mr72's '92 project - "Renegade"

[mr72]

Just got my aluminum footpegs in the mail. The good? well, they're aluminum Bad? They are probably way too small. An inch shorter than the stockers at least. And the part that goes through the frame is noticeably thiner, going to take some kind of spacers or washers.

They might actually work ok for my hackish footpeg lowering idea, which is to use a piece of steel channel to lower/forward the peg a little.

Anyway, gonna try them. They were real cheap. If they work ok then I might order another set for the rear. Just not sure my super wide foot is going to fit very well on this. If the top of the stock ones were flat, then I'd just use them with grip tape.

[mr72]

Ok friends, another ride, another story.

Went on about a 75 mile ride with my dad yesterday. It was about 95-96 degrees F.  We did a moderately-twisty, nice quick country road out to a 10-20 mile stretch of super windy, rough, hilly road that dumped is back on another country highway and back the way we came after that. We've done this route before.

- OK first, the seat. This was maybe a two hour adventure. It took about 45 minutes for me to realize this seat is just not going to work out in the long run. That's annoying since I just made up a bunch of mesh bodywork to match this seat exactly. I am going to wind up pulling it off again and doing much more serious foam mods to it I guess. Problem is I just don't know what to do with it to make it better.

- Next really annoying thing is my right foot gets totally numb after about an hour. My guess is my left foot would too except that I have to shift so I move it much more. I really don't know what to do to solve this. From vibrations my hands also got a little bit numb and stayed kind of tingly for about 30 minutes after the ride, but this isn't as big of a deal.

- The hesitation coming from closed throttle to part throttle got super annoying with these windy roads. Basically my speed was constantly changing so I was always going from decel with the throttle closed to accel with a little bit (less than 1/4) throttle, and this exposes this hesitation/stumbling that my bike does. The more I research and think about this problem the more I think it is one of two things: either it's just too lean at the closed end of the needle, which means I should shim the needle (which I plan to do), or the slide is not coming up quick enough, which means I should drill the holes in the slide a notch or maybe I have a vacuum leak somewhere. The more I consider how this all works the more I realize that if I shim the needles, it will make it "idle" richer because any air bypass through the throttle plate will allow air to flow through the main venturi and pick up fuel from the main jet depending on needle position, and needle up 1mm or whatever is going to allow some fuel. Anyway, it all just makes me think I need to go in and shim the needles and drop the main jet down a size, I think it's currently 127.5 and I'm going to run it down to 125. Will do that this coming weekend. Also need to change my fuel lines. Dang this thing requires a lot of maintenance. I also read that leaking "choke" jet can cause poor fuel economy that is unrelated to other carb tuning, so I will look into that too. I just ride so gently that I ought to be getting at least 45mpg all the time and probably closer to 50. Not that I care really, I just want it to be right.

- Maybe related to the throttle hesitation or not, but my fuel economy is still low. I left the house with 47 miles on the trip odo and stopped at a gas station by my house with 123 miles on it. I put 3.06 gal in, and I was pretty careful to get it filled to the same spot as last time. So this is 40.x mpg. I read the Mikuni BST tuning guide and a bunch of other forums and now I'm thinking that provided my jetting is right (and I think it is, or very close, and the difference is mostly at WOT, and I almost never ride at WOT), maybe the problem is float level. I guess while I have the carbs apart this weekend I'll try to reset that too.

- The toe of my right shoe was again soaked in oil and it's leaking out of the crank seal behind the signal generator. I replaced that seal some time ago when it was leaking before. It only leaks like this when the oil is topped up. If I let it get 1/2 quart low, then it doesn't leak (as much). It seems to mostly show up like this when I do a long/harder ride. I don't see oil on my shoes when I ride to work, only like 16 miles each way without high revs. I think I have decided that crank seal won't hold oil pressure and it's just going to leak no matter what, which really sucks. I might try to find another solution just to keep oil off of my shoes. I can clean it easily enough off of the bike but the shoe is a real annoyance. Maybe I'll make an oil dam of some kind.

