Hi everyone!

Firstly, huge thanks to everyone for all the invaluable information around here and on the wiki. I've been a long time lurker on this forum, bought my GS500 as my learner bike over ten years ago. I stopped riding altogether after a year or so, put her in the garage and sort of forgot about her for the next eight years.

I always had it in the back of my mind to turn her into something more aesthetically suited to my tastes, but since I'd never worked on bikes before, I didn't have the guts to actually do anything about it. Until about a month ago, when I finally started this project. I did a lot of research, bought a Haynes manual, whipped out ye olde photoshop and started putting together what I want to do:



And here she is all normal and shiny, the starting point for the project:



Now of course the poor thing had been sitting in a garage for eight years, never been started and very much neglected. So the first thing to do was to learn how to rebuild the carbs. Pulled them out (stripped all the bolts trying to open them, of course - vice grips for the win!) and had a look. They looked really bad:



Since I don't have any decent workshop space, I ended up rebuilding them on my balcony, which is now covered in petrol and carb cleaner:



After inspecting the fuel tank, I decided that it was too badly rusted to be rescued and luckily ended up finding a cheap one on eBay. It's already matte black, so that's a bonus. The fuel lines were cracked, so I replaced those, and installed a fresh battery. I managed to break the filter mesh on the tank petcock when pulling it out, so replaced that too.

After putting everything back together, and with great trepidation, tried to start her up for the first time in almost a decade... and it worked! She started up on the second attempt and ran fine. After a little victory dance, I took her for a spin.

I got her registered again the next day with no problems. I've ridden her for a few hours since, and while she idles a bit rough, overall she runs great. I'll be rejetting the carbs after installing a lunchbox filter and a new exhaust soon, so won't spend too much time tuning right now.

Back on the road:

Sweet! Your carbs look a whole lot better than mine did.

FYI, I got a set of Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) screwdriver bits from https://www.vesseltools.com/industrial-bits/bit-sets   Not inexpensive, but well worth the investment. JIS screws are different than Philips screws. A Philips screwdriver will strip them out in a hurry. The JIS bits fit correctly.

Next, I decided to tackle the front end and tyres. Over the next couple of weeks packages started arriving, and my office resembled a receiving dock for motorcycle parts. My colleagues are nowgiving me funny looks...

Time to get to work. For the front end, I am removing the steering yoke, cutting down the fender and lifting it up, putting on cheap Chinese clip-on bars, new grips, new gauges, bar end mirrors, headlight, indicators and fork boots for that extra retro look.

The fork stanchions are very badly pitted, so I'll need new ones at some point soon, but for now I'll just clean them up as best as I can.

Here she is all stripped down. Yes, that's all the space I've got available to work on this - but I'm stubborn, so I'm going to make this work:



New front end bits are on, wheels are off and are getting new tyres put on them:



Here's a view of the new cockpit. I'm reusing the bolts and rubber grommets that were holding the steering yoke on to mount the new gauges. I had to fabricate some small brackets to move the gauges to where I need them to go.

I really don't like these mirrors - they work ok on the road, but are not particularly adjustable and add too much width to the bars. I've ordered a different pair that might work better.



Ok, this is where things get silly. I am firmly going with form over function on this build, so I'm putting on some really stupid 50-50 enduro tyres. They'll make her handle like a cow, slip in the wet and be very noisy, but since I'm only going to be riding her around the beaches every now and then, I don't really care too much because they look great.

Here she is with her new shoes, they're Mitas E07s. I had to take the front fender off since I bought the wrong size bolts, will fix that in the next day or two.



Final picture of the front, this is definitely going in the right direction. I'll do the airfilter, exhaust and carb rejet next - once I've got the tank off I'll do some work to hide the rat's nest of cables under there somewhere. It bothers me.



I also got some aftermarket rearsets for a CBR900RR and a cheap used R6 shock off ebay; I'll probably throw those on when I do the exhaust.

That's it for now, I'll be back...

Welcome to the forum!  Looks like you're already doing an awesome job.  That's a great looking build idea.

That's one heck of a nice view from the balcony.  Where are you located?

I posted some stuff about the CBR900 rearsets and R6 shock on my build, if that helps.

You painted your forks black?  While you're at it, consider rebuilding them with new seals and get stiffer springs as the stock ones are pretty soft.  And change out that 10yo fork oil.

If you continue to fiddle with your carbs (as we all inevitably will), consider replacing all the bowl screws with some Allen heads to avoid future headache.

What are your plans for the seat?  That brown one looks great.

Hi Endopotential, Thanks for the pointers! I absolutely love what you've done with your bike. I spent a lot of time reading your build thread, thank you for writing it all up! Yours gave me the idea to remove the steering yoke (don't think I've seen that anywhere else) and I've been studying closely how you mounted your rearsets.

Quick question on the rearsets - it looks like you turned the shifter pedal upside down, did you have to make some sort of spacer to move the pedal outwards for clearance?

I did change the carb bolts, the original ones just disintegrated. Whatever material those are made from doesn't appear suitable.

I'm not sure if I can salvage the fork stanchions, I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap set somewhere at the moment. I'm in Sydney, Australia, so parts are not quite as easy to find here.

As for the seat, there's an upholsterer near me that did an awesome job on my buddy's GS, he did a thorough job of documenting his build here: https://johonline.net/suzuki-gs500-scrambler/

That looks great! 

