removed the silly bar brace as well.

something really satisfying about oem suzuki packaging. but yeah thats my clearances finally done  done the two intakes and rattled it back together with 25-30 mins.

Left Exhaust - between 0.12   ///    Right Exhaust - 0.08
Left Intake -  0.07            ///     Right Intake - 0.09

back to being healthy and damn what a power gain low down and in the midrange. valve clearances are super important it seems 



i was reading about using hydrochloric acid (bleach, strong toilet bowl cleaner, alloy wheel cleaner) to clean stainless and damn it works quick and effortlessly. this was just a little experiment and strictly speaking its not good for the metal but in a weak mixture it shouldn't make much odds. obviously its not a replacement for removing pitting like i've got but for cleaning and stain removal WOOOOW...





literally brushed it on left it 30 seconds, and all the staining brushed off with very little agitation using a cheap paintbrush. stunned by how effortless it is. for the record i like the staining haha i was just curious as to how well it would actually work.





playing about with a silly exhaust i'm making an undertail with on the cbr at some point. threw it on for a laugh, started the bike and took it straight back off haha it's far too open without a baffle and the short perforated cores. didn't sound good just over the top loud and the gs sounds rotten on over run without a proper exhaust. so yeah straight back off but i've whipped the baffle out the extreme gp can and its at the lower end of being intolerable and just obnoxious. all good fun either way. that slash cut XG1 could be pretty sweet looking if positioned well but not like i had it thrown on.

//

the bike is running so good with the valves done, whipping the baffle out just stumped the top end power though. probably throw the baffle back in and finally get the carbs dialled in  i really do reckon a lot of the carb woes i've had have been down to the valves needing done. heres hoping anyway.

thought i'd even it up to match the sanded back lines on the left side, started bringing in the bottom edge as well. just playing but i'm liking how it's panning out. just need to tidy up a couple of bits

check out all the gunk under the front sprocket cover/area, cleaned that out about 6 months ago (ish)

just checking out some unusual drives train noise and checking out the spacer scenario for when i put the road tyres back on soon.



i suspect the heavily hooked teeth are part of the problem.



check out the 14t hooked teeth vs a new JT 16t profile that i had lying spare. think mines is well worn out.



the protruding area for creating the correct offset was marginally longer on the renthal front, just over 1mm i reckon vs the JT front. its a bit odd to me as both front sprockets are meant for the bike. i was reading that roughly 0.08 - 1.2mm in offset difference between front and rear sprockets is safe enough, don't hold me to that, i'll have to find and post the source. do your own research but ideally you want it spot on though.



so this is the JT front with a 3mm spacer behind it, you can see that the sprocket covers the groove for the circlip.



once again this is spaced out 3mm and i've placed the circlip on the end of the countershaft just to see if theres enough space to re-groove the shaft and just use the clip to secure the sprocket but it's a bit too close to the taper on the edge to be safe i think.

i might've discussed this on here before but my plan is to drill and tap the centre of the countershaft so i can put a bolt and some kind of spacer in to secure the front sprocket. typically any front sprocket that uses a nut has some kind of locking tab or another bolt in the end of the shaft to prevent the sprocket slipping off should it come loose so i'll need to devise some kind of means as to prevent the bolt coming right out. i've got a couple of idea but i'll just have to see what happens.



so for the time being i've thrown the spare 16t on with a 1mm spacer to pick up some of the slack behind it. it rattles much less on the shaft than the renthal and the inside teeth are in much better shape as well so it's good to see just how much harder the steel countershaft is vs a sprocket. cleaned all the road and chain gunk out as well.

i'm hoping the shaft is easy enough to drill and tap without removing it from the engine 



my ghetto exhaust hanger broke when removing the extreme gp can so for the time being i had to throw the old viper stubby on. not as good looking but its got a really good burble.





i think my current jetting is quite a bit out with the change of can, i wouldn't of thought it would make much odds with them being both very open so theres a bit of playing about there. i also jetted it before sorting the valve clearances so it's needing going over to get it right anyway.

a word on the gearing. as much fun as i had with the -2/+5 (14/44), it's no use for anything other than wheelies and sitting at 90mph+ is borderline strenuous. it was good fun but the bike is much more usable now that i'm back to something sensible. currently just +5 on the rear (16/44) which is roughly the equivalent of dropping 2 front teeth and i still reckon this is the optimal gearing for the bike, it unleashes a bit more acceleration and a little bit of top speed as well. -2t on the front or +5t (ish) on the rear is the way to go if you want a little more go out of the gs.

on the -2/+5 by the time my back tyre wore down top speed had dropped to an oem speedo indicated 96-100 mph, ignoring the 16% speedo inaccuracy, and that was with the bike bouncing off the limiter. damn quick though haha   

ps i know i shouldn't be putting new sprockets on old chains etc but i'm really not fussed for their longevity, it's all been purely experimental.

