HERE IS WHAT SHE LOOKED LIKE WHEN I STARTED>
Bought a 2005 GS500F (63000km) with a 2011 motor (15000km) in it. It had been absolutely crappily maintained. Looks Ok on the outside ( ish) but some aweful stuff.
Brake rear caliper had had a pad removed ( yes removed) on one side and the disc had ground into the caliper piston.
NONE of the lights ( blinkers included) worked except the headlight.
It had been crashed and the cases on BOTH sides had been ground. Seat had a tear.
Gear lever was bent.
Fairing cracked and scratches and in part poorly repaired.
Tyres were worn to the canvas ( haven't seen that on a motorcycle for years).
Gauges only partially worked.
Footpegs were worn through to the steel beneath.
Battery was screwed.
The plastic tank protector had lifted and water had got underneath and rusted severly the tank metal.
Fuel leaked out of the hose connections.
Rust and corrosion in all sorts of places.
Chain and sprockets were very sad indeed.
Handlebars were rusted.
Fork Seals leaking.

BUT it ran ( smoothly).
No play in the forks  and steering head.
Looked straight
All the bits that mattered were there.
Only cost 1200bucks.
And was close enough I could drive up with the trailer and pick it up.

Alright what sort of project is this going to be?
First thought about cafe racer style. Maybe later , although it will be a MODERN cafe racer not a recycled old world one.
Tourer maybe? These are brilliant tourers although in dire need of fuel injection and a bit longer suspension travel. Easy to mount panniers as the rear is nice and strong.
If I was back in Townsville a Formula 3 racer? No track here.
At any rate I started to deconstruct her to see what she needed first.
Started to notice that because the thing had been designed so long ago and had been such a solid reliable bike and seller they hadn't stuffed around with it. Unusual in itself but it means that lots of small improvements hadn't been done.
If you think about it, if this bike had been designed a couple of years ago all sorts of things would be smaller or lighter or stronger or better performing. Now the big one is that it would be fuel injected. I don't have the money to go that route ( for the time being), so I decided the project would be to IMPROVE anything that could be . Lighter, stronger , better working or just plain interesting.
So here she is my " design update project" or betterfucationing ( almost as crap word as functionality).


Some paths in no particular order:
All LED lightening including headlight.
Seat cut to single seat ( for single seat registration purposes)
120/60 front tyre and 150/60 rear.
Upgrade shock
GVE forks, new seals and bushes. Small increase in travel. improve fork brace.
Electronic dash.
Alloy footpeg supports, alloy pegs, alloy gear and brake levers.
Lighter sprockets.
Grind side cases and cover with carbon/innegra covers and add hi density nylon knobs
ALL wheel spacers front and rear replaced with alloy  ( when replacing bearings)
Chuck the rear mudguard and steel battery box and replace with composite set.
Replace shock with Suzuki 600 one as mentioned on this forum until I can afford a real shock.
Lighten every bolt possible everywhere on the bike.
Chuck the faux alloy top plate on the top triple clamp.
Remove as many of the steel brackets from the frame and replace with Al or composite.
Fit a carry rack where rear of seat was ( maybe).
Replace heavy tank cap with lighter aftermarket one.
So here goes...

  @ the rust where the tank protector was 

You weren't kiddin' when you said there was rust!!!

Sad to see a GS beat up on like this but it has a new life now so hooray!

Ok . Basically working from rear to front.
Fitted 150/60 Bridgestone S20 that I had from a DRZ400 and hardly used. The narrow rim ( 3.5") means the tyre ends up about 146/65. You have to fabricate or bend the brake arm . I cut and rewelded it. Note the new tyre is 300gms LIGHTER than the stock worn one...



Hopeing there is enough clearance . Need to check when I can mount the chain properly:
Photo deleted as previous PB

Next replace the bearings and build alloy spacers. I replaced the axle with a new one because the bearings on the sprocket carrier had been turning on the axle. Also turned down excess metal from the sprocket carrier and replaced with a new lighter sprocket. Bought and fitted new shock cush rubbers. The new spacers are thicher to help increase the effective axle stiffness.




Almost 200g lighter and stiffer too boot... win!

Next the aweful axle/chain tensioners.
Built a new set of alloy one to increase the swingarm stiffness at the mounting point but spreading the load more. Also stiffer rear alloy plates and stainless adjusters. Unfortunately increase in weight but only 63g. Figured it was worth the extra stiffness and accuracy.


Forgot to get pics of the outer stainless adjuster indicators/axle washers. Only a few grams difference but also much stiffer and more accurate. They will show up later in whole rear pics.

Here is a tricky little one that most people forget. The spacer in the swingarm pivot. Big piece of steel that can be replaced by Al and improve stiffness again.

