My GS400 chop

[atchbo]

This is a bit of a cross-post from the technical page, where I've been asking some questions as well. Here's a picture of my bike, recently made ready for the road.

Here's a bit of the cosmetic run-down: the tank is painted, the rear end was cut off and re-shaped, chrome rear fender with limp-d!ck tail light (and LED license plate lights, because you need them to get past inspection here), removed springs from rear shocks and shortened them (hard-tail), hand-made seat pan (gate hinge pivot), and dual cone filters with crankcase breather plumbed in. I also removed the side covers and some of the mounting brackets.

Soon it will likely have 12" mini apes and fishtail exhausts... I'll post if/when I get that done.

It's not the most powerful bike but it's fast enough for me. After all, I'm used to driving diesels. And if I get too much speed going, my wee little skid lid wants to take off like a kite.

Hope somebody out there likes the aesthetic. Oh, I know the hardtail is not ideal this way... some day I may go ahead and get a proper weld-on kit, but this will have to do for a short season up in Canada this year.

[nate4d]

i hard tailed my gs400 as well. i noticed u dont have side covers, whatd u do with all the electrical bull**** on the airbox, i have pods also but i left the airbox for now cuz off all the electrical shiz. also i found a universal hardtail kit for pretty cheap from tcbroschopper.com because i havent found a driect weld on kit for the gs400. i dont have seat springs right now so im pretty much riding on tire, do the springs help that much? my back hurts.

[atchbo]

Ha! Your spine must be mush. The springs are helpful. I thought they would be too stiff when I bought them and wouldn't help much, but they take some of the vibration out and absorb a bit of the 'kick in the pants' from potholes. I would recommend it, but as you can see, the seat ends up being a bit high.

For the aesthetic to work out, I think you need the proper hardtail so the rails go down toward the back, giving the springs just the right amount of height to keep the seat level. I had to raise the front of my seat, and now it sits high. I'll fill in that space with a tool bag sooner or later.

As for the electrics, I bent up a piece of sheet metal about 18" x 4" into a box about 4" x 4" x 2" (just big enough to fit between the rails under the seat), and a flat piece on top that extended over the rails so I had somewhere to attach the box. Then I used pop rivets to attach the sides to the frame (drilled wee little holes). Then rattle can primer & flat black and it's done. I managed to get the R/R and turn signal relay in the box, and had to weld on another little tab on the left side frame near the sprocket for the starter solenoid because the wires wouldn't reach to the new box (and I'm too lazy to find 4 ga wire to change it).

If you look close, I had to use some wierd hose and a chunk of exhaust mender to create an intake for the carbs (between the cone filters and the carbs). This let the cones move back behind the vertical rail, otherwise they interfered, and I'm pretty sure that cones directly mounted on CV carbs are what was giving everyone trouble. I'm still a bit lean though.