Stock-Length 330 Rear OSD GSXR

Glance at this tangerine and root beer colored GSX-R1000 and you'll probably notice the paint and a few of the additional touches that make it a good-looking custom. There's no long swingarm sticking out the rear, so there's nothing to look at back there, right?

Look again.

Leave it to H2o Cycles mastermind Louis Grasse to put a 330 tire on a stock-length swingarm. The tire fits surprisingly well underneath the GSX-R tail, and makes plenty of onlookers give it a second glance.

The paint scheme on this 2007 GSX-R1000 was added two years ago for a customer. Aruba's Paul Wong came over to paint this in-house at the H2o shop in Jacksonville, Florida. When the customer decided to sell it, though, Grasse knew it might be a good fit for a military rider.

With a Naval Air Station in Jacksonville and the Army's Ft. Stewart just a couple hours north, Grasse gets plenty of military customers. They get a military discount at H2o, and Grasse has the satisfaction of seeing a soldier come home to a custom ride. This particular GSX-R1000 caught the eye of Tremayne Gilchrist, who is stationed at Ft. Stewart.

Gilchrist liked the paint, but wanted to do something more to really make the GSX-R a one-of-a-kind machine. He only got to ride his new bike once before leaving for a tour of duty in Iraq, and when he shipped out he left the bike in Grasse's hands.

There was plenty of time for Gilchrist to figure out what he wanted as he and Grasse exchanged emails and ideas. Gilchrist liked the idea of a big wheel kit, but wasn't certain he wanted it on his bike. "Tremayne's biggest concern was that he loved the stretched look, but the last time he rode a bike with a 12-inch stretch, he didn't like the feel of it," says Grasse.

Meanwhile, Grasse had been in talks with Bob Fisher at Roaring Toyz, who launched his OSD 330 swingarm kit last year. The outside drive kit means no jackshaft and only one chain, which equals more power to that wide rear tire.

"Bobby down at Roaring Toyz was continuing his work with the OSD swingarm, but he hadn't yet made them for anything besides the Hayabusa and the ZX-14," explains Grasse. "He wanted to get his hands on a Gixxer to build the OSD for it, and I told him I had a customer's bike, and that he wanted to do a big wheel."

So Roaring Toyz had a GSX-R1000 to use in developing the OSD 330 to fit that model, but Gilchrist still didn't want a long swingarm. In the end, everyone got their way. "We started testing the true tolerances of how close we could get the OSD on a stock bike. The final product that we ended up with is a zero extension, stock length 330 rear end with a single chain on a GSX-R1000," Grasse says.

The 330 kit fit so well under the tail that only the rearsets had to be moved: they were extended outward just a couple inches to accommodate the tire.

Grasse is quick to note how well the bike rides with the combined stock-length swingarm and OSD 330. He says, "I've driven many of these things with big tires and long extensions, and I can tell you that most of them drive like dump trucks. This thing drives like a dream. There's no power loss to the jackshaft because there is no jackshaft. It just really feels and responds like a stock bike, though you do have to remind yourself when you go around a corner that it's not a stock bike behind you."

Drive-ability is less affected than with extended swingarms, and the weight difference turned out to be much less than one might think. "I would have to seriously say that by dropping the stock exhaust and going with a Roaring Toyz exhaust, adding the full swingarm, and the 330 wheel and tire, the difference between the stock swingarm and stock pipe to what we have right now can't be more than 15 pounds. You haven't really put more strain on the motorcycle, and you're still on a single chain," says Grasse.

The wheel that holds the 330 tire is a chrome Rival from Performance Machine. Other touches include H2o's stainless steel braided lines and super-bright white light kit. Arnott air ride, TOCC clutch and stator covers, a Power Commander and a TRE are more additions. As for Gilchrist's reaction to the finished product, Grasse says, "He was ecstatic. Tremayne's got a beautiful family waiting for him back home, but he came home to this as another member of the family."