oh y'know, just another build thread.

[iamhiding]

where pics?!   haha

Need some updates sir!

Just need to figure out which forgotten email address my Flickr is linked To 

[The Buddha]

Yea those Mudder Flickers.
Cool.
Buddha.

[iamhiding]

Finally got back on my Flickr to find they've added a upload limit... soooo new account.

let's resume.

Still juggling projects/time/funds/space. Clio clutch imploded on me so the plan was to give the gs a quick dirty rebuild to mot and get me on the road.

Bugger, turns out I can't get the embed link on the phone booooo. Here's a teaser link in the meantime till I get on a computer.

https://flic.kr/p/2jfcjCu

[iamhiding]

so, cant link pics via flickr on the phone and not had computer access in ages so there's a few updates to catch up on. so herrrreee we go. gearbox crapped itself on the clio so borrowed a friends sw20 mr2 for a wee bit till i re-commissioned the bike to use daily until i had time to do the box.








needless to say the wee gs was needing some love after being parked up a bit. plan was to strip it back to frame and engine then service everything as i reassembled.



after a quick once over got the essentials ordered and used needing a chain as an excuse to further play with gearing  namely 13/49 & 16/49. note i used a 114 link 520 as the measurements for front sprocket centre to middle of chain adjustment with 16/49 was slightly over needing a 114 so opted to run it with a shorter wheelbase, really shouldve used a 116. that and it looks slightly odd having the rear wheel so inboard but youd never notice it unless its pointed out



replaced the gen cover gasket



found the gen wire insulation to be broken, sorted that with a spare gen i had.



used the spare badge to replace the mising one on the rhs too





looks maaaaaaaaaaaaaaad with the big sprocket



so after giving the carbs a quick clean, getting it running pre teardown, the clutch wouldnt disengage ie wanted to take off as soon you click into gear. so cover off, tried chapping it etc but had to disassemble the clutch pack, clean and reassemble as it was heckin' stuck together. got the clutch working and bike moving but it wasnt charging. tested the R/R and it had failed.



was using a sv650 r/r previously if i remember correctly, purchased a gs one as it was cheap, turned out to not work in spite of testing as it should ( seller blocked me on ebay after selling me a dodgy r/r then having to pay return costs because people are petty and awful), replaced with another r/r and it worked fine. think i wired an sv650 or gsxr k6 r/r to suit.

anyway got it running and charging and ready to pull apart.

[cbrfxr67]

woop woop sweet update!  Love that bombed style!   

[iamhiding]

sooooo quick strip back to nothing in an hour or so.



annnnd bonus sprocket pic before tear down



found some rust i wasnt happy about so pulled the engine out to deal with all. didn't have any phosphoric acid at the time so just used wire wheels / sand paper etc and got as much as i could to at least minimize and treat it.







that was after taking the pressure washer to it to knock all the loose paint off... yick not ideal. turned into a bigger quick dirty rebuild than anticipated. and i definitely needed a new swingarm. lost all the progress pics but got the bulk of it off, an etch prime and painted it satin black, itd do for now but really i should've waited and just got some acid or put it in to get sand blasted.





painted the wheels the same bronze colour as before but forgot it turns into a terracotta / burnt orange when lacquer goes on. so not what i wanted but they look alright.







ran a brass wire wheel over the scabby forks to remove all the corrosion but not rip the alloy apart, repainted the bases black and laquered the bare alloy to protect it. knew the lacquer wasnt a permanent solution but it would do. lost the pic of them finished but you'll see them shortly



replaced the old tkc80 with a mitas e10. still using a 150/70/17 on a mk1 sv650 wheel



rear caliper was fine but the front 6pots had eroded the outer dust seal lip away like the 6 pts often do... decided to replace them with bandit 12 4 pots, much better caliper in my opinion.



now onto reassembly. experimented with a high mount mudguard but found it to sit odd with the big round headlight. something to experiment with at a later day.

