Quote from: The Buddha on June 12, 2020, 05:30:31 AM

Quote from: SK Racing on May 17, 2020, 08:19:41 AM
I don't know whether you're referring to the look or the workmanship. The pictures may have been taken in my backyard, but the sub-frame certainly wasn't "backyard welded and hammered together". I enlisted the services of a professional craftsman to bend and MIG weld the sub-frame from a drawing I made.

If it's the look, then let's agree to disagree on that. 

The cantilever seat look doesn't appeal to me at all.  There are as many ways to customize a GS500 as there are owners wanting to give their GS500 their personal touch.

The look was not about workmanship or anything else - In fact some of the worst retarded cases of side license plate atrocities I have seen have the best welds and gorgeous paint jobs.

Hey Buddha

No offence taken, man.  I have set my heart on building the sub-frame the way I drew it - so, not even a cantilevered seat would have been good enough. And I'm not really opposed to a cantilevered seat. In fact, I quite like it. But not for this build.

Quote from: The Buddha on June 12, 2020, 07:59:52 AM
I don't think I corresponded with this exact builder -
http://www.bikebound.com/2016/03/30/suzuki-gs500-cafe-racer/

There was a round onto square one here and I did ask about it though.

Cool.
Buddha.

I've seen quite a few round onto square conversions. Some are not so well executed, but a few are very nice.

Like this one for instance.

That round X square is cognitive dissonance man. Its almost like they put in 1000's of hours of work and forgot to think for 2 seconds its a square. Like WTF.
Anyway this bike is cool, but the under seat looks like its a random box thrown in ... correct concept but missing the point.
Cool.
Buddha.

Totally. That's why I went for a LiFePO₄ battery - so that it can fit under the seat. That box spoils the build.

Quote from: SK Racing on June 12, 2020, 09:13:52 AM
Totally. That's why I went for a LiFePO₄ battery - so that it can fit under the seat. That box spoils the build.

Yea but sadly an empty "frame triangle" is just so much worse.
The welds in your bike speak attention to detail. So does your choice of square tubing, so does your paint job (hypothetical cos you're not painted yet) and chitte like empty frame triangle and side mount license plate just scream ... wee didn't think of chitte before we started bending and welding chitte.

IMHO - truly just my smallest little corner of the world opinion and I don't think I've built a bike in 5 yrs ...
Make a small mod and it should be seen ...
Pipe ... hey nice pipe ... is it T1 ? how did your slip on fit the flanged kind etc etc. trioval ? Off a GSXR - awesome.
Steel braided brake line nice.
Seat to match the blue of the panthers ? Nice (Trust me I have one)

Whaaaaa That's a whole different FE ? How do the gauges fit ? I know GS 500's and yours has 2 disk ... how you swap the whole FE
Whaaaaa That's a different rear wheel ?
Whaaaaa Its raked 9 degrees (not the GS, a savage) And handles quicker than a stock savage ? and has a 21" wheel ? and speedometer works and everything else works ?

Small mod - you have to see.
Big mod - has to look stock.

"Turns heads" may just mean it looks so fawking retarded people are wondering what crakkhead is next to them polluting their clean air.

All sorts of stupid chitte turns heads. A splat of chitte onto their side window also turns their heads rather impressively.

Small and cosmetic mods should catch their eye - that's your intent.
Big huge should not, in fact you should have owned a few bikes and atleast 1 GS and still miss it. That's my goal. Hence the nondescript paint jobs and the overall lack of attention grabbing anything ... needless to say - I cant paint, so that solves 1 problem. I cant weld either but I know some who do an awesome job.

Cool.
Buddha.

Member @cbrfxr67 sent a PM yesterday, offering to send me some Tygon tubing for the "reservoir delete".  Unfortunately, only hours before that, I had ordered Tygon tubing from the UK via eBay. Damn, had I known...

What a great group of people we have here! 


The past day or so I've been working on a controller/regulator for a nickel plating setup.




The enclosure is made from aluminum sheet, bent into shape on a very simple bending brake, and some laminated wood for the sides and bottom.




Inside the enclosure is basically just a DC-DC Buck converter connected to a 10K pot for Volt/Amp adjustment. The display is a cheap unit that I ordered via AliExpress some time ago.

Received a 2011 R6 rear shock today. I can do with softer rear suspension, so it was a no-brainer.

Looks like it has all the necessary bits included. 
 

You're gonna love it!  The R6 shock was by far the best upgrade I did on my bike (matched with appropriate weight Sonic Springs for the front).

My little stripped down GS is still the best handling bike in my little collection.

Thanks for that, David. I'm going to use your write-up to guide me when installing the shock.

As for the front, I'm contemplating using spacers on top of the standard springs and maybe thicker oil. I'm spending too much on this build. If anyone has done both, I'd like some advice on spacers vs new springs, please.

Had the carbs and petcock treated to some vapor blasting.

Before and after pics.

I need some advice on a final coating on the exhaust headers. The headers have been vapor blasted down to bare metal, but now I need to add some coating - preferably black. I'm not keen on hi-temp spray paint. Got a quote on Cerakote and it's much too dear. The GSTwins Wiki mentions black stove polish. What should I do? I'm leaning towards stove polish, but it probably needs black barbecue paint first?

Before and after vapor blasting:  (the silver is not paint, it's the bare metal)

The stove black thing is not permanent. It's just making something otherwise rusty look black.

Frankly a high-temp exhaust header paint may be your best bet. To keep it from rusting again you'll have to make sure the thing is fully coated and sealed. Pinholes or weak spots in the paint will allow moisture in and it'll rust.

Interested in how you cleaned the exhaust, that's pretty cool. But the truth is if I ever remove mine again, I am replacing with stainless headers. Done with this rust. I figure the header wrap makes  me not see the rust and also accelerates the death of the stock headers so I'll be forced to buy a new stainless header sooner.

Quote from: mr72 on July 24, 2020, 07:27:40 AM
The stove black thing is not permanent. It's just making something otherwise rusty look black.

Frankly a high-temp exhaust header paint may be your best bet. To keep it from rusting again you'll have to make sure the thing is fully coated and sealed. Pinholes or weak spots in the paint will allow moisture in and it'll rust.

Thanks for the advice. I'll talk to my paint guy and hear if he can suggest a suitable paint. He repairs bikes for an insurance company and does exceptional work. He'll be painting my bike before final assembly.

QuoteInterested in how you cleaned the exhaust, that's pretty cool.

Yep, vapor blasting is the way to go. It's effective and quite cheap.

A brand new front brake rotor at less than half price is not to be scoffed at. I saw the ad on a local Facebook group yesterday and jumped at the opportunity.

Would I need new brake pads or can I use the old ones with the new rotor, provided there is still some meat left?

You can use the old pads if they're not grooved with wear pattern but make sure they're also not worn unevenly etc etc.
The inner - static pad tends to wear a lot, so pay special attention to that.
Cool.
Buddha.

Thanks for the advice, Srinath. Makes sense. I think the front pads would be reusable, because there is almost no sign of grooves. But the rear rotor is badly worn with deep grooves, way past the minimum limit of the rotor. So, I'll have to get new rear pads AND a new rear rotor.

I made a drawing of a rear rotor in the slotted wave design in order to get it laser cut from 5mm stainless steel. Should be way cheaper than importing.
Btw, I wonder why the ones for sale online is only 4mm thick... The standard rear rotor thickness is 6mm.



Should look like this when done.

I haven't posted for a while, but that doesn't mean I've done nothing on the bike. Just about every day, I've done a bit, even if it's just something small.

The carbs are sorted out now. The engine ran badly after the carbs were vapor blasted. A good cleaning of all passages, jets and slides seemed to have done the trick. The new foot pegs are mounted and give me a bit more legroom. I'm rather tall at 6' 2" and my legs always felt a bit cramped. Also, the exhaust headers were sprayed black in Rust-Oleum High Heat.


Today, I registered for the 2020 Gentleman's Ride and entered my GS500. That means I have exactly 5 weeks to get it running and looking good enough for this grand event.

I encourage everyone to enter in their own city. And if you don't enter your own bike, maybe you'll consider sponsoring me? It is for a good cause. I will be riding in Pretoria, South Africa.

Here is my blog page: https://www.gentlemansride.com/fundraisers/ChristovanderMerwe375884 


To register or just read what it's about: www.gentlemansride.com

           

How much for one of those rotors you're going to make?   

Haha, lets not go there, CB.  I had a disc laser cut from 4.5mm SS. It came out surprisingly good! But I wanted a machined surface and sent it to a machine shop for surface grinding and they messed it up. 

So I'm busy importing an OEM looking disc from AliExpress. It's real cheap over in China. Even with courier costs added, it's still less than half of what I would have paid locally for an OEM disc - if it were available. The local Suzuki agents don't sell any spares for my bike. So guess which brand of bike I'll never buy new! 

I have slowly, but constantly been working on my project bike. The wiring harness has been modified and cleaned up for mounting the electrics under the seat, plus brackets and cleats have been welded on for mounting the electric components. Will show pictures at a later stage.

Right now, the mold for the seat pan is being made. It will mainly consist of blue XPS foam that I had on hand - left over from my aero-modeling hobby.




Hand cutting the foam is so easy when one has the right tools. I used a hot wire bow and related foam cutting equipment that looks a bit tatty due to age and wear and tear. There is also a DIY CNC foam cutter, but it won't be used for the mold.