GS - Adventure, Dual Sport build

[BPone]

Here are some pictures of the project GS I bought this summer. It looked pretty good, ran, but need some tlc. The swing arm needed bearings, the engine leaked oil b/c of several striped out bolts and so on. I decided just to tear down the whole bike and repair every thing. At that point I decided to build a cafe racer, or possible street fighter. Ended up with something totally different.
Im am currently prepping for a dualsport front fork set up. After preliminary ridding it really needs it to be able get through some of the rutts with out smashing your teeth together!
list of mods:
1-Carb rejet
2-New seat pan, foam and cover
3-Skid plate
4-Panier rack and top shelf with military luggage
5-Sv rear shock
6-DS Tires
7-extended kickstand
8-Protaper handle bars
9-wider foot rest
10-Bobed Rear fender
11-removal of non essiential plastic, brackets, and what ever else I didnt need.
12-??? Im sure there is some thing Im leaving out.

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[BPone]

stock pics

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[BPone]

Rack mock up

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[BPone]

Here is a link for better pictures. I need to upload some more pictures of some of the new parts.http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0098009/photos/104291797@N08/sets/72157636520815444/

[ohgood]

What forks are you going to use?

Tires?

There's a gs500 on advrider that's sec'y

[Big Rich]

Yep, I'm signed up. And I'm curious about your fork setup as well.....

[BPone]

Fot the tires i used the Kenda 270's. I will tell you this..... They drastically change street ride. Its a tank. The front wheel and sterring suffered the most. I droped two teeth on the front sprocket and from a dead start that 500 will spin that tire no problem. So now its a little scetchy for street but a whole lot of fun. I had a blast doing hot laps around the hood. On the dirt they are great. For what i lost on the street I definitely made up for on dirt. Thats why Im changing the forks and have built a tough skid plate. The forks are from a honda NX. I think they will work with the least amount of work. I had mounted my fender to run stock forks but they are so bad I just decided to do something with more travel. Not to mention the skid plate and exhaust are to low. I need to raise it another 1 to 2 inches or so atleast. I really was impressed with the bike as a "sport" but its also so close to being a good fire road bike I couldnt resist. I have posted more pics to the link below. Check it out if interested. I will try to update often. Before I took it back apart I made this.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRR4KW6dejc

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[Big Rich]

Good job on the welding - I'm just about to learn how to weld.

I've heard of different front ends for the GS for dual sport use, but never looked into it. Ohgood probably knows much more about that than me...... but luckily Suzuki front ends are fairly easy to swap around.

[BPone]

For those interested, got the NX forks mounted. They raised the bike about 1.5". After i adjust preload should go a little higher. The axle is the same diameter and the length is good. Looks like I just need to make an adjustment on the spacers and its going to work pretty good. The only problem will be remounting the brake to the opposite side. I have some left side brakes I might retro fit. Or I might just flip the caliper over and use it on the left? Not sure about that. I am pretty happy with the result. The bike will be level, the front wheel got pushed out another 1" so im hopping thats goint to help steering that DS front tire.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/104291797@N08/11095358714/in/set-72157636520815444/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/104291797@N08/11095460063/in/set-72157636520815444/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/104291797@N08/11095256495/in/set-72157636520815444/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/104291797@N08/11095258955/in/set-72157636520815444/

[Zookmang]

That's cool 

[BPone]

To update, the new forks make a huge improvement. The extra length in travel and wheel base lighten the steering making it much easier to ride on street and dirt. I hit a couple of ruts that I thought we're going to blow out the seals and it hopped right through. I was on the fence with this decision, it's not a dirt ride and never will be, now it's got a chance. If you are up for this project it's worth the trouble.

[NonFiction]

This is awesome. Nice work. I'd love to see current pictures of it where it is now, with the new front brake setup. Also I'd love to know more details of the fork swap. I've sort of started on a similar project on my '92, but it's been pretty stalled owing to time and money (and let's be honest: skill) constraints. Good on ya.