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Tim's XT600 motor swap into a GS 500 Chassis This page is dedicated to the memory of my friend and fellow racer, Tim Welch, who was killed in an auto accident in the fall of 1998. Godspeed, Tim: you are missed. 
Tim Welch approached me with an interesting proposition: he wanted to put a Yamaha XT 600 motor into a Suzuki GS 500 chassis. The bike would be campaigned in AHRMA's Singles class. The project also involved modifying the rear suspension linkage to accept a longer shock from a Yamaha FZR 400. 
We discovered that by cutting and rotating the lower shock linkage mounting crossbar, we could easily produce the correct ride height. 
The biggest challenge was to modify the frame to accomodate the vestigal kick start bulge on the clutch cover. We decided that since we had to modify the frame extensively, we should allow for easy clutch cover removal as well. 
Along with a beefy cylinder head stay, this front engine mount solidly locates the XT motor in the GS chassis.
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