Riding motorcycles makes me grin from ear to ear. I?m sitting here recovering from a motorcycle accident I had a few days ago. After a few broken bones and a few days in hospital, a lot of people have asked if I will ride a motorcycle again. ?Of course,? I reply, without even thinking about it. Because riding motorbikes make me happy. And the size of the bike doesn?t matter either. Today?s bike is a little bit different to what we usually feature, but I know one thing: this little Suzuki FR50 puts a big smile on the face of engineer and bike builder Mike Dodd every time he rides it.

It?s not the first time we?ve featured work from Mike, who comes from Auckland, NZ ? his DR650 cafe racer was a crowd favourite last year. This time around, he picked up a sorry-looking late 70?s Suzuki FR50 for next to nothing. ?The idea was to fix it up and use it as a bit of a utility scooter ? pick up the beers or fish and chips on a Friday night sort of thing. After fixing it and riding it around for a week or two I decided that it needed a bit more power, so out came the grinder.?
He started by cutting away the whole underside of the pressed steel frame and made some mounts to fit a new 125cc pit-bike (or mini-motocross) engine into it. ?I decided to change up the styling a little bit while I was at it to go for a bit of a chopper vibe ? the irony!? Mike set himself a very minimal budget, so wanted to make as many of the parts himself. ?I bent and welded up the lane splitter bars from s...