[iamhiding]

woop woop sweet update!  Love that bombed style!   

cheers man, bit more to come yet  still updating last years rebuild.

[iamhiding]

further into reassembly.



the old jubilee clipped standard speedo had rattled itself to death unfortunately, loved how it looked but onwards and up. made this bracket to hold a spare digital speedo ive got from another project. you'll see the speedo later though as im missing pics



here we go, reassembled. on a chopped and redrilled sv650 shock and 180mm dogbones, that was a messup. had planned on using the shorter dogbones with the chopped sv shock but ran into clearance issues and idnt want to grinf the new swingarm down... having already cut the shock i couldnt leave it as was to retain height and use the 180mm dogbones... so its saggy in the butt and has weird stance for now. wrapped the headers too. admittedly not loving the bike at this point due to stance and colour combo.











after a few acid treatments and abrasive sessions, itll never be what it was before but i like the dulled finished. note first couple of pics were just to see what the acid would do. best off sanding rust off then acid treating.



new/old speedo fitted, running a wheel driven cable to a digital convertor.



also remade the reduction spacer for the topyoke bolt.

[iamhiding]

at this point, consider the 2019 rebuild complete for now, got occasional use out of it when needed and definitely not enough fun miles. removed the header wrap, never got round to sorting its stance or doing much with it really. continued to hate how it looked in comparison to how it did before due to the colour combos. its been stripped back to bare frame in 2020 and reassembled how it should've been done in 2019. got some interesting stuff in the works for it too.



the previous silver on silver on silver on copper looked far superior. almost looks like a different bike now.

[iamhiding]

so now that I've covered the last iteration, here we go.



entering uks covid lockdown this how the bike remained until about nov/dec when i got fedup with it and started fiddling with it again.

decided i hated a combination of the black frame, orange wheels and weird stance and as i hadnt dealt with the rust properly last time round it was reappearing in places and i thought id sort it with acid this time round. really it needs sandblasted but havent had the time.



key was on the verge of snapping so ive drilled the tank out so i can use anything 



the starting point, here i was mucking about with the rear height. tried a couple of things. 170mm dogbones were a bit excessive with my shock setup. think i settled on 175mm. standard is a bawhair under 180mm i believe and on the last rebuild id accidentally used 182.5 which is why i think my stance was a bit weird... basically had it at standard height but with different fork length and offset. oops.

linkage on our gs is 5:1 ratio, so its my understanding that if you change the dogbone 1mm, it roughly equals a 5mm change in ride height. so 5x5 = 25mm lift and so on.

currently with my sv shock chpped at 315mm at 25mm over the standard gs 290mm shock and 175mm dogbones i should have a rough 50mm lift over standard, usedto run 75mm ish lift on the silver frame and standard shock / 165 dogbones but because it alters the swingarm angle so much it  changes how easily the swinger can operate as a lever and you wind up with an almost overly stiff back end. not what you want for grip.

i trialed 172.5mm dogbones and found the rear to be extremely stiff with sv shock

note the leaves in the background compliment the bike colours and the stance change makes it look less off.





so here we go again, back to bare frame in and hour or so for a quick dirty rebuild and a bit of paint



optimum painting conditions for sure.

















some progress pics of sorting frame rust. poly strip discs, wire wheel, phosphoric acid gel treated, etch primered. just spot repairs where needed. and buzzed the previously cut passengerleft side peg bracket back with a flapdisc to flat.

it was a tough call but i decided i quite liked the patina on the black frame so rather than going for a silver respray i touched it up with black where needed. enjoy the areas where the black paint has chipped or scratched etc and it shows the original silver underneath. figured id give it a go black and see how i felt about it.



black touchups after spot repairs ensue.





after a lot of indecision decided to try the wheels silver, if i didnt like it id paint them black as well.

[iamhiding]

ran a poly strip disc over the tank to tidy it up and thought id play with an idea. bit of experimenting to do with the concept but im thinking it'll work well when i do it properly. for now its staying on though







thats it loosely assembled above. since been using and loving it again. roughly 2'' lift. yoshi stencil on the frame resprayed, got a 116 link chain sitting, an alloy swingarm ready to fit and i'm just waiting on some spacers im getting machined to turn up in the post and i'll see how that goes. 10mm longer so if i were on standard gearing i wouldnt need to change the chain and therefor doesn't alter wheelbase but because im running mine on the short side i'll need to go longer.

so there we are back up to scratch. wanting to have a look at doing something different with my fuel pipe setup, fedup of modern fuel killing my lines, the wavey discs need to go as ive never really liked them they were just cheap at the time, and a swingarm swap on the cards for anyone wondering why? because i was sitting one night like huh i think i can make that work... it wont rust, has a larger opening for shocks giving me more options will look chunky and a bit mental to those who know the gs. should be a similar weight, linkage shouldnt need altered, that and it wont negatively effect the bike so F*** it why not.

retaining the sv wheel and fairly sure i wont need to mess with my chain run further than the couple of mm i already have for tyre clearance. should i ever chose to experiment with wider rear wheels it would allow me an easy platform to do so with but my main reason for chosing the the sv wheel always was better tyre choices foremost... then i wind up running knobblies and contradicting the reasoning. to be clear i have no interest in running massive rubber, its detrimental to the gs but then again a 180 knobbly would be mental. too much faff with offset sprockets i reckon and purely cosmetic.

really enjoying the gs again. zero f***s silly fighter scrambler build thing

[iamhiding]

turns out it was the weird stance and wheel colour not working with the build that i was hating on, not the black frame after all. it wasn't bad looking but that doesn't make it good looking by default, it just wasn't quite right. happy with how its looking, its an ongoing process but still miss it being 50 shades of silver though.

still plan on sandblasting the frame and powder coating it, possibly silver but cant decide. really is for the sake of preserving the steel frame for as long as possible and not so much about making it look clean. long term im still half planning on wedging a big single motor in or an inline 4. just for the sake of doing something a bit different, the whole journeys just been me messing around but yeah time will tell but on the other hand i love the gs motor's character and that its a no fuss aircooled twin that will no doubt outlive me. 

thus concluding a couple of hours of finally updating the build thread. glad to see people still using the forum and not everyone has fled to fb pages.

[ShowBizWolf]

This update made my day 

Love the comment about optimum painting conditions 

It's amazing how a zero f*cks given project thing can turn into, "I'm not really loving this" and "I'm not a fan of that" or "This is bothering me" ... I know because of going down that road too. I end up telling myself, "You're not supposed to give a f-- about this one !!" 

I've still got the modified SV shock on my bike with the stock bones. Never did get around to swapping to the stock shock with the raising links but it's still something I'd like to do in the future.

That rear sprocket is sick, I love it.

[iamhiding]

Cheers  yeah it's been long overdue.

The frost was so typical, I was like crap I've only got today to prep and paint so... ugh let's do it  absolutely not the way to do it buts needs must sometimes.

You're so right, it's so hard not to get carried away. I guess it depends on what aspect the attitude is applied to. I guess for me it's an ideology, a disregard for doing things "properly" and adhering to expectations. Everyone wants that nice shiny thing and chases perfection with the superficial elements that whilst I can appreciate, I get my kicks out of what I feel is taking taking the opposite approach in that it's expressive, artful, full of character, true to itself and gives no f***S of people shaking their heads or sneering but to counter that it's not for intent of shock value like bosozoku builds for example, more aloof in that who cares what people think but I guess a similar ethos albeit less direct. So it's not that I don't care how it looks it's that I don't subscribe to other people's ideals in terms of how it should look or be. Really do love the thing, have/had/built other bikes that are a little more conventional and 'pretty' in approach but the gs really has been a canvas to explore some that ethos and passively express a two finger salute in the process. It'd be difficult to both love something and have zero sympathy towards it, not give a damn if it's stolen, crashed or bursts into flames. Could probably write a dissertation so I'll stop right now 

Yeah haha thanks, bit of a stupid one adding so much weight for the sake of something cosmetic but I really love seeing the gs with a big sprocket and it's an experiment, it's perhaps overkill at 49t but just wanted to see how extreme I could go in size without custom parts. For the record you start to get chain rub on the bottom of the frame at this size.

