For this build I have splashed out and bought a premade subframe, seat and rear mudguard. I have ended up going with the Down & Out set-up from the UK. The cost of this assembly is a little ridiculous and made vastly more so by shipping costs to Australia. If I had better welding skills I would have made this myself. Having said that, the quality is very good and all items are as described and well made. I have selected the brown seat (but could swap to a black one in the future) and the integrated subframe and lightweight aluminium rear mudguard. These arrive in raw steel showing good quality welds. I have applied primer and the Rustoleum semi-gloss enamel which I used for the rest of the frame.
Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of photos of this (or do an unboxing?!) suffice to say that it works as billed and is pretty much a bolt in. I didn’t end up using the stainless mudguard supports shown in the pictures as I thought it looked better without them. The subframe is slightly raised on tabs and to improve the aesthetic I also slightly raised the tail of the tank by using thicker rubber blocks at the back.
The Down & Out setup also comes with shocks of the correct size for the frame. These fit well although I don’t think the quality of the shocks and springs is supuraltive (they are MDI and Korean I believe). I have used them for the time being- but may swap them out later for some higher quality shocks.
