damn,
i actually have an assembled relay board laying in my basement that i have no use for.
let me know if you destroy that one

wow MS v3.0!  I put together an older version for a corrado a few years back.  The new boards are pretty slick  the only thing I regret was making my own cable between the relay board and the MS.  It took hours to solder all the wires to the pins, and turned out to be a Buddha Loves You to debug when one of the solder joints failed.  In hindsight, I should have paid to buy a nicely pre-made cable!  Did you make a MegaStim as well?  It sure was nice to prove things on the megastim first before sticking it into the car...

Quote from: Flanders on June 01, 2010, 12:57:52 PM
wow MS v3.0!  I put together an older version for a corrado a few years back.  The new boards are pretty slick  the only thing I regret was making my own cable between the relay board and the MS.  It took hours to solder all the wires to the pins, and turned out to be a Buddha Loves You to debug when one of the solder joints failed.  In hindsight, I should have paid to buy a nicely pre-made cable!  Did you make a MegaStim as well?  It sure was nice to prove things on the megastim first before sticking it into the car...

Didn't buy the stim... been using a signal generator to test stuff out so far. Wonders of having access to a fully equipped shop.

I just couldn't justify the $60-70 cost for the cable between the boards

While progress continues on the fuel system (throttle bodies have shown up and I've started to modify them, etc), I tackled another little side project. Part of what I wanted to do with this bike is update it as a whole, so I've decided to replace the brakes and suspension of the bike. Silly to have a modern engine system with brakes and suspension a quarter of a century out of date. Next week, I'll be posting up about the front suspension/brakes which are being replaced with a complete front end from an 07 Suzuki gsxr 600, but for now, here's an update on the rear suspension.

Enter R6 rear shock.


Bolted right up. No issues with needing to grind the swingarm or anything.





Interestingly, it seems the previous owner of the bike had swapped in one of the older GSXR shocks with the remote reservoir. Anyone want it?

in swapping from the gsxr to the r6 shock, it lowered it about 2 inches right?  when I put my gsxr shock on, my bike raised 2 inches,  but it dont matter, that r6 shock is hott

Quote from: jeremy_nash on June 22, 2010, 04:50:11 AM
in swapping from the gsxr to the r6 shock, it lowered it about 2 inches right?  when I put my gsxr shock on, my bike raised 2 inches,  but it dont matter, that r6 shock is hott

I didn't measure, but the bike does feel like I'm sitting a bit more vertically with the R6 shock than the gsxr shock, so I'd imagine the rear is a bit lower.

Quote from: saxman on June 21, 2010, 08:55:32 PM
[...]
Bolted right up. No issues with needing to grind the swingarm or anything.

I also have R6 shock, and I think that grinding of the swing arm is required.
The reason for that is that under heavy compression the coil of the spring may actually grind against swing arm.
Just to be safe I ground mine. About 3-4mm is all it takes.

KML

Quote from: kml.krk on June 22, 2010, 04:47:29 PM

Quote from: saxman on June 21, 2010, 08:55:32 PM
[...]
Bolted right up. No issues with needing to grind the swingarm or anything.

I also have R6 shock, and I think that grinding of the swing arm is required.
The reason for that is that under heavy compression the coil of the spring may actually grind against swing arm.
Just to be safe I ground mine. About 3-4mm is all it takes.

KML

Searching I've done on the matter suggests that some people have had clearance issues, some have not. I'll keep an eye on it, but seems I may have been lucky and be part of the group that's good without.

I had to grind mine a few times to clear it as well.

Been a bit busy since the last post. As promised, albeit a few days late, I've tackled the front suspension. For the front suspension, something a bit more modern was wanted. A supersport inverted fork layout was selected, for increased performance in steering and braking and for the aesthetic upgrade. From the factory, the GS500 comes with a very underwhelming front end, especially for anyone over about 140 lbs. In its stock form, an upgrade is a huge improvement, so when modifications are being done to up power output, suspension and brakes ought not be overlooked. Thanks to the wonders of craigslist, I was able to pick up a front suspension off a wrecked '06 Suzuki GSX-R600. I was told by the seller that one fork was slightly bent, but everything else was in great shape. The front wheel, however, was a total loss. I paid a great price for this condition. Unfortunately, after further inspection, this description was a bit of an understatement. The guys at G P frame in Napa, Ca did a wonderful job getting the front end all sorted out. Both forks needed lots of work, along with the upper and lower triple trees and the axle. Far from the one fork needing slight adjustment I had expected. After a hole in my wallet, I was left with a great front end to use.

Unfortunately, the front wheel that came on the front end was not salvageable, despite the efforts by G P frame. I ended up picking up a 98 GSXR 600 front wheel off ebay for a great price. About 1/4 of what an 06-07 GSXR wheel would cost. Unfortunately, these are not a direct bolt up. The brake rotors that came with the front end would not bolt up to the older gsxr wheel. Instead, I picked up a set of Hayabusa brake rotors. They bolt up the wheel, but weren't a direct fit to the brake calipers. More on that in a bit.