- One last thing... as much as I love the comfort of my Sedici Strada helmet, man that thing is loud when it's at all windy and going over about 45 mph. Is that all helmets, or is this one just uniquely noisy? Someone about to tell me I need to buy a $500 Shoei helmet to solve this? I actually think earplugs are a better solution. I can't hear anything anyway at those speeds because it's covered with wind noise.

[mr72]

OK project stumblectomy not a success so far.

PROBLEM: bike stumbles or hesitates at about 1/8 throttle at 2.5K rpm. think first gear parking lot speed cruise.

I had two theories as to why this was happening: 1) lean under these conditions which would be fixed with a combination of pilot jet and moving the needle clips down a notch, and 2) float levels wrong.

the secondary issue I wanted to address was poor fuel economy which more than anything might be an indication that it's running rich. So I was considering bumping the main jet down a size.

So since I needed to change my fuel lines anyway I decided to tackle this all at once today, so I pulled everything off and:

1. verified the float levels are perfect. That's not causing the stumble.
2. changed the main jet down to 125 (was 127.5)
3. moved the e-clip on the needles down a notch (thank goodness whoever I bought these carbs from had swapped in non-US needles!)
4. turned the pilot mixture needles out 1/8 turn to make them just a smidge richer.

Also replaced all the fuel lines with new tygon lines and verified everything was working right like chokes diaphragms slides etc. Whole bike is super good to go now that it's together.

Anndd... well I didn't get it warmed all the way up, just started and ran for like 2 min and then rode it around the cul-de-sac. But the stumble is still there.

One thing is that the bike seems quite happy to idle with the choke off even after starting and warming up only for like 20 seconds, which I attribute to that 1/8 turn on the pilot needles.

So I didn't fix my stumble but I did verify it's not what I thought it was.

New theory is that maybe it's too rich under these conditions which I would think wouldn't cause a stumble but I guess anything's possible. In that case then I need to move the needles back and maybe turn the pilot needles in 1/4 turn. Since it requires pulling the tank to get to the needles I might start with the pilot needles just to check. But I really do doubt this is the problem.

Anyway, it's a problem for another day.

While messing with it I found another couple of problems of course. The throttle/right hand control is still not able to be tightened to the bar and moves. I need to fix that ASAP. I did this times before filling the hole with JB Weld and tapping it again but I think it might take more serious work like gluing in a nut or using one of these threaded brass inserts like I use on guitar necks. I really need to totally replace the right hand control. While I have it apart I might do the quicker-throttle mod since I find that I basically never ever use WOT because it's too much wrist rotation.

Also discovered my horn doesn't work. Wire musta come loose somewhere. Guess I'll have to figure that out.

Still needs bigger springs and a new rear tire.

Lots of little things I need to do while it's too hot to ride much. Once October gets here then I'll want this thing to be perfect. Or I'll want a new motorcycle.

[mr72]

Alright I rode it around a lot more and it's definitely noticeably leaner.

A lot less crackling/popping on decel, presumably because less unburnt fuel in the exhaust.

Got one backfire through the carb taking off from a stop light when first opening the throttle. Sure sign it's lean.

So it was rich on the 127.5 jets and lean on the 125s. I think I'll keep the 125. Bike runs great, pulls well, quite snappy, etc.

Idle is perfect.

And I noticed my stumble is at the same 1/8 throttle or so no matter the rpm. It's just a stumble at light throttle. It's only in a very, very narrow range of throttle positions now, but it's definitely still there. Now that I am paying attention to it, it seems hard to avoid it.

EDIT:

I can tell that there is a range of throttle, very small, where the bike runs on pilot alone. Then with a touch more throttle it goes into stumble, and just a touch more it goes to normal riding. Problem is the stumble part is right at where you are riding in a parking lot, or in 4th gear riding around my neighborhood at 30mph, so it's a range that I use fairly frequently. So I want to solve it.

