I wish my bikes were half that clean.  Great work sir!

Quote from: cbrfxr67 on December 18, 2019, 09:07:33 AM
I wish my bikes were half that clean.  Great work sir!

Thanks!  Hoping to get it dirty sooner than later.

Great looking bike!

Maybe also 'cuz I think I just found a twin to my build    Twin headlights, cafe tail...
I did OK with the K&N lunchbox, with the jetting below.

Love that white gas tank.  I also put on black stripes, though with a bare metal tank   

Quote from: Endopotential on December 22, 2019, 12:45:22 PM
Great looking bike!

Maybe also 'cuz I think I just found a twin to my build    Twin headlights, cafe tail...
I did OK with the K&N lunchbox, with the jetting below.

Love that white gas tank.  I also put on black stripes, though with a bare metal tank   

Thanks for the feedback. Just took a look through your build thread. Amazing... there are a lot of similarities, although you went all out and re-welded the frame which I'm trying to avoid like the plague. Lol.  Good for you for going the extra mile.  I am probably going back to the original air box, as the seat switch eliminated the extra space that I was planning on using for the battery and the electronics.  Progress is slowing down a bit with holidays but I am hoping to post another update after the first.  The LED Speedo lights are giving me some trouble. Funny, I used the same Speedo on my 82 GS, I just can't remember how I fixed the issue. Zener diode maybe?  Happy holidays to all!

Yes, our bikes are very similar, down to the start switch!  I mounted mine on the left front frame rail.

If you go with a tiny lithium battery, there may be room to tuck it under that cafe racer seat.  Then plenty of room for the K&N filter.
Visually I love the wide empty space at the back of the bike.

Quote from: brucedavidculver on December 23, 2019, 08:19:59 PM
... there are a lot of similarities, although you went all out and re-welded the frame which I'm trying to avoid like the plague.

FWIW I have tried for years to convince myself that JB Weld is a reasonable substitute for welding. I think as long as you are using it as an adhesive or very small gap filler it's fine, but if you think it's going to handle any stress, I think you will be very disappointed.

And to that end, I hope I am wrong, but I think one day you'll have the seat off your bike and notice those JB Weld joints have cracked. Just too much stress on that part of the frame. IMHO. Too late now, though. If it does break you can try to grind off all of the JB Weld using a 40 grit flap wheel and see if you can get a weld to stick.

I'm in the process of formulating how to build a rack to hold my mini side cases and I want to make it out of alloy and I'm trying to avoid welding it, but I'm really having a hard time finding a way to do it and have it be close to strong enough without switching to steel and welding. And adding 5 lb in the process.

Quote from: mr72 on December 24, 2019, 11:26:39 AM

Quote from: brucedavidculver on December 23, 2019, 08:19:59 PM
... there are a lot of similarities, although you went all out and re-welded the frame which I'm trying to avoid like the plague.

And to that end, I hope I am wrong, but I think one day you'll have the seat off your bike and notice those JB Weld joints have cracked. Just too much stress on that part of the frame. IMHO. Too late now, though. If it does break you can try to grind off all of the JB Weld using a 40 grit flap wheel and see if you can get a weld to stick.

I agree 💯.  I would never depend on JB exclusively for anything structural.  The added crossmembers on the frame are screwed down into threaded holes with flathead countersunk machine screws.  The JB is only there to give it a little more hold.  Eventually my welding may get good enough to actually use on a bike... Lol.  Until then I'll have to stick with "screwed and glued.".

Seat and rear electrical...

With New Year's eve off, I finally got around to finishing the electrical placement in the rear of the bike. 

I had some grand plans initially (lithium ion battery under the seat hump, etc... ) but after deciding to change the seat configuration back to a flat seat, I lost the space where everything was going to be hidden.  As a result we're sort of "back to basics" on the electrical.  One of the added cross members was drilled to accept the reg/rec and the (modified) relay mount, and the mount at the back of the battery box that was originally for the under-the-seat mudguard was used to mount a short strut and wiring harness "keeper." 

