replaced the suspension knuckle, bearings had disintegrated.  cheaper to buy a 2nd hand knuckle that put bearings in the old one.



playing about with dogbones. some spare thunderace ones i had lying about. 15mm shorter 165mm in length



gs dogbones 180mm



wee car jack for controlling the the back end. the joys of not having a 2nd set of hands. not the easiest way but it worked.



shock fouled the swingarm so i ground it down a bit, still fouled.



before shot



after shot



the minus 15mm at the dogbone equated to just shy of 2'' at the end of the tail, quite a dramatic change and so far it feels much better. the geometry change in terms of the suspension linkage itself has made it slightly firmer as the leverage has changed to the pivot point which is a plus for me. haven't measured sag yet as its a 2 person job.

started removing the shock to grind down the swing arm for clearance again but it was far too late for noise by the time i got it off so i started a couple other things.



may have started something ive wanted to do for a couple years now but lacked the balls to start cutting but yeah...



had made this up for the cbr ages ago and i just modified (hacked it up a bit more) it and recycled it on the gs.



speedo now sits on front of the bars  not terrible placement actually but i still haven't gotten round to wiring it up again.



and that was it for the night.

//

got stuck into grinding the swingarm down again this morning, possibly went too deep... not really concerned but grinding blind is never a good idea. never 

a thunderace brake light was almost a perfect fit for what i was going for (sheer luck) certainly much better than the gs light in terms of size and shape for stashing flush. looks stupid without the seat on i know but it sits almost flush with it on. a bit more shaping and tweaking of the subframe and undertray led to this.



a couple of sketchy ass brackets and the stainless hex head holds the top of the number plate bracket.



the very complicated tail tidy  haha got to love a bit of flat bar. pure unadulterated function. 



there was a lot of nipping, tucking and hacking involved but i got there. set out this morning with the hopes of getting the bike ready today for the last bikenight of the season tonight and managed it with an hour to spare... when does that ever happen. today was a good day. completely forgot to get a pic of the seat on etc. i'll see what i can do tomorrow  but yeah! shes looking purdy, in a winter hack, ratty kind of a way. a lot of the things ive done are so hackish, unrefined and 'unfinished'. usually its not something i do. i'd never do anything of the sort with my cbr6 or gsxr11 but its actually really quite good fun to be like 'Fkit, that works' and not strive for every bracket and edge to be perfect. on one hand it almost pains me to do it but on the other i feel like it adds to the bikes character. far too much love for my heap of a gs5.       

couple of updates.

speedo bracket broke with vibration, took lots of material out to make it work with the gs ignition switch and took too much it seems. no biggie, i'll just have to make another when theres time.

front mudguard has started to crack at one of its mounting points, easy fixed but really i shouldve rubber mounted it or found the correct bracket. ive got access to another and it also looks to have the correct bracket. not entirely sure what its from, could be tl1000, soon enough find out if it fits.

need to rubber mount the exhaust can.

got an idea for micro indicators, tinier than tiny but will have to wait and see how it plays out though.

need to tweak the headlight light clamps so they grip a bit better still and tighten the headlight up.

still need to buy the correct size of front brake master, there's a bandit6 5/8 with braided lines going cheap enough, might pick it up.

currently just cable tying my phone to the bar clamps to use as a gps speedo haha

still need to find means of securing the front sprocket when i correct the offset.

need to purchase my winter tyres. 

something has broken loose inside the exhaust collector it rattles about and makes one hell of a noise. had the headers off trying to shake it out or get something down inside but no luck. will have to cut it open and see what its doing. no biggie its just a bit of rattle, as annoying as it is.

rear wheel bearings and/or sprocket carrier bearing is making a bit of noise. bearings are sitting ready to do, just need to find the time.

wound the preload up to max on the rear and although the bike feels alot more well sorted the back end gets skittery in the wet  not ideal but its damn good fun around town. will be getting another shock eventually but theres no priority on that.

rearsets once a few things are out the way and funds are available.

still need to insulate the connectors on the indicator resisters  i know i know, just havent bothered to do it.

