oh y'know, just another build thread.

[iamhiding]

when you're in the middle of making a long update and you accidentally hit a link and lose everything    oh well i'll update it another time then  rearsets are mounted! 

[ShowBizWolf]

I absolutely HATE that!!!!

[iamhiding]

I absolutely HATE that!!!!

it's the worst isn't it. when you're juggling 3 build threads it's happened more often than i care to think about haha    *headbutts keyboard*

[iamhiding]

so let's try this again.

had some time to mess around recently with ye ol gs.



played about with stencilling the tank. think i've since sanded it off whilst maintaining the bare finish... think i'm just going to commit to lacquering it, too much work sanding it and keeping it protected. not too sure if i want to let it rust out anymore.



got a new bit of heated workspace set up! obtained a steel workbench, roller shutter door pegboard and rolling toolbox. so lucky have a friend close by with the space. note the cbr600f3 rearsets on the bench from my shed stacked with spares for my other bikes. these were from a guy i know's crashed bike which i bought boxes of spares for almost nothing, anyway they're a little rough and completely sacrificial as i've got another 2 sets for my cbr 6 fighter and my track build when i get round to it.



first things first, slotted the holes to match the gs5 bolt spacing.



ground off the hook for holding the rubber hose to the reservoir and half  of the brake light switch mount at the rear so that it could clear the frame. the brake banjo sits very close to the frame.



rearset mounted with clumpy oem honda peg. note, with these pegs i couldn't get the pedal heights correct on either side and it made the bike feel cramped as the rearsets didn't move the peg position rearward enough for the extra height of these pegs.



luckily i had these pegs spare from my fighter build (which i bought proper race rearsets for). these allowed me to dial the brake and gear lever in to the perfect adjustment as they sit lower.



for comparison sake here's the original gs rearsets w/ gsxr 600 srad or bandit pegs, i cant remember.



here's a sketchy bit. because i ground the mount off of the back for the brake light switch, i rigged up this bit of cable tie engineering. worst case scenario if it slips is that my rear brake light wont work... no biggie but i'll keep an eye on it. i do actually have a proper hydraulic pressure switch you install at the banjo but the banjo is currently too close to the frame. short term this will do. i might slot the master cylinder holes so i can lower it.

//

so i've used the cbr600 rear master cylinder just to save extra messing around making the gs5 one work. it could be done easily enough though.

the gs500 rear master cylinder is 1/2'' and the cbr600f3 master is 14mm. half an inch is 12.7mm which makes the master bore 1.3mm larger on the cbr600. if i'm not misunderstood what this means is that there is now a greater hydraulic ratio meaning that the lever is now stronger although theres more travel. larger means more force but more travel and smaller means a firmer feel. in the real world 1.3mm is pretty negligible, the brake feels as it should.

if you've followed this thread from the start you'll remember i've messed about with this stuff before with what parts i had available for the front brake. once again this is a good read if messing about with masters interests you http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56704

//

so gear side now. the gs uses just a pedal straight off of the gear shaft whereas the cbr uses a rod linkage. the cbr uses a different spline for the gear shaft so unfortunately its not just plug and play.



so here's the bits i used. i picked up a spare gear lever for the gs just incase i needed to go back to the old rearsets as you never know. i also purchased a left hand thread m6 rose joint as you'll see on the end of the rod as the cbr's rose joint was riveted to the lever with the spline shaft. i could have use a gsxr splined lever however, slabside, slingshot, water cooled and srad should all use the same spline however i think the srad is the only one that uses a similar linkage to the cbr. if you do your research there's loads of swapable parts when it comes to our beloved suzuki parts bin bikes 



i measured it all out, lined everything up and got a feel for how it was going to work on the bike. cut the spare gs gear lever slightly longer the cbr equivalent as i figured the extra leverage should make for easier shifting. the gs lever was already bent in this shape as standard and it actually worked out perfect for me.



figured out the highest point i could angle it at without fouling the sprocket cover, then decided i could put it further round by 1 notch if i grooved the lever to clear the cover.