Nice to see your handiwork.  How do you keep the plates in place on the end of the swing arm, did you cut a chamfer or step on one side? 

Also how do you figure that your swing arm pivot is stiffer than the original piece?  Not to challenge you but to learn more.

The aluminium spacer in the swingarm pivot it a bigger diameter ( ie thicker ) than the original and a tighter tolerence to the pivot axle, so should be stiffer. It is high silicon Al so is stiffer than a std grade of Al. To do it really properly I need to remove one pivot bearing and make it full width of the hole. If I taper it from both sides so the middle is the thickest that should make it a bit lighter than a full cyl. would be and stiffer than this one. Next time as I need to buy new bearings to do that.
The adjuster stops are step cut ( very badly my mill is pretty crappy).
Always happy to answer questions and take constructive criticism and seriously consider suggestions.

Here is a real eye opener. The footplates , controls and levers are vintage 80's. And HEAVY. See the weights on the following pics. You can lose as almost much weight as changing to a LiFePO4 battery or changing the exhaust system. 2.1 kgs lighter!!!

Made some Carbon boot plates, aluminium mount plates, bought some alloy pegs ( I am discarding these as I don't think they are strong enough and I have got some other folding Al ones coming.
Made some Al levers to bolt to the existing gear and brake stubs ( I cut) and added ball bearings to the brake pivot.


Here is the temp gear lever. I know I can get an aftermarket alloy one and will do so at a later date. For the time being it will do. Half the weight of the steel one and WAY stiffer ( and in this case not bent and worn amazingly ( don't know what he used for boots!. The original rubber footpegs were worn right down as well. The pics are some I got when I bought a second hand set to get a rear brake caliper.

Tank needed urgent attention so sanded, put on high quality rust converter and undercoated. Will return to it when closer to body work stage.
Net purchased a chinese machined petrol cap and put it on to help protect the tank interior until I get to it properly.

This looks like a fun thread. I look forward to seeing progress. Great job. 

Trying a little experiment with the front mudguard mount/fork brace. From looking around this forum I have noticed it needs an upgrade because of reliability issues and a few have made thick Al ones to help stiffen the wet spaghetti forks.
I thought I would try a development of a fork brace I started making a few years ago and marry it with the carbon "hidden" mudguard braces. For a while I was making sandwiched All each side and fibreglass /composite in the centre. It proved very reliable and reasonably stiff . Then the availability of carbon got better and cheaper so I started making carbon guards with 10 to 12 layers under the guard to act as a fork brace. It worked well and looked stock  ( especially useful in racing classes where you have to have the mudguard and are not allowed to fit a brace).
Looking at the mount on the GS , it spoke to me of a Al brace ( like many others) then I thought that a sandwich Al/CARBON one might be worth a try.
Sooo, I made 2 plates and sandwiched 8 layers of std weave carbon and 2 layers of innegra and clamped them together with as much force as the bolts could manage.
I have taken a pic with the excess composite cleaned off but before I cleaned it up and paint it as it is easier to see the carbon layer. No idea how I am going to comparative test it against the original steel one, but I bet it doesn't elongate and break the mount holes...

Mate love your work! And good to see another Queenslander too 

I have a mate I ride with who would be impressed with your weight savings. He has an 82 Katana he is aiming to have under 200kgs wet weight if I remember correctly. All his axles/bolts etc. that he can do safely are titanium. Many non structural items have been drilled out. He has BST carbon wheels as well as Ohlins and Brembo front and back. If he can save a couple of grams here and there, he'll do it.

Which Katana? What displacement. I'd like a 650 if I could have found one.
Actually the brace plate is one spot where the new part weighted more than the original ( by 80gms) but even if I had made a new steel one to avoid the hole breakage problem it would have weighed more.

His is a 750 frame but has an 1100... it's actually about 1260cc though.

The 650's seem to have quite the following too!

I'm building an 1100 in a 750 frame at the moment, but weight savings aren't my goal

If you're adding strength and structure with the brace plate, then extra weight isn't a bad thing at all!

" If you're adding strength and structure with the brace plate, then extra weight isn't a bad thing at all!"
My thoughts entirely. Either way to get the reliability it would have had to be heavier. I might be able to make up the difference in the carbon mudguard.
I like the 550 best but they are almost nonexistant in Australia. Almost no difference between them except the displacement/ hp though I like the silver motor better. The 550 would qualify as a LAMS bike!

Yep I don't think I've ever seen a 550 here... plenty in the UK though interestingly enough...

Are you guys leaving the forks on or going to USD's. Might be interested in you old forks/ wheels brakes if you are.

Nah my Kat is staying with the stock running gear, I don't like modern fat wheels/tyres, they just feel wrong to me...