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GS500GS?

Started by Nudie, December 27, 2017, 03:03:21 AM

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Nudie

I thought I might as well start a build thread for my attempt at "Adventurising" my GS500. I'm normally hopeless at taking photos as I work on my bikes, so starting this thread will maybe spur me on to make a record of work done.
The extra GS  in the title of this thread is a cheeky acknowledgement of the BMW Adventure bikes (of which I'm a big fan).
At this point a little background might be helpful. Myself and my brother are involved in a charity ride each year called the Scrapheap Adventure Ride which raises money for Down syndrome NSW. The idea is that you pick up a bike for less than $1,000, get it roadworthy and ride it to the designated meeting point, which is in a different place each year. It's always an out of the way area that requires a bit of an "adventure" to get there. It's up to the individuals to raise donations and there is always competition amongst teams to raise the most! In the past I've ridden Postie bikes, an '81 DR500 with a homemade sidecar and an ER5 with knobbies.
This time I picked up a 2006 GS500 that has been dropped on its RH side for $500. I picked up the parts needed to get it running for about $150. It fired up OK and ran sweet, but instead of going for a ride around the block to make sure everything is fine I started pulling it apart. So I'm hoping it grabs all gears and doesn't have any issues. It's only showing about 22,000 kms so it really shouldn't have too many dramas.
So far I've fitted an SV650 rear shock which has raised the rear about 85mm. I picked up a DL650 front wheel because I like the idea of running tubeless tyres and the 19" rim gives me heaps of options for adventure type tyres. I found a DRZ400 front end for $80 on
fleabay and had a friend modify the GS steering stem to fit the DRZ triple clamps. But when I fitted it to the bike the gap between the fork legs wasn't wide enough for the wheel. So I pulled the trigger on a DL1000 front end (that almost cost the same as the purchase price of the bike). Only thing is now I have to machine the wheel to take bigger bearings to suit the larger axle of the 1000.
I had a bit of time in the shed today and made a timber mock up of a bracket that will move the footpegs forward 125mm and down about 80mm. I'm 6'3" and will appreciate a bit extra legroom. This bike will have heaps of ground clearance, so lowering the 'pegs shouldn't cause an issue.
There's heaps more to do, but the ride isn't until October '18.



pattman

God job man!  Im very intrigued as to how the bike will look once completed.

I was rubbish at taking photos of progress as well, to busy in a world of Motörhead to notice the progress.

Who'd win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?
Lemmy?
God?
Wrong d1ckhead, trick question.  Lemmy is God!!

ajensen

Super project for a really great cause. Keep us posted on your progress.

mr72

I'm seriously interested in your footpeg moving ... I'd like to do the same thing to my GS. It's not as if I need any ground clearance. I don't corner on the pegs. Given my height and long arms and legs (compared to average) the bike would be loads more comfortable of the pegs were maybe 30mm lower and 50mm forward.

What do you plan to do about the shift lever and brake lever? That's always been what has prevented me from remounting the pegs. It's a few hundred bucks worth of "rearset" parts to get all these to cleanly move with the pegs. Just curious.

cbrfxr67

"Its something you take apart in 2-3 days and takes 10 years to go back together."
-buddha

Nudie

Quote from: mr72 on December 27, 2017, 08:10:18 AM
I'm seriously interested in your footpeg moving ... I'd like to do the same thing to my GS. It's not as if I need any ground clearance. I don't corner on the pegs. Given my height and long arms and legs (compared to average) the bike would be loads more comfortable of the pegs were maybe 30mm lower and 50mm forward.

What do you plan to do about the shift lever and brake lever? That's always been what has prevented me from remounting the pegs. It's a few hundred bucks worth of "rearset" parts to get all these to cleanly move with the pegs. Just curious.

The brake lever is attached to the footage bracket, so long as I keep the mounting angle the same as stock it will be in the same position. The gear lever is another story. I haven't had a good look at it yet, but I assume that I'll have to mount another lever on the lowering bracket and make up a linkage to connect back to the gear shaft.

Nudie

Mucked around with some more plywood and after a bit of hit and miss, I've probably come up with the L/H side footpeg relocator bracket. I've had to "rotate" the peg bracket clockwise to allow enough clearance for the side stand. If you look at the photo you can see that it is spaced out about 20mm.
I still haven't worked out a gear lever linkage yet, but I'll probably do that once I've made the actual metal bracket and bolted it in place.

cbrfxr67

#7
Stoked to see you fab this up!
"Its something you take apart in 2-3 days and takes 10 years to go back together."
-buddha

Ne0n

Offroad GS? Sounds great!
~ ride hard ~

yamahonkawazuki

looking good my friend, looking good.  once you get this sorted, other changes planned?, such as gearing, maybe filer and pipe?, something to free up a couple ponies? and tires
Aaron
Jan 14 2010 0310 I miss you mom
Vielen dank Patrick. Vielen dank
".
A proud Mormon
"if you come in with the bottom of your cast black,
neither one of us will be happy"- Alan Silverman MD

gregjet

#10
Fantastic idea.
Footpegs. You would be better to make your own from scratch. The standard pegs/levers/backplates are ridiculously heavy. The gear change can be easily swapped for a different lever( alloy if possible) and easy enough top make a new brake lever. The Brake line has a U bend in it so can go a fair way forward.
This will give an idea of the weight savings possible:

.

What forks are you going to. A set of dr650 or DRz400 would be useful if you can mate them.

You can get really good bolt in off road footpegs that would bolt straight to your new peg plates. You will have to extra brace them a the stock GS bolt holes are pretty flimsey. Right hand you could use one of the engine frame piece bolt spots but left will reguire a bit more thought.

Nudie

Greg I started with a DRZ400 front end, but there's not enough gap between the forks to fit the DL650 front wheel I plan to use. So I've gone with a DL1000 front end. I just have to modify the wheel a bit to take the bigger diameter axle of the 1000.
For simplicity (and because I'm cheap) I'll just mod the original foot pegs to suit. The adaptor plates I'm thinking of will be easy to make, my fabrication skills are pretty basic. You mentioned the stock bolt holes and they had me a bit worried too. So I'm thinking of bracing the plates I make at the front to help carry some weight (I'm fairly hefty and I like to stand a fair bit). On the R/H side I can connect to the frame bolts that hold the removable section of frame. On the L/H side maybe use the side stand switch bolts, they're only 6mm I think, but it will only need to help stop the longer plates from flexing. There is a fair bit of material in the frame between the bolt holes so I thought about maybe drilling through the frame and putting an extra bolt all the way through with a nut on the inside.
It's only a cheap bike so I'm not going to spend a heap of dollars trying to turn it into something it wasn't designed to be, just having a bit of fun. I have no intention of hitting ruts and big jumps on it, mostly just gravel/dirt road touring. But there may also be a sidecar in its future, just for fun!

Bluesmudge

I'm really interested in this thread.

I have sort of adventurized my GS but more to a Vstrom level than a GS level. I just put on bar risers/vstrom bars, lowered dirt bike style pegs off ebay, TKC 80 knobby tires, katana rear shock, hepco and becker hard cases, crash bars, a new seat that is ~ 1/2 inch higher, and LED driving lights. I also moved the forks down in the triple trees as much as I feel comfortable to get a little more ground clearance.

The biggest weakness of my bike is the low ground clearance, lack of skid plate, and short suspension travel. I'm really interested in how you put the new front end together!

Endopotential

Definitely interested in what you come up with!

In case you want to take an easier shortcut, I found that the rearsets from a CBR900RR fit quite well with only a tiny bit of modification.  I have pictures on the signature below.

There was plenty of room for adjustment, except that on my bike the brake pedal was limited by the location of my exhaust. On the clutch side, I had to cobble up an adapter to the shifting splines.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=70953.0

2007 GS500F Cafe Fighter - cut off the tail, K&N lunchbox, short exhaust, 20/60/140 jets, R6 shock, all sorts of other random bits...

Nudie

Quote from: Bluesmudge on January 05, 2018, 09:37:08 AM
I'm really interested in this thread.

I have sort of adventurized my GS but more to a Vstrom level than a GS level. I just put on bar risers/vstrom bars, lowered dirt bike style pegs off ebay, TKC 80 knobby tires, katana rear shock, hepco and becker hard cases, crash bars, a new seat that is ~ 1/2 inch higher, and LED driving lights. I also moved the forks down in the triple trees as much as I feel comfortable to get a little more ground clearance.

The biggest weakness of my bike is the low ground clearance, lack of skid plate, and short suspension travel. I'm really interested in how you put the new front end together!

