Suzuki T500 Cobra MK I Rebuild
This was a fairly complete Suzuki T500 MK I 'Cobra' that was first registered in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada in 1969. It came with a couple of boxes of bits and I bought it from my friend Fred (head of the local 'Loyal Order of Water Buffalo' here in here in Calgary). The bike appeared to have many of the hard to find parts specific to that model, and so provided me an opportunity to 'bookend' the production series, given I just recently finished a 1977 GT500 which was the last year of production.
The MK I had a number of 'one year only' features:
- the 'ski jump' fully flared front and rear fenders
- the chrome side panels and fuel level pipe on the tank (note that work needs to be done on the tank - more on that later)
- the horn was mounted on a centre bolt, rather than on a bracket
- the 'rounder' style side cover and oil tank than was used on later models
- 34 mm 'round bowl' carburettors
- a complete oil pump cover (later ones were cut out to allow the carburettors to sit further back)
- the bolted turn signal mounts with a 'flat' rear - fairly rare
- a suede finished seat cover, secured by chromed buttons
- the left side cover was metal rather than plastic as used later
Below are a few photos of the bike as delivered (click on any image for a larger version):
