GS500 back from the Ugly

[Sode]

Hi All,

New member, spent a lot of time reading the wiki, Pablo's site, the Stanford wiki and numerous threads on the forum over the past couple weeks. Picked up a GS500 to get back into riding again and I wasn't able to leave well enough alone...

First order of business was to remove the headlight



GS500F headlight





Oil spray from leaking tach cable


Hideous tail


Filthy seat


These mirrors have got to go


Threw the old headlight on and thoroughly degreased it


Time to take it apart






Those sure are some ugly pegs


Getting there



Couldn't get the fender off, came here and discovered i need to remove the wheel #*&$!





You covered up the nice blue with whatttt?


Success


Next morning sanded with 400 and cleaned thoroughly over and over with gun wash.









Don't feel like installing the fairings I bought anymore!

[Nocluejoe]

Looks real nice I like the frame color now any plans on replacing the exhaust or at least painting it to get rid of rust? Sell the fairings on here if the price is right I might be interested 

[The Buddha]

Them Mirrors that gotta go - I'll gladly take em ... and that round headlight too since you're putting the stock 04+ one on ...
Cool.
Buddha.

[Sode]

Exhaust painted black, we'll see how it holds up otherwise I'm curious about how that stovetop stuff works.


Rear fairing dismantled and sanded down, ready for primer


still working on the fender, don't know what possessed someone to paint this thing flat black. There's no damage to any of the parts, they should have plasti dipped it and saved me the work!


Replacing these


With these



more pics tomorrow

[steezin_and_wheezin]

Great work! She's cleaning up really nicely

[BockinBboy]

Really impressed by that frame cleanup... nice work!

- Bboy

[robfriedenberger]

Are you rattle can-ing your rear fairings?

[Gorilla]

looking good

[cbrfxr67]

good stuff here 

[Sode]

Thanks guys, the rest of my parts are almost here so reassembly can hopefully commence this weekend. Progress lately has been slow, got the chain cleaned/lubed today and the foot pedals painted/cleared. Haha no I will not be rattle canning the rear fairing/tank. Those will be primed and painted using hvlp guns and a compressor.

[Sode]

It was a nice sunny day today so got quite a bit done

Opened up the carbs again


Here's my new jets



Bagged the old jets


Painted the rear brake pedal, shifter and the brackets





Mounted the shifter



New parts that came in last night


eBay seller sent me the wrong tail light, it was supposed to be smoked. They are sending a replacement headlight but it'll take some time coming from China.

I took some comparison pics of the stock light with the blackbird tail light





This next one is for Adidasguy, our resident concerned license plate lighting expert


A week's worth of sanding almost completed




Sprucing up the tail light bracket


New grips (Progrip 725) the hairspray trick worked awesome, they slide on smoother than I could wave them in the air!
Before:


After:


New mirrors (from ebay), having a problem with the left one mounting cockeyed and not tightening up correctly. Right side went in like a charm.



New pods


Time for some high build







The rear of my bike seems to have grown a long beard, needs a shave


Much better



Not bad for a day's work


I actually don't mind the matte white, maybe it'll stay this way for a while. Tomorrow the exhaust goes on. The pegs I ordered on ebay were supposed to be for GSXR rear pegs but I think they sent me front pegs. Have a lot of grinding to do to make them fit. If there's time, the body panels will get a guide coat and sanded for paint. Paint probably won't happen until Wednesday so stay tuned.

[jacob92icu]

Those mirrors are bad a$$ man! I love bar end mirrors, yet I have never tried those style of bar ends lol. Bike is looking great. Keep up the good work.

[Sode]

Went to put the pegs on today and it turns out they are 2mm too wide for the brackets. I think they might have sent me the front pegs instead of rear pegs.

1.6mm opening


1.8mm pegs


Did this one with a grinder and a file




Time for the hack saw (grinder kept getting clogged from the alluminum, file was taking too long and the dremel wasn't doing it for me either.)





This one was hack sawed


and this one was done with grinder and file


Time to wire up the tail light, I left the stock plug intact in case anyone ever wants to revert to stock.

