I just finished afew mods on my bike and figured I'd post some pics.
before:
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/P1010002.jpg)
after
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/newmods1.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/newmods5.jpg)
I just finished making the brackets for the headlight fairing, and the wheels and tires were finished last night along with the new race suspension in the front. For those that don't know; I painted the wheels myself using tremclad brush on gloss black paint. The new tires are Pirelli sport demons and the little headlight fairing is from some Buell.
looks good :cheers:
I like the wheels the best.
it would look cool if you painted the headlight housing and bracket black to match the windscreen.
the wind screen is actually carbon fiber but the plan is to black out the entire bike. balck frame, bodywork, lower fork legs, etc. now that I've goten it to this stage I'm starting to have second thoughts about blacking it all out. its starting to look good with the red body work and silver frame.
question for everyone.
What do you think? keep the red and black, or contiue with my plans and black everthing out?
looks good! :thumb:
Contrasting and complimentary colors will always win out over solid black. Have you ever seen a professionally done solid black bike?
Quote from: ambisinister on April 14, 2006, 03:55:08 PM
Contrasting and complimentary colors will always win out over solid black. Have you ever seen a professionally done solid black bike?
yes. it was a mix of flat balck and gloss black. slight accents of red, witch is waht I was going to do. why? what do you have in mind?
all balck;
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/me20bike.jpg)
black with one other colour body work;
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/dsc000015ym.jpg)
black with accents of red R6;
(http://www.mcpoolen.se/images/mc/2005/yamaha/yzf-r6/svart-sida-hub.gif)
The bike would look awesome with a black frame, even if you didn't paint the tank & tail black. Why don't you try that black first (if you like it how it is now, black & red would probably look even cooler) and then decide if you want to go all black after you have black frame & red paint :cheers:
Quote from: mike_mike on April 14, 2006, 04:23:44 PM
The bike would look awesome with a black frame, even if you didn't paint the tank & tail black. Why don't you try that black first (if you like it how it is now, black & red would probably look even cooler) and then decide if you want to go all black after you have black frame & red paint :cheers:
I think thats my next step. I'm going to go with a satin or cemi-gloss paint for the frame to create a little contrast. then I'll go about putting on the new exhaust and painting the pipes flat black and polishing the aluminum can. from there I'll decide if I want to paint the body work balck or not. maybe some combination of red and black?
The yellow one looked real good, just my opinion, but I think solid colors are fine but the difference between hack work and excellence is in the details, You know, the little stuff
Quote from: ambisinister on April 14, 2006, 11:32:14 PM
The yellow one looked real good, just my opinion, but I think solid colors are fine but the difference between hack work and excellence is in the details, You know, the little stuff
so... what are you saying? all black? or black and red?
all black!
that yellow one looks really clean becuase of that nice tail someone build/modded onto it.
it has one of those cool veypor computers too.
I could be prejudiced beacause mine came stock black and red. Really though, YOU will be the one doing it and YOU will be the one riding it. As long as you're happy with result anybody else can go jump off a bridge
It is amazing what a little paint (and naval jelly, and JB Weld, and Bondo, and a 4.5" rear wheel, and Michelin radials, and a fresh Works Performance shock, and stiffer fork springs and revalved damper rods, and a 4 piston Nissin brake caliper, and a freshly rebuilt GSXR1100 steering damper, and a valve adjustment, and rejetting, and cleaning all the wiring harness connectors, and a spiffy new windscreen) can do...
(http://vma.cape.com/~patrick/temp/aa_before_sf.jpg)
(http://vma.cape.com/~patrick/temp/gus_1.jpg)
Quote from: patrick on April 15, 2006, 10:12:38 PM
It is amazing what a little paint (and naval jelly, and JB Weld, and Bondo, and a 4.5" rear wheel, and Michelin radials, and a fresh Works Performance shock, and stiffer fork springs and revalved damper rods, and a 4 piston Nissin brake caliper, and a freshly rebuilt GSXR1100 steering damper, and a valve adjustment, and rejetting, and cleaning all the wiring harness connectors, and a spiffy new windscreen) can do...