My current theory is that it may be worn emulsion tubes. The theory here is that wear in the slide guides allows the needle to rub against the side of the emulsion tube causing it to wear a bit of a groove or sort of egg-shape, so that when the needle seats it doesn't seal all around. This means you draw in fuel from the main jet even when the slide is all the way down, which should be at nearly zero throttle. I'm guessing you have to get the throttle plate open enough to get some air moving through the venturi before it begins to draw any fuel at all, and it draws fuel from the main jet through this leak in the emulsion tube with the needle down even if the slide isn't coming up at all.

It appears my bike doesn't have stock needles, at least not stock for a USA GS500, and they are stainless steel. I hear others may be aluminum, which would reduce wear a lot on the emulsion tubes since the needle would wear (which is just as bad, but easier to fix).

I have yet to confirm this is related to the problem but I can imagine how it would make it impossible to tune if this were the case. It's annoying enough that I think I will order some new emulsion tubes and replace them next time I have the bike apart. Unfortunately they are quite pricey. Looking for alternatives, especially if I can find a stainless steel one. I will also inspect those from my old/original carbs, maybe they are in better shape.

BTW an alternate name for emulsion tubes is "needle jet". That's quite misleading since it's not a jet. Looks like some parts diagrams call this part the "nozzle". Suzuki part number is 09494-00871, #30 in this picture:

[mr72]

Stumblectomy research project update:

I have a spare set of carbs, the original ones that were on the bike when I got it with 21K miles on it. There's a fair chance they're original, but I could never get the bike to run with these carbs so I gave up and bought another set, which are on the bike now.

I can confirm that the needles that are on the bike are stainless steel and have five needle clip positions, so these are not original. The stock/OEM emulsion tubes in a GS500 are unplated brass. My suspicion is that the stumbling at just off idle may be caused by worn emulsion tubes, which I have yet to confirm. If this is the case, then there is a chance that the cause of the wear may be related to the stainless needles. Reports from other bike forums about these Mikuni BST carbs on other bikes indicate that the combination of stainless needles and unplated brass emulsion tubes can result in rapid wear of the emulsion tubes, like within a few hundred miles. This is in line with my experience, the stumbling problem has steadily progressed, to the point it is now where I have to do something about it, in the past 3K miles. Also reports are that my riding style accelerates this wear, because I tend to ride at small throttle openings and lower speeds most of the time, which increases the potential for wear because the needle is very close to the emulsion tube at low throttle openings.

Anyway.

Over the past day or two I pulled apart my old carbs just to investigate. The plan is to pull the current/running carbs and attempt to remedy this problem, but I wanted to get my head straight by looking at some carbs on the bench first. The old carbs have aluminum needles with only one clip slot. These appear to be stock. And there is no wear I can see on these needles. I pulled the emulsion tubes, which you can easily do by putting one of the bowl screws into the hole where the main jet goes and tap it with a small hammer, which will knock the emulsion tube loose. I used a jeweler's hammer. Eventually you have to use something longer to tap it out if you don't have a 2" long M4 bolt, I used a 4mm allen wrench.

When I got the emulsion tubes out there was something alarming to begin with, which is they were extremely crusty. I mean, there was an unbelievable amount of crud built up all over the outside of these emulsion tubes, clogging the holes, and in general making them look awful. My guess is this is one of the reasons I could never get the bike to run with these carbs. However, when I looked carefully at the opening in the top of the emulsion tube where it would be worn, I could not find any noticeable wear. So it looks like my "spare" set of emulsion tubes and needles are stock and undamaged. This is good. So I hit them with a brass wire brush and they are currently soaking in B12 chemtool. After a day's worth of soaking I might stick them in a little vinegar to see if I can get the last bits of corrosion off.

