Suzuki GSX 1300R

Some models take a long time to come to fruition. This one began from my ambition to build another bike with 4.25″ tyres Years ago I tackled the rear suspension and came up with a version of the modern swinging arm that operates an internally mounted sprung unit, and added the main frame, but I was never happy with the front forks. Eventually, having finished some other large models I decided to revisit this one, and once I had sorted out the forks – making the outer sections from thick PVC tubing, it all began to come together.

Based on a small die-cast model the most challenging part was to replicate the various curved sections of the tank and bodywork, but some of the modern parts make that much easier than it used to be. The headlamps in the main fairing for instance come from one of the recent Meccano car kits. I also used an old Meccano “Dunlop” Tyre which has a narrow rounded tread for the front wheel, and one of Ashok’s modern heavy tyres for the rear wheel: this is the same diameter but much fatter and reflects the typical differential in sizes seen on modern bikes. Both are mounted on spoked “Artillery” wheels rather than pulleys.

There is an M0 motor buried in the midst of it all, though as yet unconnected to the rear sprocket: I intend to use Stokys chain for the drive, which is a genuine roller chain and looks vastly better here than the Meccano chain links.

Apart from this about the only nonstandard parts were the black exhaust pipes ahead of the silencers – made from 3/8″ O/D rubber tubing with scrap wheel bosses mounted at each end, their inner stubs fitting neatly inside the tubing.

As always, printing up side views of the original and enlarging them to the size of the model made some of the calculations very much easier.