What's new

Suzuki VS800 Info and advice???

matty

Border raider.
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Member Number
139
Posts
627
Location
England Scotish border
Just came back from viewing a Derelict Project 1993 Suzuki VS800, Its been sat around a Car spray shop for nearly 7 years. its covered in dust and lots of it are missing or in boxes. its got carbs exhausts and it did bang away with a little help from some ether, but it stopped once i stopped spraying.
Not esspecialy wanting to run it on ether very long, i am as sure as i can be (And Seller is genune lad i know a little about and he said it ran fine) engine will be ok.
Its a propper dirty filthy mess, but not rusty as such, was brought in as a Insurance buy back after a Attempted theft and subsequent Chopper project build that got abandoned at the paint shop, storage fees and Previous owner having different work done by the shop, had this bike owned by the propriotor and his idea of a chopper/ bobber build never came to fruition. and I was told about it by the chaps wife who used to work with my wife at the school.
So, here we are yet again another unloved heap and Gulible Matty , on the hook yet again for more work and heartache.
I am always up for a challenge, and i like saving worthless crap from being stripped for parts if i can, guess its an old fashioned attitude to have in this affluent stricktly monetary day and age, but i am old fashioned right enough.
Bike is less than the vallue of the sum of its parts, so getting out of it wont leave me financially embarrassed in any way, so i am game for a try.
What this thread is about is advice if you can give me any please. What are the 800 intruders like generally,. and what can i expect to find wrong with one of these things quite often if it indeed is a lemon?.
Carbs might potentialy be a mess and i am thinking might be a challenge getting parts for, and i am quite prepared for an allternative carb install if nessasary. I am thinking going down the stripped down minimalist bobber chopper route and although not usualy a cruiser sort of chap, i took on an En500 Kawasaki i bobed some years ago now and i love it. So kind of looking forward to this in a cautious sort of way.
Any input on these bikes generaly greatfcully recieved.
 
I had two friends back in the day that bought a pair of these. They were faster off the line than the corked up 1400 version and I guess handled pretty well too. I understand the previous version was 700cc and did pretty well too. It wasn't my style and I didn't follow their travels much but they did put on some serious miles. A few years later I worked with a guy who'd uncorked one of the 1400cc 5-speed models, I always thought that engine would be fun in something sporty....
 
Get those carbs out and cleaned... :) be sure to change rear unit gear oil, take out old spline drive seal and regrease the drive splines as well. I had a 2005 for a while, nice bike and liked it a bunch.
 
Had a VX800 for a few years . great engine , pulls nicely , solid power pulses , a thin bike to ride and I do like a shaft drive .
 
An Update.
Thanks to all who kindly gave advice on this subject.
I did indeed purchase this Project bike a fortnight ago i took carbs off and they had some white death in them but not half as bad as i expected . I eventually got it running and kind of ticking over but it was not 100% stable and would if left idling slow and stall.
Not sure if it was drawing air some where or just adjustment .. Nothing gave me immediate concern and i looked at the bike overall and decided i wanted drag bars and removed the tall cruiser bars and gave them a clean with tin foil and vinegar and promptly listed them on Fleabay for £40:lol2.
My son moved it from the workshop into my reloading / tinkering room. as he was taking the rear tub off his hilux and needed the room.
A mate Wanted some .410 wads i had and called round last week i unlocked the room only to be greated with the Suzuki very much in the way. My mate Chuckled and asked "What is this" "Oh its in here resting i replied". ... Mate " Is it for sale" .. " Not really But" . well a discussion took place and to cut a long story short he clearly wanted that bike a lot more than i did and as a result he ended up owning it . Within moments bank numbers exchanged he had paid me and we were two old men trying to load it into his VW van with no handlebars:lol2.
So that was short lived and when he was pulling out the yard i kind of wondered if i did the right thing. but whatever.. Trouble is everythings for sale and he is a mate we go back 50 years.
 
Back
Top Bottom