Next step is to pull the carbs again from my GS. I'm not happy with having to do this but I want to get it right. Day after tomorrow I'll tear it down, the goal is to swap in the stock needles and good emulsion tubes from the old carbs. I'll get a look at the wear (if any) of the current emulsion tubes when I get them out of the carbs and report back on whether there is wear or gunk buildup. Probably start with 1-2 washers on each needle.

Side note: as replacement parts, these needles and emulsion tubes are not cheap. Factory Pro has kits with nickel plated emulsion tubes and stainless needles, which they say will wear much longer. To replace both needles and emulsion tubes would be like $80 worth of parts (!). Also since I have stainless needles that are likely aftermarket, the profile is really unknown. Just eyeballing it, it seems like the taper is much more exaggerated with the SS needles than the alu but I'll measure them all with a micrometer when I have all of the parts in my hand.

Who am I kidding? I like tinkering with this stuff.

Oh, another tip for the home mechanic: to get gasoline off of your hands, use laundry spray-cleaner like Oxy-Clean, Shout or Spray-n-wash. Also, "Totally Awesome" that you can get literally for $1 at Dollar General works just as well and is a great general purpose cleaner/degreaser to boot.

[ShowBizWolf]

Good luck to you mr72, I will be hoping you get everything sorted! I am following along, as usual.

And... that L.A.'s Awesome cleaner really is wonderful stuff!

[mr72]

Welp, this is interesting.

Earlier this morning I pulled the carbs and checked the emulsion tubes.

First, to my surprise, the emulsion tubes are nickel-plated. They are not stock. Looks like the emulsion tubes and needles both were replaced in these carbs at some point. Maybe a Factory Pro kit? I have no idea. Anyway, they have absolutely no wear that I can discern and are a much better choice than the old/stock ones from my spare carbs so I'll keep them.

Bike's apart at the moment. I will measure the stainless/aftermarket needles and if they are the same profile as the stock alu needles then I'll stick with them, otherwise I'll switch to the alu stockers.

So my stumbling is almost definitely NOT caused by worn emulsion tubes.

So without the benefit of a wideband O2 sensor, here's my logic.

- with the 127.5 jets and needles on #3 it stubmbled occasionally
- with 125 jets the bike runs better overall but with the needles on #4 (1mm shim equivalent) it stumbles worse.
- so this means stumbling is not likely caused by too-lean as I thought, but more likely too rich.

Odds are then had I gone to 125 jet and left the needle clip positions alone it'd probably be working fine right now. So I'll either swap in the aluminum needles or if the taper is the same for the SS ones, I'll move the needle clip position back down to the stock spot and use them. Then let's see if I can find a balance point between good idle and no stumbling with pilot jet needle adjustment. At least that's adjustable with the bike intact.

The good news: I confirmed the emulsion tubes aren't worn so I can quit worrying about it.

I will dial out as much stumble as I can with pilot mixture but I'll tolerate it if I can't dial it out and chalk it up to c'est la vie.

More later.

[mr72]

Update:

The SS needles that were in the carbs were NOT the same profile as the stock aluminum ones. At the end both were 1.80mm and at the shank both were 2.40mm. But at 1cm from the end, the alu ones were about 2.2mm and the SS ones were just a hair over 2.0mm, a difference of 0.2mm. The result of that would be the bike running richer at mid-throttle.

So I put the stock alu needles in with the Ni plated emulsion tubes. No washers. I figured why not try stock. And just to make sure I can't rule things out easily, I went ahead and leaned the pilot mixture 1/2 turn on each side (recall I had turned it 1/8 turn richer before).

Result? Well I didn't ride the bike far or long enough to check the pilot mixture the way I prefer, didn't get it fully warmed up. But in a couple of laps in 1st gear at parking lot pace around the cul-de-sac I could not make it stumble.

So, it looks like the stumble may have been indeed caused by too-rich conditions at light throttle, a combination of the needle profile and me trying the wrong thing to fix it by dropping the e-clip down a notch. Going back to stock needle/position seems to have cured it, with the 125 jet.

My guess is this will improve the fuel mileage. How can it not? Now I just need to get out and ride some to wring it out.

[mr72]

Alright, I just went on a 1.25 hour errand including windy backroads and highways and everything else, the bike RUNS SO MUCH BETTER THAN IT EVER HAS!!!

Wow, what a difference.

It does seem to idle a touch lean, which I will probably have to address come winter. And it takes a lot longer to warm up so it'll idle with the choke off. All signs of running much leaner. It was too rich at throttle tip in causing the stumbling.

OEM aluminum needles, no shimming
some aftermarket emulsion tubes with nickel plating
40/125 jets
OEM air filter / airbox
chopped (10" or so) Yoshimura muffler ("slip-on" but it's bolted on)
=
success!

[ShowBizWolf]

 

That is wonderful news

[gregjet]

SS or nickle plated stuff. Was this bike used for drag racing? IOr something similar where they use alcohol fuels ( not E10) Cause that's what it sounds like.
Stumble at 1/8 is the transition from pilot to needle ( I suspect you know that).
My experience in that area is that one possible is the air screw is either too far in or out so the pilot is either too big or too large. If the screw is less than 1.5 turns from all in or 3 turns all out then try another pilot that will get you to 2-2.5 turns. The taper stops working too far in or out.  Check the springs are in there and that there is no wear step in the screw taper.
Next the needles at full in may be too long or short, so when they lift it goes too rich or too lean.
Another thing is possibly the emulsion tubes may be for alcohol or for a two stroke, in which case the the emulsion tube will be wrong shape, especially at the top.

Hope there might be something there you can use.

[mr72]

gregjet thanks a ton, that is very useful info and it aligns with what I found with other research.

I think the needles and emulsion tubes in these carbs likely came in a kit along with jets, you know a "Stage 1" or whatever kit. Any kit with SS needles would likely include nickel plated emulsion tubes I would think to avoid excessive/fast wear. The emulsion tubes appear to be identical to the stock ones only plated. One thing's for sure, the nickel plating sure does seem to reduce the corrosion from gas with ethanol vs. the original brass tubes.

Remember these carbs didn't come with the bike. I could never make it run wth the original carbs and I bought these on ebay for like $80 and then replaced all o-rings and float needles, set them up according to the prescribed way and they just worked. I'm sure the story is somewhere in the thousand pages of this thread.

Not as if I know the pedigree of the rest of the bike. I did find where the previous owner was on this forum trying to fix stuff that was wrong with it when I got it, eventually requiring the top-end rebuild to fix. So I have every indication that the bike had some abuse and misguided repair efforts heaped on it during the quarter century it lived before I got it.

FWIW I have already gone through the rest of the carbs replacing all o-rings and resetting/checking/cleaning everything. It's all in great shape. The real problem is just as you suggested, stumbling, caused by it being too rich right at the smallest opening of the slide/needle, which was (I think) caused by two things primarily: 1) the main jet was too big and 2) the needle profile was too rich in that spot. I made it worse by moving the needle a notch richer.

For good measure I leaned the pilot mixture a half turn but I think it's too lean now. I might come out 1/8 turn on each carb before my next ride and I think it might be perfect by then.

[gregjet]

Main jet size should have pretty much no effect at 1/8 throttle. Really pilot size, pilot screw taper and needle position/taper will be all that flows ( unless it is a alcohol/2stroke needle jet then the upper bit of the tube in the airflow will have a big effect.)

You probably have this but just in  case here is a link to the VM carb tuning. Now only some of it is relevant to our carbs directly but you can check the emulsion tube type just in case. See the description at 3.2 and next page and the picuture of them is on page 9.
http://www.mikuni.com/pdf/vmmanual.pdf

I didn't mention the cutaways as as far as I know there is only one slide available for our carbs. They could be sticking of course.
Any washers under the needle WILL effect this area as well by making the needle effectively shorter ( or longer).