when grinding down the inside of the swingarm for clearance (again) i may have taken a bit too much material out. nothing im concerned about but its worth noting. plan on making an sv650 alloy swinger work anyway, so long as it doesn't lengthen the bike. the gs has already got quite a long wheelbase and stretching a bike for looks is stupid, if its being dragged then fair play thats a different story but a street bike... go home, you're drunk, take your poor taste and neon lights with you. 

valve clearances still need checked (no noises, its just time to check, has been for a while), going to speak to someone about getting the head skimmed and maybe ported. perhaps its just throwing a bit too much work on the table for now.

need to find a bit of time to tweak needle height as theres a smidge of bog in that area. yet to check the plugs to see how its running visually but it feels alright and power wheelies in 1st on a gs are just stupid fun





really happy so far but theres still a fair bit to do to get it ready for winter. tax is up on the 1100 at the end of the month so it'll be coming off the road for winter and i'll be running the gs full time again.

ive just been using my phone as a speedo for an age now as ive just not had time to fab up another bracket and wire the digi speedo back in and i had a moment of inspiration for a quick fix if you want to call it that 

so ive got a set of crash damaged clocks, theres no means of reattaching the facia easily as its a different top yoke now, that and well the original gs clocks are massive and pretty intrusive when you're going minimalist.



i did however have a broken thunderace speedo sitting with the bare mechanism showing haha see where im going with this?





note: it was sitting very neatly until i pulled a cable tie to tight and messed it up  looks rat, make do and just a tad mental i reckon. even cable tied to LEDS underneath so it was backlit at night. after all that... it turned out to be a different speedo cable size  typical haha considered stripping down the gs one to bare mechanism but it would be butchering something that didnt need butchered and something about that just feels wrong to me. the plan is to see if i can utilise the gs's original speedo again but inside its casing and just not bother with the tach as a short term (but i'll probably never get round to sorting it properly) fix haha yeah i was just messing around and when it was sitting tidily it was actually really quite smart.

//

finally got round to installing a proper 5/8 master for the front brakes, it was interesting playing around with the hydraulic ratios and crazy the backwards way in which it works. its a mk1 bandit 600 master and lever. ive decided i quite like the stock levers on the bike rather than the imitation shorty pazzo levers you pick up on ebay, they dont physically feel as good but they add to the overall raw visual feel of the bike. currently mismatched but i'll pull the original clutch lever out of storage to make a matching set.

the bandit6 braided lines that i picked up with the master are slightly longer than the thunderace ones i'm currently using and are therefor no use so they're getting sold on.

because i was just switching master i didnt need to drain lines or anything so once swapped, nipped up and topped up with fluid i bled the air out the top by just flicking the lever a little, took maybe 5 mins top until there was no more bubbles rather than pushing air all the way through the system and out the calliper nipples. handy little trick for those unaware.

the brakes feel IMMENSE. they're absolutely ridiculous on a little gs. total overkill i dont particularly like the 6 pots on the 1100 but the weight difference between the two bikes really is highlighted in braking performance.



//

regarding the front end being a bit stiff its been suggested i remove a bit of oil from the forks and see how it feels or fabricate a smaller preload spacer. think ill give it a shot when ive got other things out the way.

got a wee to do list to get through on the gs tomorrow, heres hoping it all goes well.

pulled the back wheel off to do the bearings. pretty swift and hassle free when youve got an internal puller 



wheel bearings were out and back in within a couple of minutes, pulled the carrier bearing out to find id been sent the wrong size...



so the bike was left sitting for a couple of days.



look at the buff mark where the the carrier has been moving and rubbing on the cush drive.



the corresponding marks on the cush.



so i couldnt progress with he bearings and after dicking about with the speedo situation i just cable tied the original speedo thats not been on the bike in years back on, turned out not to work unfortunately, havent had time to check but im hoping its just a broken cable or the cable isn't long enough internally or something like that.



sits well enough and its not as intrusive as it ever was in its original bracket.



a t5 green wedge led that i had installed years back.

[

reinstalled the original gs clutch perch so that i could use the original lever again, cant believe it but the old levers have really grown on me. and woo ive got a matching set again!



had to leave the bike on a paddock stand for a couple of days till the right bearing arrived, bit inconvenient but no biggie. it has since been reassembled and put a hundred or so miles on it trouble free.


