Ace 50 Salt Lake Racer

[SuusCustoms]

Earlier today we got our hands on a new project. After a fair bit of reading online we decided to get our hands on a Skyteam Ace as a fun little custom project. For reasons that will be revealed soon we decided to go with the 50cc and over the next couple of months we will be customising the little racer and smoothing out some of the made-in-china imperfections.

The bike is brand new, registered and runs quite nicely, so first thing was to get it up on the stand and see how it was all bolted together.

After a thorough look over the precision could certainly be better in a few spots, but they seem pretty well put together for the price. We are looking to both improve performance a little and clean up the aesthetics of the bike, so first up was to remove the rubber tank strap. We have something far nicer in mind for this area.


The big bulky rear guard and taillight has to go too but we have a pretty clever idea of how to deal with this issue. We will also be looking for a new manifold to rotate the carby into a position where the airbox can be scrapped and a filter fitted. Does anyone know why there is a massive restricter in the current manifold?




There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on improving the performance of the little 50cc model, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[SuusCustoms]

A little more progress today:

Pulled the restriction out of the manifold. Still runs fine without it, although it seems super rich with the choke on - smoky and won't rev, turn it off and it revvs out nicely and idles just fine.


I also started mocking up alternative rear guards and modifications to the chainguard, but the main project for today was the seat. While I understand that the original seat is a tribute to the Dream 50, the rounded shape never really made sense to me against the square tank, the front of the seat doesn't align nicely with the tank, and I don't find the padding overly comfortable. In order to make things flow a bit better I took rather drastic action with a spare fueltank. What do you think so far?

[SuusCustoms]

A little more progress has been made on the Skyteam this week.

Rear guard brackets are mocked up, will hopefully be functional by the end of Friday.

Jets are about to be ordered to get the carby running a little richer

Seat is coming along nicely. Pan is nearly complete, tail shape is about right and we have started looking at taillights. The one attached at present is our favourite so far. Indicators have been reused at correct spacing for Australian Standards and seat brackets have been reused as well for easy fitment and removal.

[SuusCustoms]

It's time to make an exciting announcement I've been waiting for confirmation about. On February 28th this year we will be taking the Ace SALT LAKE RACING!

We will be heading over to Lake Gairdner in South Australia to compete in the 50cc modified production gasoline category at the DLRA's Speed Week 2014.


As a result we have been busily prepping the bike for racing. The new seat is almost complete, handlebars are all set up now with a substantially lower bar height, headlight and indicators are gone, new jets in the carby and the exhaust has been opened up.

For those wondering where the main restriction is in the 50cc exhaust, the easiest way to get to it is to cut the seam that is overlapped by the exhaust mounting bracket. you will find the main restrictor hanging in there. I have left the baffles in there to give a little bit of backpressure, but the corrogated restrictor had to go.

[SuusCustoms]

Lots of work done on the Skyteam this week. The wheels are off getting better tyres, brake caliper and disk are now black (much better than the gold IMO), the kill switch is all wired up, a race approved chainguard has been made, and the entire bike has been stripped for the frame to be powdercoated in a new colour.

[SuusCustoms]

Well the Ace has had a big couple of weeks. Stripping and powdercoating took way too long, so I didn't get the bike back until Friday morning, but the wait was well worth it.

In the last day and a half the Ace has been completely reassembled, newly trimmed seat fitted, custom taillight wired up, new tyres fitted. All that is left for racing is to fit racing numbers and give it a good tune!

What do you think of the new frame colour?

[SuusCustoms]

The Skyteam is now complete with less than 24 hours until we leave for South Australia. The axles are lockwired, racing numbers on, steering damper fitted and Suus logos on.

Been for a couple of short rides but haven't even had the time to run her in properly so this should get interesting over there!

[SuusCustoms]

We did it! a 3000km round trip and a week on the salt but the Skyteam performed well above expectations, clocking a record 39.5 miles per hour (well above the 28 mile per hour factory maximum speed).

Sorry about dragging my heels with the photos. I've still got a few to upload of the bikes out on the salt, but for now here are a few from the event.

Full photo album is available at www.facebook.com/suuscustoms/photos_albums
Full writeup at suus.com.au/speed-week-2014-suus-gets-two-records/

We also put together a little video:

[SuusCustoms]

And some more: