Gary’s Suzuki Burgman 400 special

And now for something completely different. Gary is a motocross rider who just felt like doing a special based on Suzuki’s long standing Burgman scooter.

The frame is standard, if you don’t count the yellow paint and the two top rails which he’s added. Apart from a seat, the bike is complete, which led to a fair bit of head-scratching. How do you hide the electrics where there’s no bodywork?

Gary had already made an electrics plate under the seat, but the front end needed connections to the switch clusters, headlight, speedo and indicators. I got round this as best I could using yellow cable sleeving (for camouflage) and (where practical) skinny wires using JST connectors (for tinyness).

This is a very early Burgman, with a carb, but it still needs a resistor in the ignition circuit to override an anti-theft system Suzuki built into the bike in the late 1990s. SV650s had something similar. Even then, it wouldn’t run the fuel pump. I checked everything so many times, but it still wouldn’t run. Eventually a test showed that, as soon as I pressed the starter, the ignition box killed the power to the pump. It must be another aspect of the security system. The easiest way round it was to run the fuel pump off another circuit. So I did, and voila.

Having been through the harrowing process of building his first roadgoing special, Gary is selling the bike. One Burgman, slightly modified, in nature’s warning colours. If you fancy it, let me know and I’ll pass the message on.