here's the grooved lever and drilled so that i can bolt the rose joint to it. (showbiz, i found a centre punch in my tool box so for all the time i've been messing up holes i've had the tool to set them up right all along!  typical haha)



thats it bolted with a nyloc nut. for some reason i decided to put a hole in the boot and a washer over it... not sure why i done that in hindsight as i could bolted it and slid the boot over. ohwell live and learn.



and there you go, all mounted and operational...

now to copy and paste all this just incase the internet bugs out as i send it or i hit a link by accident   

[iamhiding]

phewww it posted 

so. why did i do this? well i had the parts lying around so it's cost me nothing and i like messing around. was it worthwhile? yeah haha the bike rides much better now and the position isn't too extreme or uncomfortable although the last wheelie i slammed down my knees didnt grip the tank and i felt like my nuts were inside me  brutal haha

for reference i'm in the 5ft 11'' - 6ft territory and long legged with dodgy knees and the position is really not too bad. it's not as uncomfortable as my gsxr11 anyway! i'm not sure how it would feel sitting more upright with standard clip ons or regular clamped 7/8 bars but with my dropped clipons it's really good, it's like you're much more over and in the bike. much more suited and less awkward with my bars. feels like a baby racebike.

i must say the gear shifting feels sooooo much more positive now, it doesn't feel vague and clunky like it used to and theres less travel on the pedal for it to shift. i'm guessing it's to do with the extra leverage from the whole linkage. i've yet to hit a false neutral. clutchless upshifts and revmatching downshifts are too much fun.

the only things i'm not happy about is the slight rotational movement i have in between the spline on the gear shaft and the old lever. it's always been there on the bike but i can notice that little bit of dead movement a little bit more now. tiniest bit sloppy, really it's nothing. i think mist gs's will suffer from it but someone gave me an idea to resolve it, so stay tuned for that. due to the banjo point on the cbr master being much higher the brake line looks quite contorted, this could also be due to me running silly gearing thus my rear wheel sitting further back and stretching out the line.

i reckon it's moved the foot position about 15mm higher and about 35-40mm back... it's also really funny how that in the uk we jump from metric to imperial measurements a lot depending on what the context is.

another benefit is that the new rearsets are alloy (obviously excluding pedals and stuff) and quite significantly lighter! you really don't realise how heavy the standard gs ones are, same goes for the original gs pegs, unbelievably heavy for what they are. i should probably invest in a set of workshop scales just for my own curiosity. cbr rearsets were about half the weight or less i reckon.

//

other things to note. head bearings are on their way out and my chain and sprockets are well into their lifespan, i might swap back to my old short chain and std sprocket sizes just to save spending money i don't strictly need to.

[iamhiding]

quick fix for gear lever play between the lever and shaft.

a lot of bikes will suffer from this at some point, gs's being prone to it as well. i had about 10mm slop of dead movement at the end of the shortened lever as pictured, would've been closer to 15mm on the original set up due to the extra length. thats bad!





beforehand ^



and after running a thin cutting disk with a grinder through it to distance the mating faces on the clamp so that the bolt can pull the splines tighter before coming to a dead stop as the faces join.



and fitted back on the bike with zero play nice, tighter more positive feeling shifts.

it's a dead easy fix, better off doing it before the shaft further wears out.

[iamhiding]

just a couple of pics, cuz' i love this ratba****ding thing really cant believe how well it's going at the moment. i need to get out for a proper thrash before the nice weather goes.

[ShowBizWolf]

bike porn ftw!!!!