The front conversion isn't difficult if you, or someone you know can mod the steering stem from your GS.
If you press the steering stem out of the bottom triple clamp, you'll see that the section that goes through the triple clamp has a diameter of 30mm (same as the bottom bearing). Both the DRZ400 and DL1000 steering stems have a corresponding diameter of 30.3mm (don't ask me why). So what my fabricating friend did with my GS stem was build the area up with TIG weld and then turn it down on his lathe to 30.3mm. Then I pressed it back into the DL lower triple clamp and using the original GS bearings (new ones actually) fit the triple clamps on the bike. Then forks, wheel, etc. I hope that wasn't too confusing!
An added bonus of using the DL front end is twin discs! Or you can leave one off if you're happy with a single front disc.
I'm not sure how much more ground clearance this makes as I didn't measure the original bike at the front before I swapped it over. If you can stand your bike upright and measure from, say the lower triple clamp bolt and let me know, I'll measure mine and see what the difference is. I do know that the DL forks are about 80mm longer than the GS.
I hope this helps.

gregjet

I looked at the switch bolts as well. They should be fine for brace bolts as they will always be in compression so the bolt size wont matter.
If your are gonna do a lot of tar work maybe double disc,s but in the dirt, twin discs will be a pain to modulate even with a decent grippy tyre. That plus a single disc is much lighter and has less rotational mass ( important in the dirt).
I was thinking DRZ400SM for the forks   as they are wider between the inside of the forks AND USD's. The disc available for them in nice and big.
I like the idea of this bike as it is a more sensible approach to an adventure motor than those huge heavy things people are using. Nice meaty bottom end grunt as well. Still a water cooled donk would probably be more useful at lower speeds.

Nudie

I was recently told that Versys triples with DRZ forks have enough space to fit the DL wheel. I haven't looked into it because I'd already bought the DL front end, so I can't confirm if it works or not.
I'm going to go with the twin discs and see how it goes. My regular ride is one of those dirt behemoths and I love the brakes on it (R1200GS). I've done 125,000 klms on it since new and still can't get enough!
If I do go ahead and build a sidecar for this the twin discs will be a blessing.

Nudie

#17
I recently got some shed time and made the R/H footpeg relocating bracket.




Its all rough and in need of tidying up and painting.
I still need to make a bracket to mount the rear brake M/C, but it's getting there.

The Buddha

Quote from: Nudie on December 27, 2017, 03:03:21 AM
I thought I might as well start a build thread for my attempt at "Adventurising" my GS500. I'm normally hopeless at taking photos as I work on my bikes, so starting this thread will maybe spur me on to make a record of work done.
The extra GS  in the title of this thread is a cheeky acknowledgement of the BMW Adventure bikes (of which I'm a big fan).
At this point a little background might be helpful. Myself and my brother are involved in a charity ride each year called the Scrapheap Adventure Ride which raises money for Down syndrome NSW. The idea is that you pick up a bike for less than $1,000, get it roadworthy and ride it to the designated meeting point, which is in a different place each year. It's always an out of the way area that requires a bit of an "adventure" to get there. It's up to the individuals to raise donations and there is always competition amongst teams to raise the most! In the past I've ridden Postie bikes, an '81 DR500 with a homemade sidecar and an ER5 with knobbies.
This time I picked up a 2006 GS500 that has been dropped on its RH side for $500. I picked up the parts needed to get it running for about $150. It fired up OK and ran sweet, but instead of going for a ride around the block to make sure everything is fine I started pulling it apart. So I'm hoping it grabs all gears and doesn't have any issues. It's only showing about 22,000 kms so it really shouldn't have too many dramas.
So far I've fitted an SV650 rear shock which has raised the rear about 85mm. I picked up a DL650 front wheel because I like the idea of running tubeless tyres and the 19" rim gives me heaps of options for adventure type tyres. I found a DRZ400 front end for $80 on
fleabay and had a friend modify the GS steering stem to fit the DRZ triple clamps. But when I fitted it to the bike the gap between the fork legs wasn't wide enough for the wheel. So I pulled the trigger on a DL1000 front end (that almost cost the same as the purchase price of the bike). Only thing is now I have to machine the wheel to take bigger bearings to suit the larger axle of the 1000.
I had a bit of time in the shed today and made a timber mock up of a bracket that will move the footpegs forward 125mm and down about 80mm. I'm 6'3" and will appreciate a bit extra legroom. This bike will have heaps of ground clearance, so lowering the 'pegs shouldn't cause an issue.
There's heaps more to do, but the ride isn't until October '18.




Why not use the DRZ400's wheel ?
Cool.
Buddha.
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I run a business based on other people's junk.
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Nudie

It would be the easy way out. But I am keen to use tubeless tyres front and rear. From experience, it takes longer to pump up the tyre than to fix a puncture in a tubeless tyre.

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