And yet you still kept that huge rear fender! :laugh:
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 15, 2006, 10:28:41 PM
And yet you still kept that huge rear fender! :laugh:
Brian, Brian, Brian. When you cut off the rear fender, you lose 3 horsepower, the handling goes to hell, and girls laugh at you.
I think its the other way, that all happens if you don't cut it down
Quote from: patrick on April 15, 2006, 10:35:27 PM
Brian, Brian, Brian. When you cut off the rear fender, you lose 3 horsepower, the handling goes to hell, and girls laugh at you.
patrick:
What did you do to the damper rods? Some have suggested welding the stock damping holes closed, but I'd like some specifics about what was done to yours to improve them... Who did the work? Do you have photos? Is this written up somewhere? Thanks...
(http://vma.cape.com/~patrick/temp/gus_1.jpg)
Your bike has inspired me. imagine your bike, with a flat/cemi gloss black frame, swing arm and lower fork legs. seeing that picture really makes me want to go all black again. thanks man :thumb:
BSD, I'm really interested in seeing how your fork legs turn out. I'm thinking that might be a definite improvement on most of the bikes on here. With my black frame... mmm... I might have to bust out Photoshop to see :)
all black looks awesome, but think about using what you have in the most efficient, creative way instead. Your bike has good "bones" in that the factory red is in good condition. work with it. Go all black elsewhere on the bike but keep the red body. add red striping to the wheels, go with one sheen black throughout so it doesnt appear chopped up since there isnt much to the bike. IF you do paint the body black, do the body in the different sheen (flat or Semi gloss) and do the frame and other things the other sheen. wheels could match the bodywork or the frame but keep the sheens and the colors to a minimum. Just my opinion.
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 15, 2006, 11:06:11 PM
BSD, I'm really interested in seeing how your fork legs turn out. I'm thinking that might be a definite improvement on most of the bikes on here. With my black frame... mmm... I might have to bust out Photoshop to see :)
Hey Alpha, if you're really going to photochop it, do me a favor and change the white Suzuki logo on the tank to red... and make that ass-ugly silver kickstand black, OK? Thanks...
Quote from: Cal Amari on April 15, 2006, 11:29:45 PM
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 15, 2006, 11:06:11 PM
BSD, I'm really interested in seeing how your fork legs turn out. I'm thinking that might be a definite improvement on most of the bikes on here. With my black frame... mmm... I might have to bust out Photoshop to see :)
Hey Alpha, if you're really going to photochop it, do me a favor and change the white Suzuki logo on the tank to red... and make that ass-ugly silver kickstand black, OK? Thanks...
I'd be photo chopping an '05 E for mine, which already has the black kickstand. I'll try the fork legs, though.
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b123/AlphaFire_X5/GSTwin/GS500E-blackforklegs.jpg)
Just a quick job to give you an idea.
Quote from: pantablo on April 15, 2006, 11:09:17 PM
all black looks awesome, but think about using what you have in the most efficient, creative way instead. Your bike has good "bones" in that the factory red is in good condition. work with it. Go all black elsewhere on the bike but keep the red body. add red striping to the wheels, go with one sheen black throughout so it doesnt appear chopped up since there isnt much to the bike. IF you do paint the body black, do the body in the different sheen (flat or Semi gloss) and do the frame and other things the other sheen. wheels could match the bodywork or the frame but keep the sheens and the colors to a minimum. Just my opinion.
I will not, absolutely ever, paint my body work flat black. Not on the GS at least. I have a custom low-rider bicycle I built a few years back that's all flat black and chrome, and it looks really good. But that's the key; you need lots of shiny chrome to accent the flat black. I've seen it on the GS and personally I think it looks like crap. If the body work goes black, it goes gloss black, but I am very interested in what you have to say pantablo. It seems you have an eye for design.
My problem is that if I keep the body work red, I'm going to want to paint the frame, lower fork legs and swing arm gloss black to keep some continuity with the rest of the black on the bike. BUT, if the body work is going to go black, then I want to do the frame and other parts in flat black to create a little contrast. So if the frame is the next thing to be painted, then I really need to decide what I'm doing with the body work.