[iamhiding]

just a quick couple of cosmetic things.



made a paper stencil up from my decals, sprayed matt black and once cured brushed it back a bit to distress the edges, giving it a bit more of a eroded/aged/weathered look.



accidentally ripped a bit off but its cool, i made it work haha. just playing around and decided to brush/sand the yoshi logo into the tank. purely experimental.



the rest of the tank is brushed towards the grain, ie front to back but to get this to stand out i brushed it in sideways.



and a bit closer, you'll see the hatched lines going horizontal to the tank.

in person it's pretty damn cool. subtle yet when the light catches it, it pops at you.









just wanted to show it from different angles at night to show how the light hits it. the pictures really don't do it justice, it's almost luminescent and glowy appearance when the light catches it. 
i think the best way to describe whats happening is that because it goes against the grain and brushing on the tank it's bounces off of a different axis so instead of flowing into the rest of the grain when the light hits it, it throws light forward and back. it's actually quite jarring in person.

the whole yoshi logo thing could be seen as a bit of a homage to hideo 'pops' yoshimura, in one sense i suppose that stands true, to me it reflects an appreciation for the golden era of supersport but on the other hand... i kinda just really like the logo and being crafty  

//

just had to throw a new speedo cable at it as well.

[ShowBizWolf]

That is NEAT!!!

[qcbaker]

Looks awesome! Also, for any who don't know Yoshimura is still the factory team sponsor for Suzuki in MotoAmerica, and one of their riders (Toni Elias) is this year's champ.

[cbrfxr67]

Man this is sweet stuff.  Great pics!

[Ne0n]

Awesome! I always enjoy seeing what you do to your bike.
Especially love the black decals on the side of the bike. Might copy that somehow one day.

[iamhiding]

Man this is sweet stuff.  Great pics!

That is NEAT!!!

Awesome! I always enjoy seeing what you do to your bike.
Especially love the black decals on the side of the bike. Might copy that somehow one day.

thanks guysh 

its a stencil i made from a decal, used frottage with a pencil and basic printer paper to pick up the hard edges  and cut it out Neon, i got fedup of trying to position it on the side of the tank, just thought F**K it and done it on the frame  well happy with how it turned out. thats cool man, look forward to seeing your twist on it 

[iamhiding]

replaced the speedo cable and although the needle is being slightly less erratic and has times of stability, it's still dancing around too much and sticking at like 30mph when parked sometimes  i can't see it being the drive on the front wheel so it must be something amiss in the clock itself. i'll have to pull it apart and see whats going on.

serviced the head bearings and its not tight feeling anymore so they'll do for now but theres definitely a notch now.



think my sprocket is definitely passed its best now, think it's only done 3000-4000 miles if that! going to put the silly 13t back on and run 13/44 till the end of the month and throw my spare chain and sprockets on... back to 16/39 standard gearing...  never thought id see the day haha standard gearing was pitiful but at least i'll save some money on fuel, and it's not like you should be riding hard when the roads are wet/icy and totally unpredictable anyway.

[iamhiding]

spent a wee bit of time doing a couple of things ive wanted to do for aaaages.

chopping the passenger pegs off, my bike really doesn't take well to carrying people. planned on eventually doing this and bolting pegs to the subframe when needed but nope never again. note: its not a hollow hole into the subframe just a weird shadow where i need to shave it down further.



drilled some speed holes into the heel plates  each hole is worth 1bhp 

started on the left, lesser seen one incase anything went wrong and i'm glad i did as i mis-measured the forward most hole, i'm not really fussed though.

punched, pilot holed and drilled up to about 6mm then 10mm.





by the time i got to 10mm the mistake was pretty noticeable, i've seen much worse attempts though.



but i nailed the right hand side  could've spaced all the holes a little further back if i were being fussy, couldn't really tell how it was going to come out until i had started. i'll know for next time.



can see a few bits where the drill wandered from the counterpunch or maybe i drilled at a different angle. oh to have a drill press on a bench  one day. definitely happy with my efforts.

[J_Walker]

I've had the same problem with the none OEM sprockets only lasting as long as a single chain.