[mr72]

FYI it's been a couple of months and a lot of miles and the Kawasaki reg/rect is solid as a rock. No signs of any trouble.

I swapped the rear tire for a new Pilot Street Radial in 140/70-17. Also a while back I put in Sonic Springs, 0.90kg-mm, and also added a controversial handlebar riser and a stripe on the tank and lowered the fork tubes in the triples about 10mm to further raise the front end to match the taller rear end by virtue of the bigger tire. The bike really runs and rides great, looks very good, and there's pretty much nothing to complain about.

So naturally, I'm shopping for another bike. Going on Saturday to look at another Bonneville. I'm smitten with those.

I have my now-annual trip to the Harvest Classic rally/show coming up in a week and I'll most likely take the GS even if I wind up (likely) buying a Triumph by then, since the GS is decked out for luggage and it's a reliable, known quantity. I don't think I want to be doing a 100-mile trip on a used British motorcycle that I don't know well. Even though I was cranky about it just a few months ago, after riding a lot all summer I learned that my GS is a decent looking, reliable, fun, flickable, quick and steady do-all runabout. Having that base covered made it easier for me to decide to add what is a heavier and more expensive roadster to the garage. Time will tell, but I doubt I will quit riding the GS. And even if I do quit riding it often, I doubt I will sell it. Again, time will tell.

[mr72]

The era of my project bike may be coming to an end. This is two years and eleven days after my first post in this thread.

Thinking back, when I bought this bike I really planned to "just ride it" for about a year, and actually figured I would wind up replacing it with something bigger and a decade newer, assuming I was riding regularly. I didn't really know what to expect. But as it turns out, I did what I always do with anything I care much about, and sunk time and money into rebuilding and updating it. The bike grew on me, a lot. In a lot of ways, my joy of motorcycling was linked to this specific bike. But I also enjoyed the mechanical simplicity, the art of the carburetors, the personality of this bike. Now it's a trusted road companion that's not only personalized but it has sort of personalized me to itself.

But I did buy another bike, a 2012 Triumph Bonneville SE. The Triumph is a better bike in every way. It looks better, a lot better. It's quicker, starts easier, far more responsive and faster, smoother, more planted and stable in turns, just better. It should be, it's 20 years newer and cost three times as much. The one thing the Triumph lacks where the old GS excels is in personality. Character. The Triumph feels great the first time you ride it. It feels like you are getting all you can out of it within the first mile. No experience necessary. The GS, well you have to learn it, who it is, how it works. You have to learn to feel the tires on the road and where the power comes on and how to negotiate the transmission to make it work. The triumph's chassis doesn't flex and the weight is down low so it drives itself around curves and effortlessly executes whatever you want. The GS requires you to find the sweet spot and rewards you for it.

I had a similar feeling about my Miata, which I bought new in 2000 and then rebuilt in 2013-2014 only to have it totaled in 2015. I dearly miss that car. I think I may wind up missing my GS the same way. But yesterday after running an errand on the new Triumph it seemed clear that I might never really find a reason to get back on the GS if the Triumph was sitting there ready to go. So with sort of a heavy heart, I started to realize this may be the end of an era for me on my GS. Maybe my mind will change after the new wears off of the Triumph.

The bike's not for sale. Not now anyway. If the CenTX fall weather turns perfect, maybe I'll post the GS and see if I get any bites. Otherwise it's more likely I'll try to sell it in the spring. I'll be stingy on price knowing that this is an extremely well-sorted bike with virtually everything that's not new having been updated, improved, rebuilt, or reconditioned. It's a special GS500 and I need it to go to a special new home, not just some kid that'll destroy it because it was cheap. Or maybe I'll just keep it forever and go ride it to the grocery store once a week to keep the gas fresh, because I'll probably regret ever letting it go.

[Endopotential]

No!!!  Say it ain't so!

You've invested too much time and love to let it go.  Unless you're really pressed for storage space or cash, just hang on to it.  I'm sure somewhere along the way you'll get the urge to tinker.  Turn it into a cafe racer / bobber /whatever and have fun.  Save the fancy Triumph for riding.