put my wee trumpet back on with a baffle, used a big quick release jubilee clip as a hanger will it continue to scratch the can to hell... yup. do i care... nope     



gave the carbs a quick sync, quite impressed managed to do it in 5 minutes, just propped the back of the tank up to get access. they were only one line out on the gauge which isn't exactly much, but it's always amazing just how much better a bike runs when the carbs are synced. (ignore the red area on the gauge, i zero the gauges differently to standard so its easier to read)

took the bike out for a thrash to plug check it and definitely running rich up top, fouled plugs and performance gets better as it gets hotter. kinda crazy that ages ago on a scorching hot day with the viper stubby before the valves were done 152.5 mains were spot on, then it was too rich when cold on an average day. so 150's were used, which has been pretty much right on the various exhaust setups since minus there being an imbalance due to the valve clearances and now that the valve clearances are done and carbs are synced, 150s are too rich 

carbs are clean, fresh o-rings for the needle seat etc, float needles are good, no unusual or worn out items. i'm kind of curious just how big an effect the float height on running, i've set them to their highest spec and other than the valve clearances being done thats the only change made even though it wasn't recent. so i'm going to put the float heights to the lowest point of spec to see how it reacts before spending money on jets.

nothing i cant deal with, i just think it's odd.



cant help but take pictures of it  going to be back on road tyres soon enough.

Really diggin' that exhaust... glad to see it back on

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on April 14, 2017, 03:17:15 PM
Really diggin' that exhaust... glad to see it back on

thanks showbiz  me too, the black mudguard as well

it really does make all the difference.

Lookin bad ass. I really dig the look of it. It looks like a end of the world bike. 

... cue Walking Dead music!  this could be Daryll's bike for the next season? 

This is a really sharp build, and anything but just another build.

Quote from: Suzi Q on April 20, 2017, 06:14:28 PM
This is a really sharp build, and anything but just another build.

well... i guess in the grand scheme of things it's just another gs500 hack job isn't it. it's nothing that hasn't been done before, it ticks a lot of the right boxes but she's ratty and ghetto'd together. all part of the charm i reckon, glad you dig it.

Quote from: Endopotential on April 15, 2017, 09:57:57 AM
... cue Walking Dead music!  this could be Daryll's bike for the next season? 

can you imagine haha but to be honest perhaps it would be a bit more realistic? i dunno i guess they tied the story up pretty well to justify the parts on his bike but then again perhaps a bit far fetched to end up with that wild cb750 of his laden with new r6 bits. either way how cool is darryl's bike 

Quote from: The fink on April 14, 2017, 08:45:12 PM
Lookin bad ass. I really dig the look of it. It looks like a end of the world bike. 

can you guess i watched my fair share of madmax and dystopian themed movies growing up  just a fun little project to amuse myself, glad you dig it    just wish i didnt need a number plate and indicators on it 

definitely been a a dynojet setup in my spare carbs, aggressive needles and the sliders drilled tapped and plugged. cant remember what main jets were in them but it was mikuni rather than DJ and it was set up for a standard filter and exhaust i reckon.

DJ, Mikuni and Keihn work with there own scales so for example a 122.5 mikuni is equivalent to 130 DJ or 140 Keihn. Another thing to take into consideration is that because the DJ needles are so aggressively tapered to let more fuel in and sooner they use smaller mains to compensate part of the trickle down effect from the main when jetting i think, if you look up a jetting chart you'll see that the main jet trickles down effecting the half and quarter throttle.

so for example i was experimenting with the DJ parts in my carbs and found that the 147.5 mains that seem perfect on the normal mikuni gs needles and sliders were far too rich with the dj parts. in saying that the 1/8 - 1/3 throttle felt so sharp, nothing like it does normally but from 1/2 throttle onwards it was faaaaar too rich.

i was reading up the dynojet instructions for the gs and it reckons DJ 134's on an open stage 3 setup which is 125 mikuni by comparison. so because of the tapered needle it's getting the same amount of fuel on a significantly smaller main jet. dj also uses the restrictor plugs on the bottom of the slider to slow the opening speed of the slider down which leans the mix in order to help juggle the mix. this will be total waffle to a lot of people but i just found it interesting. been reading up a bit to do with obscure tuning to do with drilling the slides and/or cutting the spring to make the slide open faster and richen things up quicker. obscure but interesting nonetheless.

i'll get appropriate jets to mess about with the DJ spares at some point but i'm not too fussed for now. based on what i experienced low down with the DJ parts, it's going to be a bit wilder which i wasn't really expecting that big a difference.