These are the wires to match up in case anyone else does this


Right turn signal wire is green, no need to connect to the ground


Left turn signal wire is solid black


Fronts


Fronts are working (click to see video)


Integrated tail working (click to see video)


Time to do something about these forks




This is with 2 coats of paint


This is with 4 coats of paint and 3 coats of clear



Pushed it back inside to dry overnight, didn't want to risk scratching the paint by installing the wheel. Through the tank, seat and tail back on just for fun.



Hopefully can get the paint done mid week before the long weekend.

[Golly]

I like the scheme!

[cbrfxr67]

More good stuff here!  And I like those mirrors.  I like how they don't stick out.  I never wanted bar ends because I don't want to be wider, but those look great.

[GSRiderDad]

I really like the paint you used on the frame! Mind my asking what you used?

[Nocluejoe]

Anyway you can link the tail light and pods you bought? Really like the bike

[Sode]

Thanks for the comments guys. The frame is painted DupliColor Gunmetal, the gold is VHT Metallic Gold engine enamel with Duplicolor wheel clearcoat on top.

Here are the links to where I bought my stuff, the headlight they sent me the wrong one (was supposed to be smoked) so they refunded me the money. I had someone ride behind me and they were concerned that it wasn't overly bright. I expected super bright from the LEDs and this didnt meet my expectations. I'm concerned that the smoked ones would be even worse!

I settled for Pod filters because the lunch box has gone up in price to $40-50 shipped. The turn signals are not LED so it saves me the headache of finding the right flasher. The pegs were a waste of money as the anodized finish is very thin and they didn't fit (CBR rear pegs)

Tail Light $29:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350969015116?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Pegs $35:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/371031416266?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Pods $16:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160819878564?var=460078082246&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Jets $28:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161059261083?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161059319187?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171069469330?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Grips $15:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360814008323?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Mirrors $17:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350842841970?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Turn Signals $18:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221279068675?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I was impatient and wanted everything right away so I ordered from USA sellers (except the tail light). I could have saved half the amount on each of the items if I was willing to wait the 2-3 weeks from China.

I have not painted the bike yet, I insured it on Friday and took it for a rip. Had quite an adventure, after 15 minutes of riding the bike died at a stop sign. Started back up using the throttle. Rode fine for another 2 miles and then started bogging down and died while going 50MPH, pulled over and it wouldnt start. Waited for about 10 minutes and it fired back up, started heading home and it died after another mile. Waited about 15 minutes this time until it would fire and made it .5miles, then waited 20 minutes and made it about 300 yards or so, waited another 15-20 minutes and made it another 300 yards. By this point the battery pretty much drained from all the cranking and I had to push it home the remaining 2 miles (not fun).

This morning I checked for spark, was getting spark on both plugs, was getting fuel because I could smell it and the plugs were getting wet. I yanked the carb off thinking that perhaps a jet came loose and fell into the float bowl. Everything was clean, all the passage ways were clean and the jets were clean. Checked the float height with a micrometer and it was bang on. Checked the idle screws and they were screwed all the way in! Backed them out 3 turns and reassembled the bike, put in fresh plugs. Unbolted the exhaust and reinstalled as there was a backfire/popping before. Tried starting but still no luck, fiddled with the idle speed knob and got it running, now I was running into a hanging idle problem at 4-5K RPM. Slid the tank back and started screwing with the sync screw using the "remove 1 plug boot at a time" method. After I got that dialed in for a 400 RPM drop on each cyclinder it ran amazing! The hanging idle went away, the backfiring in the carbs disappeared (the engine was no longer trying to blow the carb off), the engine sounded much healthier and the exhaust roared. It definitely didn't sound like a sewing machine from the first night I bought it.

I bled the brakes, lubed the chain again, bolted the bike back together and went for another rip. This time the bike felt much more alive and responsive but I did notice that under heavy acceleration around 7K the clutch seems as if its slipping. The previous owner put in a new clutch a few years ago for which i have a receipt. I'm going to try a clutch adjustment tomorrow to see if that solves that issue.

This is what it looks like now:


threw on the fender to see if I want to install it or not:

[pomme123]

You posted the same pic for both mate. Haha



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[åsaka]

+1 winterwite???