//

but i have some bad news it seems... nasty problem started developing today. funny whirring noises when coasting in gear im guessing a gearbox bearing not something ive ever dealt with before or something i can do quickly.

rotate wheel freely when on stand, nothing unusual.

engine runs fine, no noises.

coasts fine when clutch is held in or is in neutral.

pulls whilst in any gear and makes no noise.

allow to coast in gear and you get the whirring sound.

i had thought maybe clutch release bearing but that would be a rattly sound at tickover, nothing clutch related matches symptoms me thinks, certainly nothing ive dealt with before.

need to think it over a bit more but i think i've got it isolated to being gearbox related  ideal when its its my only means of transport over winter and were only at the start of november.

//

really not sure what to do right now, think ill continue to use it and hope it becomes obvious what the issue is. i might even have to give it to someone else to sort as i just dont have the time or clean space to do a gearbox teardown.

Very much enjoy your updates    I've always liked the stock GS levers... I mean yeah shorty ones look cool I can appreciate them as well!! But... I've always been a fan of the stock ones.

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on November 04, 2016, 04:16:07 PM
Very much enjoy your updates    I've always liked the stock GS levers... I mean yeah shorty ones look cool I can appreciate them as well!! But... I've always been a fan of the stock ones.

thanks showbiz, means a lot   theres something liberating about working on something that you don't really need to worry about and just messing around and its satisfying actually getting things finished. i mean i started a tail swap on my cbr almost a year ago and its not finished yet haha sloooow progress.

yeah i can see that, i think theres a time and place for shortys, the rsv ones are stunning on modern supersports for example. i absolutely love the adjustability and length for feel (heh thats what she said) but a lot of the time they look out of place on bikes like especially on anything oldschool or classic styled or if the finish doesn't suit the bike ie mines were shiny and polished and nothing about my bike is every going to be polished i think once upon a time they worked on mine when it was borderline immaculate and it was something just a little bit different but that ship has sailed, perhaps they would've been better in black. subtlety is key with most things visual, i always cringe when something looks like its just been 'stuck' on or people over do colour schemes, anything anodised red or bright gold kills me inside. good taste is both subjective and a rare thing. far too many faux pas with modding bikes and i don't know about you but far too often i have to bite my tongue on group pages or forums, people don't often take well to honesty or know how to handle constructive criticism     i'm still questioning my choice of going for wavey disks, they look so 'in your face' but on the other hand everything else about the bike seems a bit edgy and in your face so it might actually kind of work but it pulls away from the classic vibes.

//

sidenote: took the bike out today for a quick test and the noise and vibration has vanished. going to have to keep an ear out as i suspect it to pop back up again. so thats good, ride it till it breaks 

it really is such poor timing with this recent possible gearbox issue as i had planned to do something a bit mental when the engine finally gave up ie an engine swap  with a big single ktm 690, an old vfr400 v4 or just something a bit different but i just dont have the time or resources at the moment with it being my sole means of transport. grr... heres hoping the engine runs for years anyway 

Whirring noise not your speedo cable by any chance?

Quote from: gregjet on November 06, 2016, 01:01:11 PM
Whirring noise not your speedo cable by any chance?

thats a fair suggestion, something easily overlooked and hadn't crossed my mind. the noise wasn't consistent with the rotation of the wheels thats the first thing i checked at the side of the road, it was only present when off the throttle coasting with gears engaged. when put in neutral or the clutch pulled in the noise and vibration stopped. when wheels were spun on the stand they were fine.

had the bike out twice today, maybe 2 mile total just for testing and the noise and vibration still hasn't come back.

however the speedo cable was snapped but i managed to find another in the shed and now theres a working albeit highly inaccurate speedo    the larger tyre should slightly correct the difference but its still massively out. 30mph on the speedo is actually 25mph on the gps, think thats a difference of 16.6% which is massively out, real world gps 60 seemed to read slightly under 75 on the speedo. said it before but the gs speedo is soooooo innacurate. 70% of 120 is inherently taller than 70% of 110 yet mines is still about 16.6% high  < yeah the 'height' of your tyre is an apex ratio based on tyre width for anyone reading this that didnt know that. ie 120/70/17 the 70 height is 70 percent of the 120 (84). 110 is 77 high.

need to paint that speedo casing black just so its less eye catching. so yeah i guess thats a little bit of progress today. hopefully picking up a new mudguard tomorrow, just have to see how it plays out.

