GR650 anybody?

[mennobike]

man that thing looks good... 

[ShowBizWolf]

That is a great pic. Just great. That seat looks amazing and so does the fairing. Excellent work as usual Rich, thank you for the update 

What kind of tank bag is that? Been thinking about getting one...

[Big Rich]

Thanks Showbiz. I still have some work to do, like the tank badges / luggage rack / etc.. I found out yesterday that my rear brake lever was sticking (needed cleaned & greased at the pivot), and my charging system isn't regulating properly. Nothing terrible, but I'll definitely need to look into that too.

The tank bag is from Nelson Rigg, their CL-2020 magnetic GPS bag. It is HUGE! Fully expanded it will fit my full face Nolan helmet with some room to spare:

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/nelson-rigg-cl-2020-gps-tank-bag

[ShowBizWolf]

That is a super cool bag. Thank you for the link!

[peteGS]

Awesome Rich, just awesome!

That seat/tail looks like it turned out really well!

At first glance you wouldn't even dream it was a GR650... I think you just put the Temptor in Temptor...

[Big Rich]

Cheers Pete! The seat didn't turn out 100% what I was hoping for, but definitely good enough to ride for the season.

I've had this bike "not stock" for so long now, I tend to forget about what it looked like from the factory. So yes, the Tempter is no more..... and the Halfabusa is on the road! Haha....

[Daeouse]

Well done, good sir, it looks good!

[peteGS]

Halfabusa... love it! 

[Rallyfan]

I'm mesmerized by the fairing. I now want a modern GSX-R with the fairing from a 1980s GSX-R, somehow. Tail section too.

Great work, orders of magnitude beyond my league.

[Big Rich]

Thanks man! I was kinda "rushed" to get the fairing done because the GR is my only bike again, and riding season was coming quickly. So it's not at 100% right now, but there's always next winter. The early GSXR fairing was pretty easy to work with - the fiberglass is readily available from Airtech (in many different version btw), and the windscreen is easily found on ebay for under $50.

But for an update: I recently discovered a high pitched "pinging" sound from the motor. Right away I thought it was from pre-ignition / detonation, so I retarded the timing back to stock and filled the tank with 93 octane. After that I was chasing my tail trying to diagnose EXACTLY where the sound was coming from..... but once I pulled the fairing off I saw it: a loose exhaust collar on the header! Years of running the header bolts (not studs) in and out must have accumulated some debris at the bottoms of the holes. So the bolts would bottom out and be tight, but not tighten down the collar. Whew!

[Rallyfan]

That is a close call of sorts. It amounted to nothing but was scary while unfolding. Great outcome.

[GSteve]

Wow! New member here and just now seeing this project thread. It is a total inspiration! In one of your posts you said you had taken the fairing equipped bike out and "it wanted to go fast!" I'll be curious to see the numbers once you finish this wonderbike and road test it--especially since you apparently aren't going after more HP.   A few years back, I was riding a 78 BMW R80 with and without it's quarter fairing. This fairing had been described in the moto-press  as offering "some added comfort to the rider." There was no mention of performance gain with it installed. The R80 and the GR650 have similar HP, and weight. I noticed a big difference in how well it pulled in its mid-range depending on whether or not the fairing was installed. With the fairing off it seemed down about 10 HP. This is the same fairing used on the much faster R90 of that same era. With your more extensive fairing I'm curious about the numbers you get. That is, of course, if top speed is all that important to you. Others have said that HP gain with the GR650 is limited and that the whole package was designed for low and mid range. One of the posts said that the lower end was "not suitable for racing." If that is true, then, streamlining is really the best if not the only answer. Again, really, really nice work!!

[The fink]

Rich, I usually surf the forum at work on my down time, (graveyard shift) my work computer won't load the photos. I'm at home now to see the pics. I really like what you've done, it gives me hope that I'll have a running bike one day too! Keep up the good work friend. 