[iamhiding]

I've had the same problem with the none OEM sprockets only lasting as long as a single chain.

for sure. the weight savings and looks come at a cost in longevity don't they  think it's the first time i've ran an aluminium sprocket till the end of it's life.

checked back on the thread and it was fitted at the start of march 2016, so its done a turn of a year and a half of mostly hard riding which is a surprisingly low 3-4000 miles, bearing in mind i've stunted its life a few times by swapping front sprockets about and running it slightly out of line for a while 

i guess it's the only way i could play with sprocket sizes the way i did but on the other hand it lost 2/3s of its life span vs steel sprockets. if i were mile munching with the gs i could've eaten the sprockets in 6-12 months easy i reckon.

would i do it on a gs again? well does the weight difference make any change on the road... nope not really but any rotational or unsprung weight removed is of benefit to acceleration, gyroscopic forces and the suspension. if i wanted to mess about with gearing to that extent and keep steel sprockets i could rob the suzuki parts bin bikes using ie sv gsxr bandit etc's readily available parts and just swap the chain up to 525 or 530 to match.

there's not much sense in aluminium sprockets on a road bike is there but when it comes down to a love of messing about with and modifying bikes how often does sense come into play  i really dont know if i'd use alloy on a daily again but damn does it look sweet.

[iamhiding]

^ using parts from compatible bikes i worked out i could go to 525 12/49 (-4/+10) with the gearing and stick with steel parts... it would just be a wheelie bike though haha geared to 80mph ish flat out at the top of 6th. 60mph in 6th being 7500 rpm or something daft. some how i doubt i'll be wasting money on such an extreme setup. well unless i could put it together dirt cheap with 2nd hand bits for a weekends fun and put it back to normal afterwards.

anyway! 

cleaned up my old 110x520 chain and hauled out my standard 39t rear sprocket.



diesel works wonders. (i know you're not meant to do it as per say)

the clip master link isn't in good shape with being removed previously so i'm going to fit my spare tomorrow before covering any miles.



also done something i'm kind of regretting, put the standard dogbones in to drop it to standard height to make winter a bit safer if it's icy out.

makes the back end look super saggy, the leverage has totally changed the stiffness of the shock and now it's like a mooshy gs shock again, the back is super soft and the front barely sags when you sit on it because of the change in weight bias. i've not ridden it further than a hundred yards but it felt awkwards and quite obviously not right. i'm going to try it though and probably try drop the front a bit as well and just see how it reacts i guess. if i drop it lower at the front it should sort the weight bias and give it a bit of stance again. obviously theres clearance concerns about the front mudguard and i'm not sure if ride height alone is enough to compensate for the change in suspension leverage in regard to the different dog bones. we shall see and it's reversible either way.



and a quick comparison of what differences the taller ride height made.

to me it almost looks like a completely different bike, it highlights just how raked out the forks are, it looks like a much longer wheelbase bike when low and you can see how drastically different the swingarm angle is as well when jacked up. it alters the lines of the bike, if you look at the tank especially its noticeable.

the chain length is also different now that its back on the 110 link has also changed the rear wheel position.



i'm really quite looking forward to trying out the bike with standard gearing again just to see how it feels. will say i almost stalled it with actually needing to use a bit of throttle to get it moving now whereas before you let the clutch out and it moves itself promptly.

[iamhiding]

chain sorted... kinda.  my spare link was a 520 HV o-ring not a 520 XV2 x-ring to match the chain, basically its the same pitch but the new link is wider slightly so it doesn't squish the seals in like it's meant to. it will do for the time being anyway.



think i figured out why its so low. i measured the seat height and it's down to 29'' which is an inch shorter than the 30'' it should be

anyway when i bought a spare shock knuckle ages ago i assumed it was the standard dog bones but i think they're 10mm longer vs the standard ones.

so yeah... it seems i threw lowering links on by accident  i'll have to pull it apart to confirm though

in the spirit of f**k it, this will be a laugh i raised the forks 28mm to drop it roughly equal. it's kinda funny, the sidestand is too long and the thing barely wants to lean on it.



it rides a bit more balanced than it did last night but it's so comically low for me, gives it a bit of a level cafe looking stance as well.



doesn't look as crazily raked out at the forks now  i'm going to pull the dogbones and put it to standard height if i'm right about them being lowering links. i'll see what it's like but i'm going to see if i've got anything lying about that will jack it up just a little from standard and not the massive 2'' it was before just so i can keep the forks a little raised through to get more weight on the front to help the forks work a bit better and maybe it'll stiffen the shock up a little as well without it just feeling too low.




side by side pics for visual comparison again.