Well, here we are, the long awaited Suzuki XR69 TRIBUTE, Bike #1, which is headed off to New Zealand. This has certainly been a long process, with many complications, but we worked through them all and now this is the result. It’s not a traditional GS1000 8V engine XR69, but if you haven’t noticed, I’m not much of a traditionalist, and so this is my interpretation of this historic racer. The chassis is 4130 aircraft grade tubular Cr-Mo steel, designed and fabricated by Denis Curtis (RIP) and Byron Cox, of former @CMR Racing. The fuel tank and swingarm was also fabricated by CMR. All suspension components are by Öhlins USA, with the front forks (FGRT 202) designed initially for a BMW 1000RR, but with an increase of 10mm to the length and stroke. The brakes all around are by Brembo, with 320mm discs upfront, billet radial mount front calipers, RCS brake and clutch masters / levers, and plumbed with Spiegler Performance Parts braided lines. Wheels are super light weight carbon fiber CA5’s by Dymag Performance Wheels, along with Michelin Pilot Power CT2’s. Rear sets are from @Harris Performance.The engine is a freshened Bandit 1200 unit topped off with an early GSXR750 “DOT” head, that has more of a down draft design with smaller combustion chambers for added compression. Cams are from an oil cooled GSXR-1100 along with Kibblewhite springs. Ignition is a Dyna 2000 unit with 2.2Ohm grey coils, and the engine breathes though a set of Yoshimura TMR-MJN carbs. The exhaust is an incredibly light weight 4-1 titanium unit from Racefit. The bodywork is carbon fiber that is equipped with headlights from a Honda NC35 VFR400. The paint work is by our partners over at Sketchs Ink (all paint – no vinyl), who worked incredibly hard to make my ideas into reality.Bike #2 is almost completely assembled so watch out for this beast ….. and some sound clips. It will be 1216cc with a number of engine upgrades.