Now the GS500 is a much smaller, less expensive bike than the supersports, and as such have a much smaller, weaker suspension set up. The GSXR front end does not bolt up to the GS500 frame. To solve this, I went to Bob Broussard, an experienced GS500 builder who has done this front suspension swap many times. The GS500 stem was pressed out of the GS lower triple, welded to add some material, then shaped and pressed into the GSXR lower triple. This allows the lower triple to mate to the GS500 frame, however, the top GSXR triple tree needed an adapter to be made. I had to modify the frame slightly to use the GSXR ignition module, just for clearance. A new steering stop will need to be made and welded to the GS frame, however, I haven't tackled this yet. This new steering stop will also act as a point from the GSXR steering damper to bolt to.

After adapting the front suspension to the frame, attention was turned to the wheel and brake issues. The 06 GSXR axle  fit the older wheel great, however the spacer used to center the wheel was too large, causing the wheel to sit off center and rub. About 5mm was removed from the surface that meets the wheel on the spacer, centering it while mounted. The brake rotors sit about 2mm further apart than the older ones, however, play in the brake calipers will easily make up for this. The calipers, however, did need to be spaced out to clear the larger 320mm diameter Hayabusa rotors over the 310mm GSXR rotors. Honda sells a caliper spacer that would have achieved this goal, however, all the local dealers were out of stock and it offered a good excuse to practice my lathe skills and save $25. I picked up some 1" diameter aluminum bar stock, and turned a set of spacers for the calipers.

The new, updated hand controls require some serious rewiring. As I am converting to fuel injection concurrently, significant wiring needs to be down there as well. As such, I removed the stock wiring harness from the bike, and used the opportunity to start cleaning things up. Some serious modifications to the frame were completed as well. As I will be running a solo seat, an abbreviated tail for aesthetic reasons, and a under bike mounted exhaust, I ground off the passenger pegs, exhaust hanger, and a section of the rear frame. Also painted the front wheel while it was without a tire. Now onto the pictures:


Before cutting and with the stock front end.


Stock front suspension


Stock 1989 model year only clip on controls


Comparison between the old and new front forks. Note that the GS stem has already been pressed into the GSXR triple tree


With the GS stem, everything bolts up to the frame like stock


The aluminum adapter made to fit the GSXR top triple tree and the steering lock ground down for clearance of the GSXR ignition module


Mock up with the new controls in place, older wheel, etc


Calipers mounted up with the 5mm spacers I made in place


Profile with the new front end


Stripped down, waiting to go under the knife


Unneeded extras removed. Stock front end was put back on temporarily so I could roll the bike around prior to mounting a tire on the new wheel.

Haven't posted up in a while. Moved to a new house and in the process, misplaced my camera cord. Was hoping to wait until I had some quality photos to post, but one off my cell phone will have to do.

As part of the fuel injection system on the bike, a fuel pump is needed. Unfortunately, a gas tank for the GS500 that accepts a fuel tank does not exist. As such, I must make one. What I'm doing is taking the stock gas tank from the current generation GS500 and working off that. I stripped a tank down and used it to make fiberglass molds of the tank. From that, I've made a fiberglass replica of the tank, which is then shaped to accept the fuel tank and any other modifications I deem fit. From there, another set of molds are pulled and then the tank is finally made out of carbon fiber and kevlar.

Here is my fiberglass plug, ready to start modifying, fresh out of the fiberglass molds.

OT represent

Great thread..so much work...so much heart.

Really interesting stuff. Updates.... ?

Quote from: tb0lt on October 12, 2010, 12:19:58 AM
Really interesting stuff. Updates.... ?

Still hard at work on the gas tank. I'll post up pictures of the whole process when I finish it. Probably in the next week.

Amazing stuff keep us updated!

Quote from: Paulcet on March 09, 2010, 12:03:49 PM
Neat concept.  But can it do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cM9S2AzU28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG57XNgKPNU

Watch the one in the quotes then watch this one. funny stuff.

This is an absolutely amazing build. It must be great to have all these resources and be able create anything you can imagine.

Quote from: ragecage23 on October 12, 2010, 12:33:42 PM

Quote from: Paulcet on March 09, 2010, 12:03:49 PM
Neat concept.  But can it do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cM9S2AzU28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG57XNgKPNU

Watch the one in the quotes then watch this one. funny stuff.

LMAO the rear blinker assembly looks like a set of gonads! But funny very funny! I thought they were going to pull his balls off at first ROFL..just saying

Great build. Can't wait to see it finished. Something I was thinking about is what if your next project you did like a three cylinder triumph with one acting as the compressor and the other two powering like normal.