I know - I have a Daytona, but still love my old GS project.

[mr72]

Yeah I think I'll keep it for the time being. I definitely don't want to see it go. Got a soft spot for it. Probably I'll want to ride it again once the new wears off of the Triumph. Plus the top case on the GS is extremely useful. I am not sure I'll ever wind up with luggage like that on the Triumph.

[mr72]

After taking one longish trip on the Triumph, it became clear that the GS is better on those kinds of trips. The more compliant longer-travel suspension and the far more comfortable seat have a lot to do with it. 15-20mpg more gas mileage, and thus about a 50 miles longer range, has a lot to do with it to.

Given these things, now I am thinking about perhaps swapping a set of 80/20 tires onto the GS and keeping it as an almost-scrambler type bike. I think the GS might be very good on gravel roads and some smoother fire-road type roads, or on these rough backroads that are "paved" (note the quotes) here in Central TX, with only a change in tires. Kind of the "crossover SUV" of motorcycles?

Maybe?

[mr72]

Today I changed the front sprocket to a 14t in effort to pep up the old GS. This is part of the scramblerization of the GS. I figured lowering the gearing would make it a bit more peppy, and since I have a better bike for highway riding, I don't really need the GS to do dual duty. Plus if I am riding on things like fire roads and other gravel etc. then having a bit lower gears might be a big advantage.

To quantify how much quicker the bike is with a 14t sprocket, I decided to make a video of some 0-60+ runs with the stock 16t sprocket using my action camera on the handlebar aimed roughly at the speedometer. The idea is to make similar videos of the bike with the 14t sprocket on it. Now some on this forum in another thread argued that this will not make the bike accelerate any quicker, but I'm pretty certain it will. Plus it'll be fun to have the videos.

Now, a little side note. I have noticed that the GS's clutch always felt, well, kind of spongy? Maybe like it had a bit of extra friction to it, moving both ways. Maybe it was a little sticky, didn't always want to release cleanly. Compared with the very crisp, and firmer, clutch in the Triumph, it was night and day.

Anyway, while I was about to put together the bike after swapping the sprocket I noticed this alarming condition:


Yeah, that would explain the weird clutch feel. What you can't see in the picture is that the one strand of the clutch cable that's still attached is actually frayed down about 70%. That thing is almost literally hanging on by a thread. Looking at that, I really feel fortunate I didn't get left stranded due to a broken clutch cable. To think, before I bought my Triumph I was planning on taking this bike on a 300 mile round trip to a motorcycle rally for camping etc. where it'd be my sole transportation. And I had been using it regularly to get to and from work when I needed to go. I'm not sure this has even one more ride left in it.

So I ordered a new clutch cable, and it'll likely take a week to get here. I'll go ahead and pull that sprocket cover off and thoroughly clean it plus the engine beneath it before the new cable gets here so I can have it all together maybe by next weekend and I will make the new videos.

I also happened to have gotten a new, taller seat for my Triumph, which is maybe 2" taller. It's amazing how much more comfortable the Triumph is with the much longer distance from the seat to the pegs. Did I mention I have about a 33-34" inseam? Yeah, apparently that's too big for the old GS. So lowering the pegs is now going to be a priority. I'll be analyzing how to make brackets to move these pegs down and forward. Since I'm going to do this basically custom, might as well do it right, and I think I'll measure the distance and angle of the Triumph and match it as close as possible on the GS. There are basically two big complications: the rear brake, which has the master cylinder mounted straight to the rearset plate on the right side, and the shifter, which I will have to completely fabricate. Shifter is no big problem but that brake may be tricky. Fortunately I'm not the first person to try to do this, so I will go look and see how others did it and just copy and paste as much as possible.

The project never ends!

[qcbaker]

That clutch cab;le is seriously one of the sketchiest things I've ever seen... Lucky you caught it before it broke!