I like to keep them looking stock, so I use stock tanks.. I put a 5 gallon desert tank on my own personal ride. There's no need to mount the tank in the rear, just slide the engine back a little, it you want more rear weight. Most ppl mount the tank in the rear, because they use a fuel injected engine, and they need to cut the top rails of the frame, so the stock tank wont fit in the stock location. The only other practical place to put the tank, is in the rear. Just buy my DS1000 and save yourself some time and trouble. I'm selling it and building a side by side. :-)

 

The engine needs to be as far back as possible or you are going to have serious swing arm articulation issues. The counter shaft sprocket and the swing arm pivot bolt need to be a close as possible and properly set up or your chain will be overly tight on one end of your travel and overly loose on the other. Be careful how you approach this project, you can spend as much $ doing it wrong as doing it right. If you have any intentions of racing it you will want to add a longer swing arm.

 

I guarantee if you put a set of paddles on your conversion and tried to lanunch it in the sand it will flip over in a heartbeat... If your buiding a conversion for trail bashing then I guess that would be the route to go but for dune riding placing the motor as far back as possible is the preferred method. The DS in stock form is already nose heavy so placing a heavier motor further forward is even going to put more weight on the front wheels. A heavy front end is not a good thing in the sand and the front wheels will want to plow. Regardless of how far forward you place the motor you WILL still need an extended swingarm when running in the sand. Paddles hook much harder than knobbies on dirt and you will quickly be kissing the sky if you dont put the right size extended swingarm on. THere is no way you are going to be able to run a 1000cc motor in the dunes without an extended swingarm so why not put the motor all the way back where it is going to give the best balance and put less weight on the front wheels.

Erbe are you looking to build a dune or trail bike??? I know the answer but am not quite sure you have thought everything through.

 

We build our conversions for a wider variety of terrain.. If you are only going to ride in sand, you can get away with putting it too far back. I run paddles on my own personal rides all winter. If it wants to wheelie, I simply lean forward. If I need more traction, I lean back. If you need to extend your swing arm, your engine is too far back.

 

We haven't had any trouble yet... lol

 

I have been looking into it and not sure what engine to go with I can get a gsxr 600 complete wrecked bike for cheap but not sure if that will be enough. It sounds like a few of you have done or are attempting a similar conversion. I was considering having someone do the frame modifications and some other things possibly due to my lack of a shop. I would appreciate it if one of you could send me an email at dogzilla5178@yahoo.com as I would like to figure out what I am going to use and get started. I would appreciate any help I can get

 

If you are going through the time and expense of building it, go with at least a 1000cc engine. the horsepower numbers aren't very different, between a 600 and a 1000, but the 1000 has a lot more torque.

 

ok can't argue with gsxr1000 lol so is there anyone to your knowledge that does this on a regular basis or semi regular basis that I can talk to about setting up my frame and of course I have plenty of questions. the only reason I was looking at the 600 is because it is a 2005 with only like 4k miles and I can get it cheap.

 

A 600 would fit nicely into a smaller 450 quad but on a big heavy DS I would also recommend going bigger. In the end its going to be the same amount of work and you will be much happier with the larger motor. Go to quadrockets.com and you can see a lot of pics and videos from a guy by the name of Bud who has done several GSXR1000 conversions in the DS frame. He builds his conversions to run in the dunes.

BTW there is currently a Haybusa DS 650 for sale on Ebay that is going to go for much less then you could ever build on for.

 

Building a 60% Dunner 40% Hill Shooter, Metal Tech done a few of these conversions, going with a plus 7" swing arm, Got to remember Im a Big Boy , even my 730 with 13 to 1 comp , plus 4" swinger dosent lift up to offten, plus with the plus A arms the Busa should handle damn well , hell of alot better than my wifes 550 lbs KFX 700!