GS500F K4 Buildup

[Miraz]

This GS500 was bought a few months ago as my first learners bike, local regulations mean that I can't upgrade to a more powerful machine for another 10 months.



I've put 10,000km on the clock over the last 3 months, I've learnt a lot and had a great time, but there are a few things that I'd like to change if I'm going to keep this bike for another 10 months until I come off the restricted license.

- The suspension is too soft for my weight, which has led to some scares on the road as the forks bottom out under even moderate braking. I suspect that the damping offered by the original front forks and rear shock is not helping much either.

- The brakes could be better - the front disc is slightly warped, the original brake hoses have not been replaced and balloon visibly under pressure. Whilst it is possible to overwhelm the suspension under braking, there is very little feel or feedback.

- A number of other bits of maintenance are falling due - there are tight spots on the chain, both sprockets are pretty worn, and the tyres that were new when I bought it are both suffering - the rear has squared off and the front has scalloped.

I'm not intending to throw a lot of money at the bike, the idea is to learn a little about bike maintenance and take the opportunity to see if I can address the suspension and braking problems along the way.

So I thought I'd start a thread to keep track of what I've done, and share the learnings along the way...

[Miraz]

I thought I'd start at the back....I managed to find a rear shock from a 2008 R6 on ebay with the lower linkage and dog bones still attached. This shock seems to be an easy swap for the original unit - the only mounting challenge is that the mounting holes in the lower clevis are marginally larger - however as the roller bearings in the linkage are the same size, it is possible to re-use the bearing sleeve and mounting bolt to get it to fit. The R6 has a slightly higher spring rate, but a much better adjustable nitrogen charged damper.



After removing and cleaning all the parts of the suspension linkage, it slotted into place pretty easily. Looks like it belongs there.

[Miraz]

Next on the list is the rear wheel...

Another round with ebay nets me a rear wheel from a 2000 GSXF 750, this is also used on the SV650 from the same period. This will allow me to move up a couple of tyre sizes, the original tyre is a 130/70 Bridgestone BT45, whereas the new wheel should accomodate a 160/60 tyre.

This wheel uses the same wheel bearings, cush drive and spacers as the standard GS500 wheel, so the rear axle and most of the original hardware remains unchanged making for a very easy swap.

The only other changes are a new rear brake disc $80 from a wrecker in Silverwater and a brake torque arm, also from a 2000 GSXF 750. The original unit does not provide enough clearance for the bigger tyre, I could muck around with bending it - but another round with US ebay finds me the right part for US$10.

I had hoped to change the chain and sprockets at the same time, but ended up with a 49 tooth rear sprocket instead of the 39 tooth needed!

New Brake Torque arm in place, not much clearance - but it does fit!


Rear Wheel in place shod with a Metzeler Z6 170/60

[Miraz]

Sunday morning was the last outing for the original front end, I spent Sunday afternoon stripping it all down and starting the front end rebuild.

Progress so far...

Stage 1 -
- New Head Bearings fitted to stem
- GSX-R triple clamps hung on the GS frame
- Wheel and axle fitted



Stage 2
- Clip-on Bars fitted
- Controls Transferred to Clip Ons
- Brakes fitted and plumbed
- Front Fender Installed
- Instrument cluster installed



Not quite sure if the clipons are going to work for me, clearance on the fairing is a little tight too....might need to modify the upper triple clamp to take a set of handle bar clamps to make the packaging easier.

Next jobs on the list:-
- Wire up the new instrument cluster
- Speed Sensor Install
- Chain and Sprocket replacement (Maintenance rather than upgrade)
- Spacers for brake calipers
- Transfer the ignition assembly over to the new triple clamp
- Replace fuel hoses between tank and petcock (one of them disintegrated whilst I was removing the tank)

[pave_spectre]

What instrument cluster did you go with?

[bobzilla850]

Could you please go into some more detail with the front end swap? you made it look so easy lol. your bike is looking sick so far.