[Big Rich]

Thanks GSteve! I love the old Airheads..... but I'm far too cheap to own one. I sold a 1980 GS450S last year that has many similar design cues as your old R80 - from the tank shape, to the seat, even the quarter fairing. While I can't speak for the cold hard numbers when it comes to performance with / without a fairing, I have noticed that my current bike goes much faster than what it "feels". I remember one of the first rides of the season, I was cruising along a back road where the speed limit was 45mph, and I came creeping up on a car. I didn't think I was going all that fast but I did catch up to them rather quickly and thought "why is this person going so slow?". When I got behind them and matched their speed I looked at my speedo and they were going 55mph the whole time! Back when the bike was in its stock "cruiser" form, my wife and I were heading back from somewhere on a highway (me on the bike, her in her car) and we started playing cat and mouse next to each other. The stock bike would hit 100mph (and it felt like it with the wind resistance), but it took a little while to get there. With all the intake / exhaust / body work I've done, it will hit 100 MUCH sooner.....and it's able to handle that speed much better as well.

[Big Rich]

Cheers Fink! I use to work steady midnight by choice....now I'm forced to rotate with daylight. The night time is the right time! Haha.... but thanks for the props. I try and tell people: a bike project is actually easy, since you're only working on one bolt at a time. It doesn't happen over night though....

As far as the GR goes, I had to replace a blown fork seal last week. Ordered some OEM seals / dust wipers from Japan, then I noticed my clutch is slipping at high rpms and needed to order a clutch gasket (and pay for shipping again naturally). Since the current bottom end is new for the season, I'll just be swapping out my clutch from the old engine. What else is there..... carbs & jetting. I've had a rich idle for a while now and I'm trying to get that sorted out. I set the float height in the middle of the spec, but I think the problem is that the carbs are slightly angled in the mounts. I've messed with the pilots and mixture screws already so the float height is next. And iI don't know if I've mentioned it earlier, but the tank badges I made are no good. For some odd reason the original tank badge mounts aren't symmetrical - one mount is further forward than the other. Can't really notice it looking from the side, but it bugs me when I look down and they don't match.

[Big Rich]

Another picture less update....

Ever since I had found out what my "ping" sound was, I started noticing my MPG's going down the crapper. First couple tanks this year were in the lower 40's (not surprising all things considered). Right after the pinging sound, it went to 35 ish, to 30, then down to 25mpg. I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what was going on, and at the top of my notes I had "Check odometer for accuracy" since it is an aftermarket job from China. After checking the valves (again), compression (yet again), tuning the carbs (as always), and fitting new coils, I finally started really watching the odometer.....

Bingo! I was calibrating the speedo / odo with a GPS app on my phone and I discovered 2 things: that the speedo doesn't match the odometer, and the odometer was "losing" miles. With the tire circumference set at 925mm, I went 12.7 miles but the odometer read 12.6 miles. Close enough for now..... next trip out the GPS read 34.5 miles and the odometer read almost 13 miles. Way off!

Once I used the GPS to check my fuel consumption, I'm back in the upper 40's.

[peteGS]

Ugh, bugger Rich! Cheap Chinese crap... some of their stuff is surprisingly good, other stuff not so much...

I can highly recommend Acewell's gear though, the 450 has had it's 2853 for nearly 50,000kms now and so far so good... will be putting another one on the Kat 

[Big Rich]

 True story Pete! It can be a gamble.....

So far everything else about the speedo has been flawless. The fact that the entire dash was kinda made around the gauge, and the high cost of an Acewell (especially with all the same features), has me leaning towards keeping the current one for the rest of the season. I can still keep track of my fuel consumption with the GPS on my phone, and the fuel gauge works well too, so I won't be running out of gas by surprise or anything. Besides..... that GS850 tank holds a LOT of fuel!

Life is full of compromises I guess.

[peteGS]

At the end of the day as long as it does what you need it to do all is good 

In our nanny state here you can't afford to have a speedo off at all, you're likely not to have a license too long unfortunately...

It's interesting you say the Acewell is high cost though... with the way things work over here I found them to be pretty well priced compared to a lot of the other alternatives. I didn't really compare with the cheapy Chinese ones though as I was only looking at ones that are certified as ok to use here... we have lots of legal crap to deal with like that 

[Big Rich]

I always forget about how strict your policies are down there Pete.

Weird thing about my current speedo - if I set it up for an accurate odometer (aside from the "forgotten" miles), then the speedo reads a little fast. So in that regard it's just like a normal gauge cluster. The other odd thing is whenever the odometer "forgets" to add miles, the speedometer still works as expected..... which I would have thought the speedo reading would just drop to zero.