Once upon a time, customizing a sportbike meant ripping its fairings off, swapping out its handlebars, and calling it a streetfighter. But things have changed for the better. Nowadays, custom builders are taking 80s and 90s sportbikes, and amplifying their retro radness with well-judged mods and upgrades.
Craftsmen like Marc Bell are leading the charge. Marc’s specialty is high-end metal fabrication for designers, architects, artists, and the like. But he’s also a track racer and retro sportbike nut—so you’ll find him building machines of that ilk under the name HAXCH Moto.
His latest project is a tastefully modified 1988 Suzuki GSX-R1100 J—commonly known as a ‘slabside’ in Gixxer circles, for the plastic slabs that flank the rear half of the bike. Those panels are gone now, but much of the Suzuki’s late 80s DNA still remains.
“The build started off with an enquiry from Ossi, a guy in Switzerland who’s wanted a slabside since he was a kid,” Marc tells us. “He had a fascination with them when they came out in 86, and now, aged 50, he decided it was time to commission his own custom slabby.”
“Ossi had seen a previous Haxch Moto slabside build and wanted his own. The brief was to keep it classic in style and race-inspired, but to subtly make it a standout build, with all of the possible performance upgrades to make it as light and sharp as possible. I build a lot of bikes for racing and track use, so I went straight to suspension and brake upgrades.”
The upgrades began with a set of Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD forks, upgraded with Maxton internals. A Maxton shock was fitted at the back, and the frame and swingarm were braced. The GSX-R1100 now rolls on lightweight Dymag wheels, with twin Brembo M4 calipers fitted to custom brackets up front.
Moving to the bodywork, Marc swapped the GSX-R’s aging fairings for aftermarket fiberglass parts. Next, he modified the front end to accommodate a pair of LED headlights, mounted in a bespoke aluminum housing. A pair of tiny Motogadget LED turn signals are subtly bolted to each side of the fairing.
A Koso dash sits behind the Suzuki’s windshield, while the bars wear a Domino quick-action throttle, HEL clutch and brake levers, and Motone switches. Marc also added HEL hoses, ACC Billet Engineering rear-sets, and a keyless ignition from Motogadget.
Marc had a more radical redesign in mind for the tail end of the GSX-R. “The lines of the stock slabside always bothered me a bit,” he explains. “Not to knock a classic, but it feels too sunken from the seat backward. It isn’t racy enough.”
“So I chopped off the stock subframe (which is welded on), welded new aluminum brackets to the main frame, then made a new aluminum subframe to raise the ride height and hold the new rear tail unit. I designed the tail unit in cardboard, then made the final version out of aluminum sheet, using the English wheel and various traditional sheet metal work techniques to shape the panels, before TIG welding them together.”
The new tail section loses the slabside’s distinctive side panels but still feels period-correct. Marc repurposed the OEM taillight lens out back, but retrofitted it with LED internals. Up top, a removable panel reveals a pillion seat (the bike has foldaway passenger pegs and a license plate bracket too, but they’re not fitted here).
Hiding under the new bodywork are the Suzuki’s new battery, and a Motogadget mo.Unit Blue controller that runs the new wiring loom.
Even though the engine’s hidden behind fairings, it hasn’t gone untouched. It’s been rebuilt with standard internals, but now uses a Dynatek Dyna 2000 ignition kit. Mikuni RS38 flatslide carbs handle intake duties, while four-into-one exhaust headers and a Yoshimura can make all the right noises.
One of Marc’s many talents is the ability to map out the perfect livery for each bike he builds. This one keeps the GSX-R’s original color palette—but with a more contemporary design.
“I wanted to make it unique, to pay tribute to the original without sticking to it exactly,” he explains. “The twin thick pinstripe over the tank is a favorite part of the design, as is the number board, which brings the race feel and houses a number which is special to the owner, Ossi.”
Dream Machine took care of the radical paint job, while Baz Kay tackled the upholstery. Like every HAXCH creation before it, this Suzuki GSX-R1100 hits all the right notes. From the carefully curated parts spec to the supremely cool graphics, there’s not a thing we’d change.
HAXCH Moto Instagram | Images by Kane Layland
