Lombarzuki Sport-tourer

[HondaJohn]

This is a long-term project that I have begun gathering parts for.

It is based on a Suzuki GS550 that I pulled from a breaker with a trashed engine. I didn't really plan on starting this already, but the price was too good to pass up

I will be mating the engine to a the transmission from a GS450 twin that I pulled from the same yard. As you can see from the pictures, this unit was pretty toast, so no harm in stripping it down.

I've cut the trans part from the rest of the engine like several other bikes in this forum and am making a few plates to bolt to the hole and seal in the oil. Luckily, this particular unit is a 6-speed, so it will give me plenty of ratios to play with to offset the lower power.

I originally wanted to mount a 16 hp Lombardini 25LD 330/2, but apparently these are no longer manufactured and are rather difficult to find in un-abused condition. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for alternate power plants that could get me up to safe highway cruising speed (approx 65-70 mph in my neck of the woods)? Thanks in advance.

[albertaphil]

John, it sounds like you're on a path very similar to the one I'm on. I'm using the ruggerini equivalent of the Lombardini you mentioned (rug MD151), and now that I have the engine mounted in the frame, I don't know what else I could have used. Even to have gone to the 19hp MD191 which is only an inch larger in each dimension, I would have had to stretch the frame of the bike (which would be quite difficult on my frame (honda CB400) because it is not a simple tube running under the fuel tank. As it is, I've had to remove the mechanical fuel pump from the engine as it contacted the front tire, and I also had to source an extra short oil filter for the same reason. Were I to have gone to a Kubota or yanmar, I haven't a clue where I would have mounted the radiator without a massive reworking of the frame.

You can still get parts for the ruggerinis and lombardinis through Kohler, though you may get some blank stares from the parts people (think: "ruggawha?") And the parts aren't neccessarily too expensive...an oil pump was only $40. Also, just about anything else with the same power will weigh 100lbs more, and most other engines of the same weight have much less power.

I hope you can complete your project faster than I'm finishing mine:-/

Cheers,
Phil

[HondaJohn]

You don't realize how spoiled you are to have unlimited access to your university's machine shop until you've graduated.

It's been a while since updating this project. The plans have gone through alot of changes since I last posted, mostly due to the change in my living situation and the lack of machine shop access. I'm scraping together a garage shop of my own now, mostly centered around an ancient mill and Hardinge tool room lathe (the mill may actually be over 100 years old, and previously powered by a common belt!) so stretching the frame and complex billet parts are pretty much out of the question for a while.

At this point, all I've managed is to erase all the neglect the frame and running gear suffered after a few years in a junkyard. Brakes are rebuilt, seat patched, electrics mostly sorted, so now its sitting in my garage waiting for its heart transplant. The question I've been rolling around is what kind of heart to get started with. What are some good options without having to cut the frame? Are CVT's reliable?