DJ restrictor plugs in top slider just to show the comparison. they say for hard road/ racing use to take one of the plugs out, their vague instructions don't specify which one though.



bonus shot with added downforce  spoiler alert

I have the dyno jet kit in my 97 gs and after running it on the dyno with the 134 jets supplied mine ran very rich and put out 37.31 hp at between 8,000 and 8,500,Max torque=34.29. I jetted it down to the 128 jets supplied in the kit and it put out 43hp between 8,500 and 9000rpm,Max torque=36.87. Im running k+n lunchbox and megacycle baffle. Needle is in the position recommended by dyno jet and i have all the plugs in the slides, I think?
Hope this helps
Cheers johno

Quote from: crackin on May 07, 2017, 03:05:23 AM
I have the dyno jet kit in my 97 gs and after running it on the dyno with the 134 jets supplied mine ran very rich and put out 37.31 hp at between 8,000 and 8,500,Max torque=34.29. I jetted it down to the 128 jets supplied in the kit and it put out 43hp between 8,500 and 9000rpm,Max torque=36.87. Im running k+n lunchbox and megacycle baffle. Needle is in the position recommended by dyno jet and i have all the plugs in the slides, I think?
Hope this helps
Cheers johno

yeah cheers johno, i'm always interested to hear about other's setups  i find carbs and messing about with them probably more fun than i should  haha i just wish dyno time was cheaper so that i could actually validate changes.

haven't had much time to play around with the wee beastie recently. managed to find time to get the countershaft grooved further out for the front offset when i space the sprockets.





going to have to find a smaller circlip so its a bit snugger on the new groove just to err on the safe side as its so close to the taper on the end. incredibly surprised by just how easy a dremel and cut off wheel made the job. the new groove should allow for +3mm offset with a renthal sprocket or +2mm with a jt sprocket which are both safe tolerances from what i've been researching. i still want secondary means of securing the sprocket to help eliminate play and eventual spline failure.

picked up an assortment of circlips and got it fitting nice and snug. future offset problem solved.



also did a bad thing... lucky number 13  it's awful but far too much fun 13/44, no longer does 100mph but mid 90s according to the speedo. super punchy feeling but i cant see it staying on long for fuel consumption reasons. either way its cheap as hell fun

finally managed to get the rattle out of the exhaust collector, it was just a bit of stainless rattling around. only took like 6 months for it to be small enough to get out haha

so the R/R began to fail. the usual diode test was checked out but it was only outputting 1-2v to the battery. picked up a k7 sv650 R/R from a lowish mileage bike for 3rd of what a used gs would've been  mounting holes to the bracket are slightly different and it has 7 cables rather than the usual 5 i'm used to seeing on bikes but swapped the gs connectors over using the proper terminals but had to improvise as i had to double wires up and my crimpers weren't big enough, either way its wired up now haha and the battery is charging at 14.3v @ 5000 revs rather than 13.1 at idle and and 12.7 under load.



the mounting is purely temporary, i've got material sitting to make a bracket up and give it a heat sync.

quite like having it mounted flush rather than in it's stock location on the outer of the subframe.

my love of cable ties is far too much.



aaaaaaaaaand i lost the bloody engine case emblem somewhere  i'll need to find a grommet to fill the hole or use the left hand emblem on the right. absolutely gutted, i loved the rashed up cover.

Rashed up covers are a dime a dozen on ebay. It's the MINTY ones that are a PITA to find...

Quote from: Suzi Q on June 02, 2017, 07:25:56 PM
Rashed up covers are a dime a dozen on ebay. It's the MINTY ones that are a PITA to find...

it wouldn't be my road rash though yeah i was having a look cheers, seems to be plenty new ones available for about £20 or for a used one i'd have to spend £25-30+ on a side casing just for the emblem haha. needless to say i'm not fussed enough to spend that kind of money replacing it this now. weight savings... right. 

so... i've not worked on it much recently and i might've done a bad thing 



50mm clipons i had sitting, think they are gsxr1000 but i'm not 100%, that and set of dominators that i had sitting as well. the doms are awful, i'll have surely said before but it's just something different to what i had before i guess that and it's light summer nights at the moment. position isn't too bad but i could take them an inch closer to the forks if i make a couple of brackets up. might do it, might just throw the single back on. i'll need to do something about front indicators as well as currently i dont have any.



hate hate hate chrome so if i keep them they'll get painted black. also love the brake line routing round the doms, super satisfying to look at.









only took it out for a wee test, it's wildly different to how it was before with the big lairy feeling bars  it's a very aggressive position now, proper head-down-arse-up race bike style haha and it makes the lifted back end feel extremely tall.

it was one of those 'i wonder what that would be like moments' never actually meant to throw it together like that haha



put my new tyre levers to use and i'm in the process of painting wheels and swapping tyres  i know some tyres can be a nightmare to change by hand but really it's been a doddle, nothing hard about it. levers, sealant and weights cost me less than it would've been to get the tyres swapped at a garage. something satisfying about being self reliant where possible. ^^ obviously didnt paint the wheel with it leaning on the bike haha it was just sitting there in between coats, kept the painting out the yard because overspray can be a *****  heres hoping i don't make a mess of the paint when i put the road tyres back on.



^^ rust-oleum cast bronze over acid etch primer. looks quite good in person. the dark green and bronze/goldy colour reminds me of the same colourway on the 1st gen impreza, slightly different but similar.

just finished up painting at almost midnight, tomorrow will be tyres back on

Looks awesome man!

Love the double headlights.  If you want to change things up a bit, check out what I did with my Harley lights.