Now if I go all black, there will still be touches of red here and there. I will stripe the wheels in a thin red line, as well as a red outlined Suzuki "S" on the tank and eventually when I do the motor the words GS555R on the tail in the same red outlined letters.
The other part of my envisioned 'stealth' GS involves accents of carbon fiber. I've already got the carbon wind screen, and I'm working on a carbon fiber/aluminum custom chain guard. Then the plan was to high mount a carbon fiber exhaust can on the Vance & Hines headers, and maybe a few other little hints of carbon like on the bar ends.
That's my total vision. What do you think?
(http://www.cyclegear.com/images/motrax%20bar%20ends_410x311.jpg)
I have the silver ones of those. There is a little ring of carbon fiber on there that is subtle and well done, I think. Cost is about $17 US + tax at your local Cycle Gear. If you're going with the black, I think the black ones with the carbon fiber ring would be perfect.
those are exactly the ones I was looking at. great minds think alike.
accept its a toss up between getting the polished aluminum ones and the black ones.
these are the polished ones: the ones you posted are the matt finish version.
(http://alba.buyol.com/Alba/images/itemslarge/135-.jpg)
look at the one on the very bottom; see how good black and carbon look togther?
if your bodywork still shows a good shine, you can leave the red and still go flat black on the rest (forks, frame, etc) and it will look good. it will be different than gloss though-gloss looks more "finished" overall. Look again at the yellow bike you posted-looks really good because its nicely tied together, although I cant make out the sheen on the black frame.
You could also go gloss black frame...then do gloss black bodywork but add flat black, or CF stripes/OEM graphics...
THe raven R6 proves that flat/gloss black work well together, and that it needs the accent color.
You're absolutely right though-you need to plan the whole thing out now before painting anything. Personally I think flat black, when used as more than a small accent, just looks like a rat bike (fine if thats what you want)...
Quote from: pantablo on April 16, 2006, 12:11:15 AM
if your bodywork still shows a good shine, you can leave the red and still go flat black on the rest (forks, frame, etc) and it will look good. it will be different than gloss though-gloss looks more "finished" overall. Look again at the yellow bike you posted-looks really good because its nicely tied together, although I cant make out the sheen on the black frame.
You could also go gloss black frame...then do gloss black bodywork but add flat black, or CF stripes/OEM graphics...
THe raven R6 proves that flat/gloss black work well together, and that it needs the accent color.
You're absolutely right though-you need to plan the whole thing out now before painting anything. Personally I think flat black, when used as more than a small accent, just looks like a rat bike (fine if thats what you want)...
I agree that flat black really can make a bike look like a rat bike, and that's one of my main concerns about going flat on the frame. But I'm also worried about there being no contrast on the bike. I think if I can be tasteful with the flat black I can make it look good. I am starting to second guess doing the entire frame in flat black though. And I keep saying 'flat' but really I would use semi gloss paint so it would still have just a bit of shine. The beauty of this is that if I paint it, and I hate it, I can just go over it in gloss black.
If you do the frame in a non-gloss, go with a satin. That would look the cleanest, I think. The satin is how the '04 frames are, I'm pretty sure.
Quote from: budget speed demon on April 15, 2006, 11:02:54 PM
Your bike has inspired me. imagine your bike, with a flat/cemi gloss black frame, swing arm and lower fork legs. seeing that picture really makes me want to go all black again. thanks man :thumb:
Careful though. It's not that far from tastefully done black on black to... ratbike.org
(http://www.ratbike.org)
Quote from: Cal Amari on April 15, 2006, 10:59:45 PM
What did you do to the damper rods? Some have suggested welding the stock damping holes closed, but I'd like some specifics about what was done to yours to improve them... Who did the work? Do you have photos? Is this written up somewhere? Thanks...
Which holes do some suggest welding closed? If they're talking about welding the compression damping holes closed, just smile and nod when they talk.
This is my girlfriend's bike. She does track days and group rides with people who ride Ducatis, BMWs, VFRs, CBR1100XXs, SVs, stuff like that, and they're mostly a bunch of guys who aren't squids any more, but they still haul ass. And she usually runs near the front of the pack unless they come to a long straight where a GS just can't hang with the big motors. So she's pushing the bike pretty hard.
