'89 GS500E
- CBR600 F4 Nissin 4 piston front brake caliper with sintered pads
- 4.5" rear wheel and associated necessary mods (move engine 4mm left...)
- Michelin Pilot Sports in 110/70zr17 front and 160/60zr17 rear
- revalved damper rods, Progressive springs
- Works Performance rear shock, freshly rebuilt
- stripped to bare frame, naval jelly, wire wheel, fill dents, repaint
- leakdown test of motor, perform valve clearance adjustment
- fix scratches on engine sidecovers, repaint
- rejet carbs
- modify ignition pickup plate to adjust through 5 degree arc
- fit GSXR1100 steering damper
- repaint wheels
- clean every connector on wiring harness, coat with dielectric grease
- clean and regrease all chassis bearings
- fix various little maintenance issues throughout bike
- probably some other stuff I can't remember at the moment...

http://www.vma.cape.com/~patrick/temp/gs_rebuild/gs_rebuild1.html

*whistles* very nice! How long did all this take you? And is that your shop you were workin in? Seeing this makes me wanna go tinker on somethin...  

Damn, those front calipers are nice! Do you notice any difference between those and the stockers?

Wow! Nice work.

just flip the tail light over and its Done. good job

I'm in awe. What a great job.

Now I feel like a complete slacker.

Good restoration job.

Very nice assistant you have there.

you did all that awsome work and left that big ugly rear fender one it?

Quote from: budget speed demonyou did all that awsome work and left that big ugly rear fender one it?

first thing I thought too!  :lol:  The bike looks amazing though, great job!

I chipped away at it over nights and weekends for about a month and a half. The project got held up a few times waiting for parts and trying to figure out how to best handle this or that.

The Nissin caliper makes a significant difference. In addition to allowing about a 15% better leverage ratio between the master cylinder and caliper compared to stock, the Honda pads are better than the EBC Kevlars that were in there, and the caliper is stiffer, so it gives better feel at the lever. And the pads drag on the rotor a bit less when the brake is released than with the stock caliper. Plus I swapped in a GSXR750 adjustable reach lever. In all, it's a pretty big improvement.

I was kind of surprised how much work went into making the 160 rear tire work. The writeups I'd read online about people doing that mod don't really cover everything. To get enough chain to tire clearance, I had to move the cush drive over 4mm and move the engine over 4mm (though I suppose I could have also bought a custom offset countershaft sprocket). I also had to move the rubbing block over on the swingarm, clearance the chain guard, come up with a 5mm shorter than stock rear caliper bracket that worked with the 240mm rear brake disk instead of the 250mm stock disk, modify the brake stay rod, and open up the inner fender to allow the rear suspension to fully compress without the tire jamming up inside the fender housing. That last bit seems to be completely neglected in the writeups I've seen. I guess nobody else bothered to take the spring off the shock and move the rear suspension through its full travel to see what the tire might hit.

The shots of the bike, engine, and paint work are all from my basement workshop. I usually use that space for repairing surfboards, but set that stuff aside for a little while to get the work done on the GS. The shots of the Bridgeport are from a local machine shop to which I have access.

I can't help but roll my eyes when street riders chop up the rear fender. It's there for a reason. It keeps the back of the bike clean, which is nice if you use a tail pack and ride in the rain. It's not just GS500 guys who hack that up; lots of sportbike guys do it. If you only ride on clean roads when it's sunny out, I guess you don't need a fender. And Competition Werks stays in business because of people like you. Maybe people think taking the fender off will make them look like Rossi or Hayden. That's fine. I suppose if my mechanical skills were limited to cutting a piece of plastic with a hack saw, and I thought that taking a few inches of fender off the back of a bike would improve something, I might cut the rear fender off to personalize a bike. Fortunately that is not the case, and I can do things which actually improve how a bike works, like fitting current technology radial tires, a better front brake caliper, and a good steering damper, properly maintaining all the chassis bearings, tuning the motor, and revalving the suspension. But you guys go right ahead and keep cutting those fenders off.  

Quote from: patrick
I was kind of surprised how much work went into making the 160 rear tire work. The writeups I'd read online about people doing that mod don't really cover everything.

Thats why most people don't go to 160. You can put a 4" wheel and 150 tire on with just minor mods to the sprocket carrier and torque arm.

Quote
I can't help but roll my eyes when street riders chop up the rear fender. It's there for a reason.... If you only ride on clean roads when it's sunny out, I guess you don't need a fender.

And most of them do exactly that.  :dunno:

Quote

I love the bullet hole, thats one hell of tank to get a bullet and not even leak a drop.... :lol:

excellent build up, man!

An absolutely fantastic job Patrick!  

You are the kind of person that sees solutions to the challenges of life. Your modifications are not meant for show, but for improved performance.

I too don't get the obsession with fender chopping.

Now for the next mod, how about a custom torque rod for the rear rather than the modded stock?
Hmmm, shiny billet aluminum.  

The brackets you made for mounting the steering damper to the frame are very trick.  Nice work!

