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.

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?

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.



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 

Careful though. It's not that far from tastefully done black on black to... 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;




A pic of the bars;






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.

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. 

You should track down some black levers & mirrors    and get Carbon Fiber can and hugger.