The previous owner put a Works shock and a set of Progressive springs in it. So the back end was pretty much all set, and the front had a suitable spring rate. But with all that spring and the stock viscosity fork oil, there wasn't enough rebound damping. So the front end would pogo and upset the bike, especially through long sweeping high speed corners if there were a few rolling hills or ripples. And that's exactly the problem my girlfriend was having. You can attack that a couple ways. Welding the
rebound damping holes closed then grinding them flush is one way to do it. But the hole is
really small. And welding it closed isn't going to make much of a difference in and of itself. Another way to come at it is to use a higher viscosity fork oil. So I used the higher viscosity fork oil. But then you get the problem of too much high speed compression damping making the bike skittish over ripples because there isn't enough compression damping hole area to deal with the thicker oil.
I didn't take any pictures, there's no writeup somewhere that I followed, I just went by feel. And it's been about two years since I did the work, so I might be a little fuzzy on the numbers. But if I recall correctly, I put 4 8mm holes at the bottom of the damper rods, stacked 2 x 2, 90 degrees and about 20mm from each other to basically have the compression damping mostly wide open. Then I put 2 3mm holes about a third the way up the damper rod. This gives a little less compression damping for the top 2/3 of the travel, and a lot less rebound damping for the bottom 1/3 of the travel. So when you're on the gas going through a corner, the tire can easily follow the road without upsetting the bike, but if you take a bigger hit, the damping ups a little bit before you go bottomed. And when you're braking hard over ripples, the front end doesn't stick down and judder. Then I put it together with 30wt oil and made some adjustable preload spacers to set the sag. I forget where I set the oil level. I probably ended up around 1 1/4" sag since that's a number I usually aim for with street bikes. I was all set to go lighter on the oil in case 30wt was too heavy, but it ended up being spot-on.
Anyway, it rocks. She rips on the bike now and it's super stable in spots where it was all over the place before.
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 16, 2006, 12:30:50 AM
If you do the frame in a non-gloss, go with a satin. That would look the cleanest, I think. The satin is how the '04 frames are, I'm pretty sure.
isn't satin and cemil gloss the same thing?
Quote from: budget speed demon on April 16, 2006, 02:05:53 PM
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 16, 2006, 12:30:50 AM
If you do the frame in a non-gloss, go with a satin. That would look the cleanest, I think. The satin is how the '04 frames are, I'm pretty sure.
isn't satin and cemil gloss the same thing?
I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the semi (or cemi in your crazy Canadian sense) glass has a bit more sheen to it than the satin does. I could be wrong though. I think it goes from matte to satin to semi-gloss to gloss. I'm sure a check at the local hardware store could verify though.
I've gotten a little more progress on the bike so I thought I would show it off a bit.
so far I've painted the wheels black, installed new sport demons, installed a carbon fiber headlight fairing, added a set of clubman style bars, modified a bar end mirror to work as a regular mirror, new pro teck grips, new cat eye front turn signals, braided SS front brake line, 96+ gs500 front caliper, and racing suspension in the front.
A pic of the bike;
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/Picture180.jpg)
A pic of the bars;
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/Picture176.jpg)
So I've finally got my sh!t together and want to get my Vance & Hines full system installed. My first question is where is the link for the cheap k&n lunch box filter? I know someone found a place that was selling it for like $35 but I can't seem to find the thred.
I know I need 40 pilot jets and 150 mains and a total of 4, 1mm washers for under the stock needles (2 per carb) and the jets need to be the non bleeding type, but are all Mikuni jets the same? Or will they differ from bike to bike?
I also need to order two sets of needle and seats because I think mine may be worn out. Is there a site that I can order the filter, jets, washers and needle and seats from? Thanks guys.
*Edit* any input on the bike is still appreciated.
[h
since this is the thred we were talking about paint colours in, I thought I would post this. its a crapy photochop of my planned paint sceme.
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/gimmeaname1234/GSchopblackred.jpg)
Needs more black.
I like that alot. Especially the flat frame with the glossy body paint. You can accent diffent parts with differnet shade of black, like graphite color, dark silver, matte or satin finishes, it will look really cool.