What kind of gauges did you get?

One thing to keep in mind: With the forks up in the triple like that it's going to turn a lot quicker and may be twitchy at speed.

It was sooo pretty when you started

Well still interesting to see your progress!  Great pics!  Applause!  Be sweet to see a video of you kicking up beach sand when y'er done!




"Hacking things together in my garage"

Alpo - the gauges are from here https://www.thirdgear.com.au/parts/speedometers-and-tachometers/, but you can also find the same ones on Amazon and AliExpress. I did make a mistake at first and ordered a mechanical tachometer, didn't realise I needed an electronic one.

Since I removed the steering yoke on top of the fork tree, I had about 2.5cm of fork leg exposed already, and I only had to slide the stanchions up by about 3mm, I don't think that'll do much to the geometry of the bike. And I ride like a grandma anyway, so not too worried about speed...

Looking good. Keep up the work. And welcome 

Quote from: Argyle on March 23, 2018, 02:04:32 PM
Hi Endopotential, Thanks for the pointers!
Quick question on the rearsets - it looks like you turned the shifter pedal upside down, did you have to make some sort of spacer to move the pedal outwards for clearance?

Glad it helped.  Just paying it forward.  Most everything I learned about motorcycle mechanics and tuning, I learned from this forum and the wonderful people here.

You may have noticed that I mounted my clip-ons below the triple tree.  It's a very aggressive lean-forward position, but it does keep me tucked out of the wind at high speed.  To compensate, this allows you to drop the fork legs even with the triple tree.  I think that extra 3mm increases the rake a bit and makes the steering a little more stable to even things out.

About the rearsets, if you're talking about the front portion - if you order the CBR900 from eBay China, then it just comes with that cylindrical rod with a Heim joint up front.  You have to cobble something to attach it to the splined shaft of the shifter. 

Just look up "GS500 shift linkage" and cut off the bottom end, drill a hole through it, bolt on the Heim joint.
Even easier is "GSXR shift knuckle" on eBay and just screw that on directly.

Thanks for this Endopotential, I ended up cutting up my old shifter pedal, drilling and tapping it so I could screw the bolt straight in. In a huge brain fart, I drilled and tapped the wrong size hole first, but fortunately had left enough meat on the lever so there was space for the correctly-sized hole.

I widened the bottom mounting holes on both sides with a round file, and they mounted straight on. On the brake side, I faced a problem with the hose going to the brake fluid reservoir being a bit too short. I'll eventually get a new reservoir and mount it straight to the rearset.

On both sides, I had to tilt the pedal mounts up and back, fortunately there are plenty of holes in those things to mount stuff to.

I still need to figure out what to do with the brake light switch, might end up being a zip-tie solution... 

These are the rearsets I bought: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Motorcycle-Footpegs-Rear-Set-Rearsets-Foot-Pegs-For-CBR900RR-CBR919RR-CBR400RR/302470848566?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=601299268606&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Right side rearset (brake):



Left side rear set (shifter):

Looking good!

swweeet

For the brake light switch, maybe a banjo bolt switch might solve your problem? Easy to fit, I've used them on  streetfighters and will be using one on my GS when I get around to finishing off the rear brake. There are different pitch threads available, so getting the right one is no drama.
S3 Performance in Melbourne sell them among other places.

Thank you for the link to the gauges!  They are some pretty slick units and reasonably priced.

+1 on the banjo bolt brake switch. They work well and are easy to install.

Alpo - I ended up buying an electronic tachometer from here: https://www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-racer-caferacer-bobber-brat-chopper-custom-motorcycle-electronic-parts-mini-black-electronic-tach-tachometer-25-7000e.html

They don't ship to Australia, so I had it freight-forwarded by Shipito https://www.shipito.com

Haven't put that on the bike yet, but the previous one had a different colored backlight to the speedo. Not a big deal really, but it bothers me. I might have to crack one open and change the LEDs to match the colors.

And thanks everyone for the suggestion of the banjo bolt brake switch (now that I know what that's called, I can finally google it!), the rearset came with one that looks like this (minus the bolt), I'll see if I can make that work:

If you are in Australia try this for the brake switches.
https://www.s3performance.com.au/motorcycle-accessories/motorcycle-lighting/motorcycle-brake-switches

I love that tacho you found. Where are you in Aus?

Gregjet - thanks for the link, will look into those.

I'm in Manly at the moment.

New bits are on!

Took the rear fairing off and mounted the newly painted front fender, no more blue and white bits on the bike! I made some 50mm spacers to lift the fender out of aluminium tubing.

Installed the R6 shock (it didn't come with the bloody spacer collar, had to order a factory part from Yamaha for $20. Grrrr). But it makes a huge difference in the bike handling, very happy I did this.

Cut off the old exhaust and put the new one on, plus exhaust wrap. Sounds fantastic, fortunately she's not too obnoxiously loud...

Put on the K&N lunchbox filter and new carb jets. Runs really well, little bit of tuning left to do but felt great right out of the box with stock shimming and the air screws two turns out.

And of course, a bird crapped on the seat just before I was taking this picture:



Finally, hid the cable mess under the tank while I had that off.



Next stop, cutting and welding the frame.

That looks great! Any chance you have pictures or description of exactly what you did on the tail? I really dig that look and might copy it myself.