Now I just I need to add a small sub fender under the seat (attached to the same mount) to help keep slop off the battery and electricals. I'll probably make that out of what is left from the front fender project in the next few days.

My only real complaint with the bike so far is that the flat seat is shorter that the "humped" seat was, so I have two stubby little frame ends that stick out on each side of the rear of the seat (that would have otherwise been covered).  I'm not sure if they bother me enough to change the seat yet again... but I suspect that sometime in the future they will. 

Now on to the exhaust and foot pegs...   

Exhaust and Foot Pegs...

Now with the lower seat and bars, the foot peg position needed to be adjusted, and since I hadn't made any decisions about how to mount the exhaust yet, I figured it was easiest to address both at the same time.  Originally the plan was for a set of "retro-y" dual exhausts that ran down either side of the bike but a friend of mine is restoring his '80 CX 500 and offered to trade me the pipes I had for this project for a carbon exhaust that he had no use for.  After some deliberation I decided to go with his carbon pipe (and lose 20 pounds of exhaust in the process... lol).  Besides, the pipes I had were a perfect fit his CX and sometimes you just "gotta help a fella out."

I'd been trolling some of the other threads about moving the rearsets and was ready for a bit of an epic battle but then realized that, at least on the 2005 GS, it's pretty much a cake walk.  On the right side, everything of consequence is attached directly to the foot peg mount (master cylinder, brake light actuator, return spring, etc...) so moving the mount moves everything along with it, and on the left side, it's just the foot peg, since the shift lever comes right out of the engine with no linkage, etc.

I just wanted to move the foot pegs back and down about 1 1/2" or so, so it was easy enough to simply make some "extended" mounts out of 1/4" steel and bolt them up. I drilled the front holes on my new mounts to bolt to the frame in place of the original rear sets and then threaded the rear holes to match the existing hardware and voila! I did need to splice longer wiring into the brake light actuator but even with that, it literally took more time for the paint to dry on the mounts than to actually make and install them.   I still need to remount the brake fluid reservoir (which looks like it will end up being mounted on an extension off of a longer airbox mounting bolt). It's already in the perfect spot so it seems like the easiest option. I bought an extra set of low profile OE mounting bolts on eBay for the left side (as I used all four of the existing OEs on the right), but they've yet to arrive.  I changed the angle of the shift lever a bit to accommodate for the lower peg position, and it's still plenty close after the adjustment.

With the pegs in place, I crafted a new exhaust strap with a short extension to reach one of the rear set mounting holes and that was bolted on.  I had to remove the right-most center stand mount to make way for the exhaust, but only to the tune of about 5 minutes of work.  As soon as the mounting bolts arrive for the left side, (hopefully later today) that will be the end of this chapter and I can go back to fighting with the speedo wiring again.             

Yeah, moving back is easy. Moving forward and down, well that's something else entirely. The frame is in the way, the brake m/c won't clear, and how/where to mount the shifter? Your work looks great here.

Hi Bruce,
I'd be happy to mail you my cafe seat which I'm not using.  It'a bit longer than yours I think, which should cover those rear spars.  And there's room under the rear hump of the seat to hide some electronics.

https://4into1.com/the-brisbane-cafe-seat-black/

Where are you located?  Send me a PM if you're interested.

Quote from: mr72 on January 02, 2020, 08:14:46 AM
Yeah, moving back is easy. Moving forward and down, well that's something else entirely. The frame is in the way, the brake m/c won't clear, and how/where to mount the shifter? Your work looks great here.

Thanks much! Starting to see the light at the end, unfortunately it's just in time for it to get REALLY cold here.  lol. 

Very much enjoying the thread and pics. I appreciate quality work like this!!

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on January 02, 2020, 11:12:11 PM
Very much enjoying the thread and pics. I appreciate quality work like this!!

Glad you are enjoying it... Appreciate the kind words!  Slowly but surely it is coming together.

Quote from: brucedavidculver on January 02, 2020, 06:54:47 AM
I still need to remount the brake fluid reservoir (which looks like it will end up being mounted on an extension off of a longer airbox mounting bolt). It's already in the perfect spot so it seems like the easiest option.   

Just a quick shot of paint and the mount will be done. Fork brace and front fender going on later today... Whoo hoo!

A little closer everyday. Custom front fender is on.  Hoping to gas it up tonight and take it on a quick first test ride... Whoo hoo!  Still struggling with the backlight on the Speedo, but it is tagged and up and rideable. Now that the original air box is back on I am hoping that a re-jet will not be needed. The last thing will be the removal of the oil cooler. However, I wasn't thinking when I switched out the original header for the aftermarket pipes and they now run directly under the oil cooler mount which takes up the space where I usually put the bypass... Hmmm.
That will require a bit of creative problem solving (don't all projects though) or some sort of bypass that takes a more circuitous route from in to out... Not my first choice.  We'll see. 

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

So with about 95% of the bike done I couldn't resist the temptation to fire it up and take it for a quick spin. I ran the fuel lines, filled the tank and it fired to life without a hitch. With the shorty exhaust and aftermarket pipe it sounded awesome!

I let it warm up in the garage for about 5 minutes, as its only about 25° here, then headed out for a quick up and down the street. Everything was going according to plan until... it stopped dead in its tracks. No lights, no spark, no nothing.     Fortunately it was slightly downhill back home. 

My prime suspect is the kill switch. The other day when I was working on the speedo lights, I noticed that the kill switch had a tiny bit of play to it that made the lights flicker if I jiggled it just the right way.  I reeaaaally kept trying to convince myself that since I wasn't planning on jiggling the kill switch while I was riding, this was not going to be an issue. lol. Then it seemed to go away so I wasn't that concerned. However, it's apparently back, and now I have no choice but to be concerned.  lol. You'd think at my age when the little voice in the back of my head says "just replace the darn thing and be done with it" I would listen.  But that would make me, what's the word I'm looking for... oh yeah, "smart."

So, bypassing the kill switch is on the agenda for tomorrow or possibly the weekend, and if that confirms my suspicions I'll get another one on the way.  At least the weather for the next 2 days doesn't look that great so I won't have to be bitter about missing any riding opportunities.

I'll post some pictures once it's actually rideable.

I am probably doing it wrong, but I never ever turn off the kill switch on either of my bikes. I actually like how the side stand kills the engine on the triumph and on the GS I just turn the key off. Just another thing to fail without much real world utility imho.

Quote from: mr72 on January 10, 2020, 06:09:25 AM
I am probably doing it wrong, but I never ever turn off the kill switch on either of my bikes. I actually like how the side stand kills the engine on the triumph and on the GS I just turn the key off. Just another thing to fail without much real world utility imho.

Sounds to me like if both bikes work you are doing it right.  lol 

almost there.....ALMOST THERE.  (blatant New Hope reference there...lol).

So with the electrical issues resolved (kill switch replaced and speedo wiring done), it's once again a real, live, rideable motorcycle! 

After a short shakedown ride, it got 140 miles over the weekend and rode like a champ.  The clip-on bars and lowered pegs feel great and the jetting seems to be spot on despite the aftermarket pipe, so I can take that off the to do list for the foreseeable future. 

A shorter front brake line arrived today and a matching braided rear should follow shortly, so those will be on the agenda soon.  Hopefully I can pick up a cheap fender at an upcoming swap meet later this month to mod for the rear and I'll be 100% done with this one.  Good thing too...  I just found a 2006 GS 500 F nearby that I expect to have in my garage by month's end... scrambler project maybe???

In any case... posting a quick "almost done" pic below but I'll get some better ones up when the weather cooperates.  Definitely grooving on the vintage "sunburst" logos (an eBay find)... just need some numbers on the side plates now to complete the look.