Currently running 16/49 which is roughly the equivalent of 13/39, it's hilariously fun around town and nipping about backroads but the revs are too high for cruising. Going to go 17/49 which is similar to 14/39 or 15/44 which I've always found to be the optimum balance of acceleration, top speed and ability to cruise comfortably but with big sprocket looks, just need to see if I'll get away with chain clearance as it grazes the frame when slack and I've previously removed material from the sprocket cover. On the plus side big sprockets will last longer than wee ones

Think it's worth playing with the raising links just for the sake of experiencing the changes in feel, it's certainly a cheaper way to do it but with already having an sv shock you're pretty set. Could always drop 5mm on the dogbones to lift another inch with the Sv shock, you'll feel straight away if it's not right.

Definitely learnt some lessons with how swingarm angle and progressiveness of the suspension is effected when you stray too far into it.

Just can't wait for the last part of the alloy swingarm puzzle to arrive, was hoping to have fitted it by now.

[cbrfxr67]

What a spankin update!  Great pics!
award for that!

[Sporty]

Nice work, I admire the effort!

[iamhiding]

What a spankin update!  Great pics!
award for that!

Thanks man! Would've kept it updated as I went but tech issues. Got some tasty changes in the works, just waiting on deliveries.

alloy swinger,
Lighter weight front wheel, the straight spoke wheels are meant to be a good bit lighter than curvy spokes with the old Suzuki's.
Some rear subframe modification to clean the lines up, ie tucking the brake light in more,  relocating battery, shortening wiring loom, speedholes here and there to ditch some weight.
Brake light,  fazer6 or early r6 if it sits well as I've got one spare.
Vance and Hines style (think it's motad)  stainless manifold without the balancing pipe, the motad exhausts are junk but it's a better design of headers, possibly an under engine exhaust or an undertail if 1. My spare link pipe works and 2. It looks good. We'll see, I'll probably get bored and change my mind. Oh that and changing up my fuel setup to something a little more conventional again

Been toying with doing a budget cafe seat as they look quite good when done right but it just seems like every build at the moment is a budget cafe build. I'd hate it to become a "theme" bike too, that and I like the oem seat and bare subframe look. Think my plan is to stay true to what the build is and make the most of what's available to me but a distressed neo cafe fighter look would've been cool.

Have you had much more progress on your mental build? It's been a while but I remember the cbr600 engined one getting put in storage, was there a firebland gs too?

[iamhiding]

Nice work, I admire the effort!

Thanks man. All about that maximum... minimum effort 

[cbrfxr67]

"Have you had much more progress on your mental build? It's been a while but I remember the cbr600 engined one getting put in storage, was there a firebland gs too?"

Yea that was same bike.  I'm going to get back to it someday but it's in permastorage for now.  Having seamax's bike has kept me happy.  I do wish it was faster at times though

Can't wait to see more of your progress as your deliveries come in!

[iamhiding]

"Have you had much more progress on your mental build? It's been a while but I remember the cbr600 engined one getting put in storage, was there a firebland gs too?"

Yea that was same bike.  I'm going to get back to it someday but it's in permastorage for now.  Having seamax's bike has kept me happy.  I do wish it was faster at times though

Can't wait to see more of your progress as your deliveries come in!

so it was! i always get mixed up with yours and i wanna say sheps but its been a while but i know there was two. re-read your build thread since and im still itching to see it back on the road. with doing that swingarm swap currently and looking at chain alignment i can appreciate that the cbr engine mustve been seriously offset for chain run clearance. at one point i had a spare vfr750 v4  engine sitting, wish id looked at squeezing it in to see if it wouldve worked easily. in theory it should be an easer match than the inline 4 in that regard.