Here is a kit I built for my GS500, All my fairings were wrecked up and cracking, so I decided to go the naked route and build a Cafe style tail for it. I wanted this kit to be clean, easy to install, and easy to make. So I took the simplest approach I could think of.  So far here are the results.

Kit is using the stock tail light and seat latch mechanism. At this point, I just have to foam and wrap the seat, and paint her up!

Cut the frame off after the two tubes merge,  and welded a plate for the seat latch into the frame.



Plasma cut a tail light mount, that will mount up to the Stock Tail light, and will also act as a brace for the two pieces of frame



At this point, I fabricated my tail fairing, and I just squared up the fairing where I wanted it, and bolted right to the frame.



Cut out and fabricated some side panels. These share an existing bolt with the tail fairing. I drilled and tapped a hole below the tank for the front corner of the side cover, and the third tap just pokes into the existing rubber grommet.



License plate bracket bolts onto the tail light bracket, tucked up under the tail light so it will still be lit up.





Fabricated a simple seat pan, now all that is left is to add foam and vinyl/leather to it !


All the fairings are .090 aluminum, and bolted on the bike, the tail fairing seems to be very sturdy. These should last forever unlike the OEM plastics..

that looks nice and neat Ray. 

way to start into the forum too!!.. just BANG!! .. this is my build with pics!! ... it takes some people AGES to get to pics!! .. good job!! 

Yep. I gotta admit, when I say "cafe kit" I was kinda worried. Looks good though man!

Just be careful with those sharp edges - maybe get some weather stripping on them?

Quote from: Janx101 on November 08, 2013, 07:02:27 PM
that looks nice and neat Ray. 

way to start into the forum too!!.. just BANG!! .. this is my build with pics!! ... it takes some people AGES to get to pics!! .. good job!! 

Thanks!  Well I actually did most of the install last night. I did have a headstart on the tail fairing piece though... .

As far as sharp edges, they really aren't sharp. Like I said, it is .090 aluminum, so it has some thickness to it.  I have rounded all the edges with an orbirital so all the edges are rounded off nice and smooth. Now the edges along the seat, although they are rounded off, are no fun to sit on, however I plan to foam the seat up good enough so my legs won't be rubbing on the edges at all. The Seat pan is just slightly above all the edges anyway so I think that problem should go away with foam.

What happened to the rest of this build?   

Looks like Ray hasn't been on the forum since January of 2014 

That sucks 'cuz I would have liked to see more of this build too.

SUUUUUUUUUUCKS.