Chris
Quote from: Chris2P on June 13, 2006, 04:33:30 PM
I like that alot. Especially the flat frame with the glossy body paint. You can accent diffent parts with differnet shade of black, like graphite color, dark silver, matte or satin finishes, it will look really cool.
Chris
thats the plan
*BOING* I like it...
Not too sure about the matte/gloss contrast... But, I really like the stripes and the S. :thumb:
You should track down some black levers & mirrors :icon_mrgreen: and get Carbon Fiber can and hugger. :icon_mrgreen: :icon_mrgreen:
yami raven-like...........................sexy nonetheless :thumb:
Quote from: RVertigo on June 13, 2006, 05:40:34 PM
*BOING* I like it...
Not too sure about the matte/gloss contrast... But, I really like the stripes and the S. :thumb:
You should track down some black levers & mirrors :icon_mrgreen: and get Carbon Fiber can and hugger. :icon_mrgreen: :icon_mrgreen:
actually if I go with that colour sceme the plan is to do a high mount carbon can and a carbon hugger. and I don't know if you can tell, but that wind screen is also carbon fiber, and the chin fairing is fake carbon, and I have a carbon chain guard that I have yet to fit on the gs.
right now I'm also thinking about doing a pearl white colour with the same red stripe, but with red wheels with a polished lip.
(http://www.duplicolor.com/gallery/gallery_images/mirage_tank.jpg)
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 16, 2006, 12:00:46 AM
(http://www.cyclegear.com/images/motrax%20bar%20ends_410x311.jpg)
I have the silver ones of those. There is a little ring of carbon fiber on there that is subtle and well done, I think. Cost is about $17 US + tax at your local Cycle Gear. If you're going with the black, I think the black ones with the carbon fiber ring would be perfect.
These work in the sm2 bars?
Im surprised you havent gotten any replies about those bars.
they're not sm2 bars. there just some clubman style bars that I found at a local bike shop. yes those bar ends will work. and I'm going to get a set, accept in the shiny polished version, not those matt ones.
Do they (the bars) have that drop that club mans have ... if not ... maybe the ones that want bars from me should try getting from you ...
OK Import will be a biatch ... you'd need to send a big box to 1 guy and have him send it out unit wise ... Or bring them across and UPS the suckers from inside US ...
Cool.
Srinath.
Quote from: budget speed demon on June 13, 2006, 08:44:53 PM
they're not sm2 bars. there just some clubman style bars that I found at a local bike shop. yes those bar ends will work. and I'm going to get a set, accept in the shiny polished version, not those matt ones.
I know that :laugh: I actually have sm2s :thumb: I just figured people would have asked aobut them.
Quote from: average on June 13, 2006, 06:30:54 PM
Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on April 16, 2006, 12:00:46 AM
I have the silver ones of those. There is a little ring of carbon fiber on there that is subtle and well done, I think. Cost is about $17 US + tax at your local Cycle Gear. If you're going with the black, I think the black ones with the carbon fiber ring would be perfect.
These work in the sm2 bars?
Yeah. My silver one fell out though, so I bought some black ones. One of those fell out on the Dragon last weekend. I got some Lockhart Phillips one that look similar and they seem to be holding in a bit better. Use some glue of some sort to hold them in, just to be safe. I'm tired of spending $20 on new bar ends every time one falls out.
Quote from: seshadri_srinath on June 13, 2006, 09:06:50 PM
Do they (the bars) have that drop that club mans have ... if not ... maybe the ones that want bars from me should try getting from you ...
OK Import will be a biatch ... you'd need to send a big box to 1 guy and have him send it out unit wise ... Or bring them across and UPS the suckers from inside US ...
Cool.
Srinath.
they do drop, but just a bit. I reallly like the riding position that they put me in. I'll try to get some more pictures of them when I can. I am willing to buy a couple pairs and send them out to people who want them. I'm pretty sure they were somthing like $56 canadain after local sales tax. and thats all I'd charge whoever wants a pair. $56 CAD + shipping. although someone might have to buy me some jets and ship them to me as payment :icon_mrgreen:.