1980 GS450 "Sport". The grandaddy to the GS500.....Done!

[Big Rich]

Installed a steering damper from an 06 GSXR 750, along with a new aluminum fork brace (I made one from steel already, but had some aluminum around.....):



Another shot of the stabilizer :

[Rallyfan]

I like the steering damper!

[peteGS]

Nice Rich! Can't say I've ever felt the need for a damper on the 450... maybe I'm not pushing hard enough? 

[Big Rich]

Thanks Rallyfan! It was kind of a pita to get a decent spot for it. It has to clear the speedo & tach cables, brake line, main wiring harness, and the led auxiliary light throughout its travel. Matter of fact, I mounted it for full travel to the left so I can retain my steering lock but lost a little bit of travel turning to the right (it does bump the auxiliary led light).

Pete, I'd go out on a limb and guess you push your E harder than I push my S. I noticed last season there was some....unusual steering at certain times. Usually entering the highway trying to merge with traffic at high speeds, with the cases loaded up, and hitting just the tiniest imperfection would cause a little sway until I backed off the throttle. I really think it was caused by multiple factors - GS850 triple tree, GS500 wheels, back end loaded with weight, etc, etc.. Time will tell if the damper helps!

[peteGS]

Aaah yes I forgot you have some different components! I think my motor cross bars may help a little with leverage too...


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[Big Rich]

It's been bitter cold here in PA the past couple weeks, but today it hit about 55°! Sadly I am in between shifts at work, so I only got to take a 30 minute ride - little bit through town with a couple short bursts of higher speeds (not thru town). The damper didn't feel heavy around town by any means, but I can't say it made a huge difference at higher speeds only because of the limited riding time.

And Showbiz - that jacket is awesome!

[ShowBizWolf]

AWESOME!!  Wow I am so glad you like it and it is getting use      

[Big Rich]

Took some stuff into work to get shot blasted:



Crash bars and passenger peg mounts - they were either rusting underneath the paint or the paint was flaking off. Next update in a few days...

[peteGS]

Aaaaah nice Rich, keen to see them painted up 

[Big Rich]

No painting here Pete:



My wife got me this powder kit for Christmas. All I have is a tiny toaster oven to bake the parts at the moment, but I'm keeping an eye out for an electric oven I can stuff in the garage..... Here are the parts after powder (haven't got them installed yet):

[peteGS]

Aaaaaah very nice Rich! A powder coating gun would be way cool, and an oven to bake stuff in even better!!! Something to contemplate when the shed is done maybe... hmmmm...

[Hoopes91]

Bought these rad preload adjusters from Steezin (who got them from the legendary Mr Knopf):



And here is a stock fork cap, along with the new cap (w/ a solid steel disc):



The adjustment bolt w/ solid disc are about 20mm deeper, so I cut off 25mm from the PVC spacer inside the forks. Here they are installed (on a filthy but well ridden bike....haha):

Who makes those adjusters?

[Big Rich]

The legendary Jim Knopf. He is a member here on the Twins - send him a pm with a link to this page just so he knows which adjuster you're talking about.

[Big Rich]

Ok, so what's new...... well, I had to make a new luggage rack since mine vanished somehow. Worked out since I like this one more:



It was just painted in this picture, but I sandblasted it and powder coated since then.

[Big Rich]

Also bought some new Seahorse cases: 



The old 520 case is on the right, and the new 540 on the left. The new cases are only 2.75" deeper, but the amount I can pack in them is amazing. Here they are on the bike (pardon the hand guards and windscreen - the pic was taken when the night time lows were in the 20's):



I decided to sandblast and powder my 2-1 exhaust as well. But the more I'm running it, the more the powder is flaking off towards the engine. Then again, I didn't use specific high temp powder so I'm not terribly surprised. Once I do it right, I'll snap a pic of that too.

[peteGS]

Wow they're some serious cases Rich!!! How do they attach? I've started (very slowly) work on making some brackets so I can do something about hard luggage on mine. The throw over saddlebags are driving me crazy.

I like the rear rack too, nice work!

PS Did I tell you I scored a ridgy didge fair dinkum factory option rack for mine?

[Big Rich]

Thanks Pete! The new 540 cases are identical to the older 520 cases except for that 2.75" depth difference. So I was able to use the same mounting system as before. I did beef up the pannier mounting frames a little though - so far just a couple "L" shaped arms welded to the pannier frame to support the undersides of the cases. If you look at the luggage rack in the first pic above, you can see the luggage rack tube has a flat piece of steel welded to it where it attaches to the passenger grab rail. I added those flat plates so I can run a support plate from the luggage rack to the pannier frames. Bigger cases = heavier loads inside = needs more support.

I've heard that about your OEM rack. I've only seen a couple of them on Google image searches..... Congrats on the score!

[peteGS]

Cool yeah I see what you're talking about there.

So far I just have some steel tube ready to bend to shape and some flat steel plate to weld to it to make some mounting points.

I'll probably mount to the upper shock bolt and indicator mount to start with and may run a third point to the passenger peg yet.

[Big Rich]

Take a look here Pete:

http://adventure-motorcyclingh.com/2012/07/15/building-an-overlanding-rack-1/

Let me know if there's anything I can help with!

[peteGS]

Cheers Rich, I'll have a read!!


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