Project Lowbucks 2, Part 4: A Dirt Cheap Dirt Bike

Aug. 12, 2013 By Rick Sieman

Since there was so much rattle-can paint work on our project bike when we first found it, Part One of our second Project Lowbucks was a complete strip of the bike. We worked to get all the rust off of pieces, and we then went to work painting the frame and finding out what was wrong with our 1980 Suzuki PE 175. Luckily, nothing much was wrong; it was just a bunch of hard work to get things looking good.

In Part Two of our build, we started assembling the bike and many of the pieces were painted and buffed out.  In Part Three, we made a lot of progress and it started to look like a genuine dirt bike.

The freshly painted pipe was now bolted into place.

The muffler/spark arrestor combination took a lot of bolts but was modern solidly. It’s a good thing too, as it was fairly heavy.

Join us now in Part Four as we get near the end of our second Project Lowbucks.

The rear brake was a complicated affair, and we had to remove the foot peg to get it on properly.

Project Lowbucks 2 Stories
Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

The brake cable was then hooked to the rear brake setup.

All of the electronics were connected and roughly zip tied into place.

After we had the routing of the cables done properly, the zip ties were neatly trimmed.

The chain was installed and adjusted, and a shift lever put in place.

Here’s the left-side panel installed.

And the right-side panel installed.

Next, the rear fender got bolted home.

The air filter was installed and then the seat was put in place.

Here you go, one 1980 PE 175 all put together. In the next issue, we take it for a ride and see how it works.

Project Lowbucks 2 Stories
Part 3

Part 2

Part 1


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