Really enjoying reading up on the progress of the bike!

Quote from: bazcarnegs on November 17, 2016, 01:34:02 AM
Really enjoying reading up on the progress of the bike!

thanks baz, you keep reading it and i'll keep updating it   

took the front mudguard off to try the other one, a gsxr 750 m from a later oily' but the mounting points were off by like 5-10mm on the front, so that got popped back to my friend and luckily i found the right one on ebay with the right bracket going dead cheap, cant remember if i mentioned any of this in my last post haha my bad if im repeating myself here.



looks pretty sweet without the front mudguard i reckon but... i live in scotland remember see when the grounds wet... you get a 6 foot watery projection straight up ^^    so yeah i avoided running the wet for the week it was like that but obviously it still flings any debris and grit at this time of the year up. not particularly nice.



the new inner bracket and mudguard, looks alright but the bracket will need stripped back and painted or powdercoated to protect it when one can be arsed. as will the blueness need corrected to something much more blackerer.

have since fitted it but havent had the daylight to actually grab a pic but... it really is very blue.

ordered some bits.

getting some braided lines made up to fit. 735mm banjo centre to banjo centre, actually measure 10mm less but this should be safer should i have miscalculated or just need a little extra. will be 5'' shorter than the blandtit6 lines ive got sitting i'll likely have to split the brakes down and clean them again at the same time... i hate 6 pots, i really do.
paint for the wheels
new clutch cable as mine is on its way out.
a nice new 150/70 tkc80 to match the front one ive been gifted should be a laugh.
and something to aid my little indicator experiment which i'll post when fitted should it work.

popped to halfrauds to grab some etch primer for the wheels, matt black as an undercoat and some lacquer to finish the rustoleom cast bronze tins im waiting on. heres hoping the paints dont react with each other. also played with the idea of stripping the old paint and just brass wheeling it over and giving it a coat of laquer to protect it, just like a total raw looking finish but i figure it mightve been 'too much' when i get round to stripping the tank as well. dunno but really the wheels are better off being protected guess.

sooooo i dropped the bike downhill on ice doing about 7-10mph. slid about 15ft upright with the bike then probably 10ft on my side, very slidey and quite a funny story but its too much to write up on here no big deal and not fussed but snapped a clutch lever, bent the bars and bent the left peg a little. dealing with junctions clutchless with my gearing on ice was hilarious on the 7 mile ride home.

new lever is on order & need to go speak to a friend about some spare bars. no other scratches or damage to the bike at all and well ive just got a bruised hip and a slightly sore leg from it getting trapped under.

clutch cable turned up, im experimenting with paints for the wheels right now, currently waiting for it to dry to touch and might post the testers tonight. need to haul my lights for the indicators out the shed to experiment with, waiting on my rear tyre still but that will be good fun.

wee paint test  texture of the paint is slightly different than anticipated, as is colour but its cool i can still work with it.



to the left we have the paint + lacquer and i peeled it back a bit just for fun (in person it looks like lacquered rust which is kinda cool)
in the middle is a flat black undercoat.
to the right is just the paint over the stainless finish of the socket.

think the one on the right is what i'll go for, its just a bit brighter. not quite what i was going for but it will be different and should pop quite nicely. in retrospect i should've went for something perhaps metallic rather than matt and textured but yeahhh its still close enough for what i was going for  happy days, now just need to find time to swap tyres when i get them, prep and paint wheels etc.

grabbed a couple of pics just because its mad frosty and it looked cool, pun intended.







aaaaaaannnnnnd my back tyre just arrived!  Conti TKC 80 150/70/17 banded and tubeless although there is a tubed version so you need to watch out. got it dead cheap through oponeo, 20-30 cheaper than i've seen it elsewhere.



