1983 GS850G Project

[dandypop]

Hey all, I'm super excited to join the GS community! This is my first bike, but not my first project. I build/create/restore all kinds of things, mechanical and otherwise. I spent 12 years working for a sculptor (foundry, apprentice, etc.) and have a lot of fabrication and hands on experience making cool things out of metal.

I was given (free) a decent 850G, with the only stipulation that I build a cafe racer out of it. From what I know of the bike, it ran when parked about five years ago, but seemed to only be hitting on three cylinders. The carbs were just rebuilt before I took possession of the bike, so hopefully I won't need to do too much there, but we'll see once it's back together. It had clubman bars on already, but most of the front half of the wiring was already disconnected and all the stock gauges and whatnot were removed. Bare bars. All the plastic had been removed already. I have the majority of the original stuff, like the seat/gauges/taillight assembly, in a box.

I don't mind the cafe racer stipulation, it looks like a super fun project and the end result will hopefully turn some heads here in this tiny town in central Utah.

I'm sure I'll have tons of questions that I hope you all will help me out with. Here's the starting point:

[steve murdoch]

Welcome to the site.
With that background you should fit in well here. There are a couple of other metal craftsman on site.

[oldGSfan]

Sounds like you have the skills but my unsolicited opinion is: It's a GS850G. It's no racer but a great bike. I'd find something else to customize, and put this one to 'standard'.... God I hate cafe conversions with the loop rear seat frame, brown seat and clipons etc. Just gag, cliche. Even the custom builders - it's way way passe' at this point.

They always want to run on 3 or fewer cylinders after a long rest, so get those carbs clean and check the electrics - voltage at the coils should be solid, you can do a relay mod which I've found to help by 1V or so. My go-to carb method is a bucket of Chemtool carb cleaner, but since i am in California it is weak sauce variety, so I put that metal bucket with each carb disassembled inside the bucket and then in a giant 13L ultrasonic cleaner that I got new for $80 a couple of years ago. It comes out like new. If you have the original pipes and air filter housing with well sealed intake rubbers/O-rings as applicable, you can be fairly sure to get it running well by checking the jet sizes and returning to stock, if it's not already correct.

Playing around with pods and pipes can come later if you want. I have owned and ridden dozens of these big GSs and the stock setup gives a great real-world throttle response and mid-range pull. And so many modified ones just run like garbage unless a skilled tuner has spent time on them. I haven't encountered one of those though.

[Baatfam]

I was given (free) a decent 850G, with the only stipulation that I build a cafe racer out of it.

And if you put it back to stock, do you have to give it back? How legally binding is this "stipulation?"

Anyway...get it running right before "chopping" anything off. You might find you like it stock.

Good luck!

[sacruickshank]

Anyway...get it running right before "chopping" anything off. You might find you like it stock.

100% agreed. My general advice to first-time bike rescuers is
First - Get the engine running reliably
Second - Make it safe. Brakes, tires, etc..
Last - Make it look cool.

Don't chop anything off the frame until the First and Second milestones are reached. An abandoned cafe racer project is almost worthless.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Ditto the sentiments above. IMO, a shaft-drive 850 is everything that a cafe racer isn’t, by any definition of cafe style that I’ve ever read. Can it be done? Sure. Does that make it right? The whole subject is, well, subjective. Your bike, do what you want. But don’t expect a lot of support here. I think we’d all like to see it running properly, though.

[rphillips]

Of course everyone has the right to their own opinion. My opinion, with the cafe stipulation, I'd probably have told him thanks but no thanks... Still wishing you luck with your new project.