[Miraz]

Finally pulled my finger out and got it back on the road....



Took a bit of playing around to get the upper clamp, bars and dash setup sorted out...works well now - radial master cylinder provides so much more feedback from the front wheel!



Also did K&N lunchbox, slip-on silencer, dropped a tooth from the front sprocket and rejetted the carbs....it's a completely different bike now!

[mister]

....it's a completely different bike now!

Maybe. But if you wnt to up the HP you need to remove the idiot sticker on the tank. Unleaded Fuel Only indeed.

Michael

[Miraz]

Still have a few cosmetic things to do to it yet....

[Twisted]

It is there in case you get the sudden urge to try some diesel Mister 

[redhenracing2]

It is there in case you get the sudden urge to try some diesel Mister 

I had a four wheeler a few years back that ran on normal gasoline, but I ran out and decided to put some diesel in it once. It smoked real bad, but ran perfectly fine.

The bike looks to be coming along great, though I must say I don't like the handlebars. They just look very out of place to me. Could there have been a way to use some risers for the clip-ons?

[gsf500RR]

Very nice mods.
Give a try with TLR (or TLS I forgot) 1000 clip on, they are higher than GSXR (but fit GSXR) stock and it should work 
http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20170

Did you had any problem to fit the fairing with the GSXR fork?

Can you tell me what setting you put to rejet the carbs? I did too but it's not optimal since the bike make bang bang sounds when I downshift hard.

[gsf500RR]

Could you please go into some more detail with the front end swap? you made it look so easy lol. your bike is looking sick so far.

It's been detailed already on the forum, research GSRX forks.

[Miraz]

x2 - the forks are an easy swap, lots of good information already on the site that led me to do the swap, just press the stem over from the GS into the new triple clamps and machine up a spacer for the top triple clamp and you are good to go.

Few tidbits that I found hard to find:-
- Upper Triple Clamp - you want to use a 2005 GSXR1000 clamp as it has the ignition mounted in the same spot as the GS500, most other GSXR variants have it mounted to one side so the steering lock doesn't work.
- You need to cut the steering damper mount off the lower clamp if you have an F-model as it hits the fairing bracketry
- Tried several different clipon arrangements, including the TL's - just couldn't get them to work with the fairing.

Carbs were rejetted to 22-65-147.5 which seems to work pretty well...dyno results were good.

[gsf500RR]

That's annoying if you cant mount clips on if you have an F model, then I'm not going to make the GSXR swap. Don't you think there is some way do it, for example to mount the clip over the upper triple clamp? This how you have to do if you want to mount clip on with the stock front end and the fairing.

[Toogoofy317]

Don't the 89 clip-ons fit the "F". If not Buddha was selling some at one point that would!

Mary

[gsf500RR]

89 clip-ons fit GS500F with the stock front end. They wont fit on a GSXR front end.

[Miraz]

That's annoying if you cant mount clips on if you have an F model, then I'm not going to make the GSXR swap. Don't you think there is some way do it, for example to mount the clip over the upper triple clamp? This how you have to do if you want to mount clip on with the stock front end and the fairing.

The issue is that the shape of the cutout in the fairing - it is cut very high towards the front of the bike, so that any downswept clip-on is going to hit it as it rotates forwards unless it is mounted stupidly high. You could probably find someway of making it work, but you're likely to need a clip-on with a riser and fairly flat angle, probably easier to use a conventional handle bar and find something pretty flat.

Having put about 500km on the new setup over the weekend, it's definately worth the effort....completely transforms the handling of the bike.

[gsf500RR]

Yeah but no, there is no way I will use a straight bar on a bike that has a sport fairing  I still don't understand why you cant put the clip on over the triple clamp like this  : With the stock fairing you have to lower the bike over the front end a bit (if you understand what I try to say? you have to and lower the forks slightly).

[seamax]

What gauge is that?