really looking forward to taking the gs places its really not meant to go  although in all honesty road tyres are surprisingly alright off road in the dry, had a hoon on my old thunderace fighter around a loose dirt track with a friend on a gsxr6 k5 i think it was hahaha  brilliant fun. it'll be a different story when it comes to anything wet or inconsistent i reckon. dunno... cant wait, it'll be muchos badass but it really does detract from my original intent for the bike.

clutch lever replaced alongside cable both tyres sitting now just need to find the time to fitem'






playing about. surprisingly doesn't block too much light and it looks black from a distance when in daylight. might keep it might not. could do with painting the outside lip black just for a bit of stealth.



micro indicator experiment seems to be quite promising, could be cleaner but for all intensive purposes it works and although its a smaller surface area than your typical micro indicators they are much brighter and should be much neater once tucked on the bike.



like i said, much brighter think they are 10x25mm or 30 which is tiny. shouldn't be an mot problem i wouldn't suspect, think the stipulations are just on distance from other lights. certainly not worried.

sooooo... last night it finally happened.



winter attack mode is here.





chain clearance looks massive in comparison to the prior 160, i pre-emptively removed the sprocket offset spacer beforehand.

part worn on the front and a brand new one on the back. ive only had it out once, albeit wet/cold and im just going to put it down to it being a new tyre but damn it was easy to kick out at junctions haha. its a completely different riding experience, i know the tyres are fairly capable from using them on my bros bike but it will take a bit of getting used to and i definitely wont be able to ride it with the same demeanour i usually do which is a real shame but admittedly ive not had the same confidence in the bike since swapping to the gsxr front end, i really need to make an effort to get it set up right. definitely a bit more sitty up now with the tkc's anyway, not a bad thing really just something a bit different. the build was never really about looks for me but i think it looks mean as sheeeiiiit with the knobblies.

ive been having some cold start problems with the temp being +/- zero C' in the mornings and at night, hard starting then backfiring, dropping a cyl at idle/low revs until warm, carbs spitting but then its alright once running. hoping i'll just need to give the carbs a once over and if it doesn't help then i'll check the coils etc to see what its doing there.

more progress =D happy days

Woah nice!! I can only imagine how much different it is with the knobblies... great update!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with those indicators. I like the idea and share your thoughts in regards to distance from other lights. Where are you planning to put them? Can't wait to see!!

That vinyl you used on the headlight is a neat idea, there's a guy here at my work who has red on the headlight of his Ducati... it's really cool stuff to work with IMO, it's what I used on my helmet visors. Any pictures of it on the bike?

  i'll need to figure out what pressures work best with them as i know youre meant to run them a bit softer, currently 30psi/30psi and it just feels a bit toffee like to turn but thats partly down to the tyres themselves. yeah like they are actually surprisingly good once you get used to them, just have to bare in mind youre not on road bias tyres so you cant treat them like such. but i guess it is my winter bike so i shouldn't be hanging off in the corners at this time of year anyway haha cant wait to get them on snow though   

not really sure on positioning yet. on the front im thinking of making brackets to stash them off the bottom yoke/triple so that they are either underneath the headlight ie inside the fork legs or likewise making brackets but mounting them to the bottom yoke/triple's outer clamping bolts. the issue is going to be mounting them where they are discreet enough yet still visible. for the rear i can just locate them onto the previous number plate brackets but id like to mount them up on the subframe so theyre right up and out the way but as i dont have a proper mudguard they would likely get splattered with mud and road grime which isnt much use. just going to be trial and error i suppose. also playing with the idea of using two of the micro ones together if need be to brighten things up but i dont think its going to be necessary. once thought occurred i started looking at some 'high end' builds and some have really interesting ways of stashing indicators, i guess its one of those minor details that are easily overlooked but really it kind of makes nice clean lines on a bike.

yeah ive had the vinyl sitting for ages and kind of forgot i had it haha the mesh stuff is slightly harder to use as if you need to heat it, it can spiderweb out. thats a cool idea using vinyl on helmet visors though  i do quite lot of riding in the dark so although its not a massive amount of light lost its not ideal for me unfortunately so it could very well be coming back off at some point. its a bit like riding at night with a dirty visor... but you with your visor and its still a bit darker than usual haha 

need to take the bike out shortly for a blast to check the plugs properly, i'll grab a photo for you