This may seem like a minor detail to ask about, but I'll be painting my wheels soon and have wondered about this issue -- did you do anything special to prep the plastic hub cover on the left side of the front wheel when you painted it?  Have you had any problems with the wheel paint not adhering to the plastic?

To clarify, I'm talking about the ring of plastic that mounts to the wheel around the speedometer pickup, where a second brake rotor would ordinarily be mounted.

Once again, great job!

Quote from: patrickI can't help but roll my eyes when street riders chop up the rear fender. It's there for a reason. It keeps the back of the bike clean, which is nice if you use a tail pack and ride in the rain. It's not just GS500 guys who hack that up; lots of sportbike guys do it. If you only ride on clean roads when it's sunny out, I guess you don't need a fender. And Competition Werks stays in business because of people like you. Maybe people think taking the fender off will make them look like Rossi or Hayden. That's fine. I suppose if my mechanical skills were limited to cutting a piece of plastic with a hack saw, and I thought that taking a few inches of fender off the back of a bike would improve something, I might cut the rear fender off to personalize a bike. Fortunately that is not the case, and I can do things which actually improve how a bike works, like fitting current technology radial tires, a better front brake caliper, and a good steering damper, properly maintaining all the chassis bearings, tuning the motor, and revalving the suspension. But you guys go right ahead and keep cutting those fenders off.  

First off, good job on the bike. I like it, and you obviously put a lot of thought and work into it. I'd say it is one of the better GS's around the board that I know of.

Secondly, when someone adds their suggestions (like the fender thing), don't be such a f%$king insulating duck. Mmkay? Have a nice day and keep up the good work  

Quote from: Phaedrus

Quote from: patrickI can't help but roll my eyes when street riders chop up the rear fender. It's there for a reason. It keeps the back of the bike clean, which is nice if you use a tail pack and ride in the rain. It's not just GS500 guys who hack that up; lots of sportbike guys do it. If you only ride on clean roads when it's sunny out, I guess you don't need a fender. And Competition Werks stays in business because of people like you. Maybe people think taking the fender off will make them look like Rossi or Hayden. That's fine. I suppose if my mechanical skills were limited to cutting a piece of plastic with a hack saw, and I thought that taking a few inches of fender off the back of a bike would improve something, I might cut the rear fender off to personalize a bike. Fortunately that is not the case, and I can do things which actually improve how a bike works, like fitting current technology radial tires, a better front brake caliper, and a good steering damper, properly maintaining all the chassis bearings, tuning the motor, and revalving the suspension. But you guys go right ahead and keep cutting those fenders off.  

First off, good job on the bike. I like it, and you obviously put a lot of thought and work into it. I'd say it is one of the better GS's around the board that I know of.

Secondly, when someone adds their suggestions (like the fender thing), don't be such a f%$king insulting duck. Mmkay? Have a nice day and keep up the good work  

+1

LMFAO.. I was thinking it sounded a bit condescending, but I wasn't gonna say anything... thanks for posting that Phae!

I used Dupli Color wheel paint:

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/wheel.html

To prep the wheels, I cleaned them, then scrubbed them down with a bit of Scotchbrite and degreaser, then rinsed them off with water. I did the same with the plastic cover on the front wheel. No problems so far.

The steering damper brackets were fun. I made the one for the frame with little lugs that plug right into the recessed bores where the engine cradle bolts up.

As for a billet aluminum rear brake torque arm... I went with the most practical fabrication technique for each bit I needed. In that case, the most practical solution for me was to just use an oxy-acetylene torch to heat up and bend the stock steel part to clear the tire. It's actually a pretty light and stiff part as is, and I don't think I could really improve the function with an aluminum part. For the brackets, for me, it was more practical to make billet aluminum parts, as I'm much better at fabricating complicated relatively high tolerance parts from aluminum than I am with sheet steel weldments.

This was a very low-buck project. The tires came from Moto Race on clearance for about $130 for the pair delivered, the shock rebuild kit (seals, reservoir bladder) was $60 plus $6 for a quart of shock oil, the steering damper was given to me by a friend and I just changed the oil and bled it, I made the billet brackets from scrap bits of metal, we found a complete F4 front brake system with master cylinder, both calipers, and pads for $40 from a local independant shop that buys wrecks at auction and rebuilds them, the rear wheel was $50 from eBay, and the rest of the materials (spray paint, JB Weld, sandpaper, naval jelly) probably totalled $40. We tried to be as economical as possible and concentrate the money on things that would give the most improvement.

Phaedrus wrote:

Quote
Secondly, when someone adds their suggestions (like the fender thing), don't be such a f%$king insulting duck. Mmkay?

Let me guess. Your bike has no rear fender.  

Patrick

Quote from: patrickPhaedrus wrote:

Quote
Secondly, when someone adds their suggestions (like the fender thing), don't be such a f%$king insulting duck. Mmkay?

Let me guess. Your bike has no rear fender.  

Patrick

I LIKE YOU........  WELCOME
:mrgreen:
and he called you an insulating duck.....