Any fan of the evergreen Suzuki GSX-R has their favourite mannequin. Some are drawn to the nostalgic enchantment of the older ‘slabside’ and ‘slingshot’ GSX-Rs, whereas others favor the refinement and efficiency of the newer Gixxers. Marc Bell performs on each side of the fence.
His newest challenge proves it. It’s primarily based on a 2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9, but it surely’s been handled to a retro-fabulous makeover, with new bodywork and a retina-searing livery. He calls it the ‘Slabshot.’
Day after day, Marc works as a fabricator below the moniker HAXCH, specializing in high-end metallic work for designers, architects and artists. However a part of his workshop is put aside to construct customized bikes and prep his race machines. It helps that he has a lathe, milling machine and welding setup readily available always.
The thought for the Slabshot was conceived after final yr’s Bike Shed customized motorbike present. Marc had introduced his recently-completed customized Eighties slabby to the present, and the eye it garnered bought him considering.
“The thought got here to me to mix the aesthetics of the gorgeous old skool bikes with the superior efficiency of contemporary equipment,” he tells us. “Driving fashionable sports activities bikes is a tremendous expertise on observe—they’re so planted, flip superbly and have insane energy. However they’re horribly ugly!”
Marc crunched the numbers, and figured that the Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9 would give him the efficiency he wished and nonetheless keep inside funds. He snatched up an appropriate donor, and took it and his slabside construct to the Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk, England, to check them.
“The distinction was unimaginable,” he stories. “There’s 20 years of improvement between the 2, and you may really feel it immediately. I’m used to driving traditional bikes on observe and highway, so it was a large shock to me how simple it was to experience and nook with—it’s so planted, and the facility’s simply wonderful all through the rev vary.”
With that, Marc was bought on the idea—however he wasn’t fairly positive how it will translate in the true world. So he stripped the GSX-R1000 down, and crudely connected some Yoshimura-style fairings that he needed to it (with cable ties, no much less).
Subsequent, he hacked open an outdated slingshot gas tank to suit it over the bike’s airbox, and began mocking up a tail part in cardboard. Issues have been coming collectively—however Marc may see potential to take the idea additional.
“I wished to progress issues alongside from the slabside model,” he tells us, “so I began trying on the early slingshot endurance bikes. They appeared like a extra pure match, barely extra aerodynamic and a pure evolution from final yr’s construct. With this transition got here the identify of the construct—a homage to each iconic bikes.”
With a remaining route set, Marc ordered a Suzuki Endurance Racing Workforce-style entrance fairing, and a Yoshimura-style tail part, from a store that focuses on traditional racing bodywork. Getting the fairing to take a seat proper meant fabricating not solely a brand new fairing mount, but additionally a brand new aluminum sprint plate to relocate the inventory speedo. Then got here the arduous process of massaging the tail part and tank to harmonize.
Marc took the slingshot tank that he’d been utilizing for the mockup, then modified it on the again to alter its angle. Subsequent, he minimize the entrance open, stuffed the void in with polyurethane foam, and formed it into the profile he was after. A lot of hours of fiberglass work later, and the ultimate tank and tail now circulation seamlessly into one another—as if it rolled out of the manufacturing facility like this again within the 90s.
As soon as the bodywork was sorted, Marc stripped the bike down once more, and despatched the body and swingarm off for soda blasting. With the OEM black paint stripped, the elements have been sanded and brushed repeatedly, till that they had the identical naked aluminum look discovered on 90s sport bikes. “This was a key element within the construct to get that 90s aesthetic,” says Marc.
One other nod to older race bikes is the brand new CNC-machined high yoke. Marc stored it blocky and fundamental, with minimize outs beneath to save lots of weight. The ignition mount is gone now too; the bike’s been rewired with a keyless system.
Upgrades embody new clip-ons, a fast motion throttle, race-style switches, braided strains, Brembo M4 calipers and a Nitron rear shock. Marc additionally milled out new rear-sets for the bike, emulating retro Yoshimura race bike designs. The general vibe is pared-back and practical… till you get to the paint job, after all.
A wonderful tribute to the neon-drenched extra of the 90s, the Slabshot’s livery was a results of hours spent in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, layering potential designs over a photograph of the bike carrying its clean fairings.
“There have been a number of 90s font packages examined, and many inspiration drawn from my favourite 90s bikes,” Marc tells us. “I feel loads of it filtered in subconsciously; the drop shadow emblem font is barely like an early Fireblade, the pink tank line and emblem a bit YZF750, and the zig zag pink and purple comes immediately from my present highway bike, slightly 1992 GSX-R400.”
As a remaining element, Marc slipped an LED headlight into the fairing’s entrance air vent, and changed the air field with a customized system that mimics the ‘Hoover tubes’ you’ll discover on many 90s sportbikes.
So what’s subsequent for HAXCH and the Slabshot? Marc’s planning a observe day with it, after which he’s taking it to this yr’s Bike Shed present in Might—the place it has the honour of being one of many bikes on the present’s official poster.
After that, it’ll be on the market. events, please kind an orderly queue.
HAXCH Instagram | Photos by Amy Shore for The Bike Shed
