Outsiders Son of a Beach

There’s something undeniably cool about ripping along a beach on a bike. Be it Burt Monro racing the greasers on his Indian, the madness of the Le Touquet Beach Race or even Guy Martin sweating his gonads off on a push bike on Pendine. It’s such an odd thing to be doing for the majority of us that it’s fascinating. The engineer in me cringes at the idea of sand in places it shouldn’t be but gosh darn it looks like a hoot and half.

For their sixth build, Outsiders were commissioned to create a way for their surf instructor/life guard friend Lex(calm down ladies) to get to the beach; with his board. A new rider licence limited the donor to just 125cc, so a Suzuki GN125 with a mere 3000kms on the clock was found in the back of a garage. Eager to get his hands dirty, Lex helped tear the bike down into piles of do and do not want. One pile was considerably bigger than the other…

The design brief was about affordability and durability, whilst maintaining enough beach-cruise cool. Whilst trying to keep costs to a minimum the frame had to be modified. The original chopper style seat rails were replaced with more horizontal ones and, ingeniously, the rear loop was cut and shut from the original bike’s cruiser handlebars. Small LEDs were selected for the indicators and housed in yet more discarded handlebar.

The surf board rack, a must have for Lex, was bent up and secured to main frame spars. Far enough out so as not to obstruct control function or movement on the bike. Though getting on from the left might be a little ticky! Renthal bars and Oury grips give some scrambler style and fork gaiters keep the sand out of the suspension. Alloy mudguards front and rear keep the sand out of your teeth.

With the engine barely run it there was no need to break into it, so a thorough service and tune up was completed before a smaller airbox and thorough re-jetting ensured the bike was running sweetly; making the most of its meagre capacity. The silencer was also swapped out for something with a bit more rumble at the end of the sweeping manifold.

The seat is a real centrepiece of the bike. Created by the Eindhoven based RachelSarah, it’s the first seat she’s done for Outsiders; I can certainly see more work coming her way. Crisp stitching, sensible padding and that beautiful wave motif down the sides. An Outsiders tag is the finishing touch, surprising how the smallest of details can make such a difference

Being a first bike and one that would spend the majority of its life going to the beach, not just on it, the wheels and tyres were kept on the sensible side. By all accounts the little engine struggles a bit in the sand anyway so the decision was made to stick to road biased rubber. The bike now runs rims from the rear of a GN250 at both ends, increasing width and reducing diameter.

Heavy duty powder coat and stainless steel are used throughout the bike to ensure it survives the worst the Dutch coast throws at it. Delivered to Lex at the end of a long weekend piecing the bike together all parties were thrilled with the outcome; the Outsiders being rewarded with a surf lesson. What more can you ask for?

First appeared in http://thebikeshed.cc