He said "yes, This was my (late)Dad's bike, and it hasn't been started in years, the fairing is in the back shed, and it's in good shape, he ran it without it for the last couple years he was around". This was believable due to the makeshift front headlight bolted to the front end.
So, 3 days later, I showed up with three crisp $100.00 bills, loaded the bike up, and was on my way. I have briefly looked it over, and it's truly a barn find. All there and unmolested. The license plate tabs read "95" meaning it hasn't been operational for 17 years! I will have my work cut out for me just getting it roadworthy. Then, this morning the lightbulb above my head went on, and the video monitor next to the bulb showed this
The Can-Am Spyder. As these are registered as motorcycles in all 50, I believe that this old 'winger, with it's low, flat, powerful 4 cylinder engine will be the perfect candidate to convert into one of these fun-machines. It's not officially a project yet, but will end up being one (actually more like dozens of individual projects), starting in the very near future. I look forward to sharing this project with all of you! One of the things I'd like as soon as possible is ANY info anyone has on possible chassis design that might save me some of the literally hundreds of hours of cad tome it's going to take me to get this thing built. Comments anyone?