1981 GS450E Rebuild

[rustybronco]

Good point on the dirt though... scratching the paint wouldn't be nice at all...

Why not? think of all the practice you'll get towards refinishing and body work.

[pete]

Pete, if that fails, let me know.
The rack won't be going back on the 750.
It's heavy and solid. I had the back of the bike slung in the air from it.

It clamps onto the frame rails rather than being welded.
It might be a little different for the 450, I don't know.
Worth a shot though..

Will do, cheers Leigh.

Although I really want it to work as I was quite taken with how the optional sports rack is so neatly integrated by just replacing the grab rail. I really like how it doesn't need to attach to the shock bolts or frame rails or anything like that...

Aside from coping with my crap welding, I think the hardest thing for me is going to be clamping at the right angle so it sits flat when mounted.

A while off tackling that one though...

Pete - Good velcro will hold... I've used this at high motorway speeds & nothing vibrates more than a thumper.

My bigger concern is that the velcro will "hold it off" a bit & allow dirt behind it which will then chafe your paint...

Thanks Dan, that's good to know!

Good point on the dirt though... scratching the paint wouldn't be nice at all...

[salty_monk]

Pete - Good velcro will hold... I've used this at high motorway speeds & nothing vibrates more than a thumper.

My bigger concern is that the velcro will "hold it off" a bit & allow dirt behind it which will then chafe your paint...

Pete, if that fails, let me know.
The rack won't be going back on the 750.
It's heavy and solid. I had the back of the bike slung in the air from it.

It clamps onto the frame rails rather than being welded.
It might be a little different for the 450, I don't know.
Worth a shot though..

[pete]

I scored about 20 minutes today to get her warmed up and fiddle with the mixture screws and see how my adjusted gear shift and chain felt.

Everything seems pretty good now

I still had my idle wound up too much from the other day so given she was a bit leaner, running around the neighbourhood had her resisting dropping to idle nice and quick as she should.

Got home, reset the idle, did the highest RPM method, and seemed much better.

Definitely not as boggy off a closed throttle, but not quite sure if that's actually solved or not, need some more time in the saddle to work that out.

I've really gotta find some time to go and find somewhere away from traffic to do some plug chops. While I don't think she's going to be so lean as to hole pistons, I'd really rather be sure based on fact rather than theory...

And tonight I got back into the garage for a short while to have another fiddle with the knee pads.

Drew up my design idea on the white board so I'd have something to go off:



Got some templates cut out of paper, and I ended up cutting the centre out of the rectangular piece so I could position it correctly over the "GS":



Traced it out onto the right hand knee pad:



And looks like the design should work and the position of the design on the knee pad should be good too:



So now I need to work out some horizontal grooves and then figure out the best way to carve it all out.

Ideally I'd like the area around the "GS" where I'm going to carve the horizontal lines to be lower than the rest, so that means taking probably a mm or so off that whole area and then carving the lines. Or it may be easier to carve the lines and then cut down the peaks that are left between the lines... time to suck it and see I guess.

Anyway, I also forgot to mention that my house mate brought home the carry rack off the old YB100 on the weekend so I could see if I can make it work on the GS.



My thoughts were if I can't source the optional genuine sports rack then I could get another grab rail off eBay or something and weld some generic rack on there to emulate how the genuine sports rack mounts on the tail piece.

The width of the rack shows it's a good candidate for this treatment:



I should be able to cut the bars around where the masking tape is and spread the lower bars to weld onto the grab rail:



I think it'll work well providing I can successfully weld it, which will be the most difficult part given my crap welding so far.

Have to wait for the new year before trying to track down a grab rail and starting on that though.

[pete]

Hahaha,, Told ya.


Pete, Pete, Pete (cue sad head shaking) just who are you trying to convince?
You are amongst friends here, we all share your addiction.
Do not be ashamed or try to tell us that you'll maybe ride once or twice.
There is nothing you can do for it but ride, ride and ride again

Peter Egan: "Motorcycle racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty."

Hahahahaaha yeah yeah yeah

I would love to commute every day on the bike... but it ain't gonna happen, at least not at the present time... someone close would object as she's looking forward to changing jobs and catching the train with me again... and I can guarantee she won't commute on the back... I'm still hopeful I can get her on the back at some point to experience the ride, but not sure how soon or if that will happen yet... if the bug bites... well... things will get so much better

I will definitely do it as much as possible though

see I knew you'd wind up commuting, catching the Train Vs Riding. it just dosnt compare...

Chers John

Hahaha,, Told ya.

I'll do some more, just not every day... although may do it again on Thursday if the weather holds out...

Pete, Pete, Pete (cue sad head shaking) just who are you trying to convince?
You are amongst friends here, we all share your addiction.
Do not be ashamed or try to tell us that you'll maybe ride once or twice.
There is nothing you can do for it but ride, ride and ride again

Peter Egan: "Motorcycle racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty."

[pete]

the velcro strips would stick to the tank but you could still remove the pads easily to reshape or redesign and still use the existing velcro on the tank to refit them again. you can buy self adhesive velcro which is possible to peel off with no damage if done very carefully

Yeah very true... I could even do different designs and play mix and match... haha

I've always been a tad wary of velcro for something like this subject to vibration etc. though... hate to get the design perfect only to have one fly off during a ride at 100kph...

what about initailly putting them on with some small spots of not so good glue. say hot melt or PVA, this should'nt damage the paint. Once your happy Ive got some cold laminating sheet (double side glued sheet ) that grabs like the proverbial, is water proof and will never come off.

Agemax is right about the chain, expect to do it again in 200k or so, it will settle down.

see I knew you'd wind up commuting, catching the Train Vs Riding. it just dosnt compare...

Chers John

That could be the trick too John, I was just going to blu-tack for the initial bit to make sure the shape, size, and design were spot on then attach them somehow, so that cold laminating sheet could be a good option too...

I'm happy the chain situation is expected, I was a bit worried at first, but I'll just keep an eye on it. I think I broached 300km's in total since the rebuild yesterday

As for commuting... that was just the one day so far to satisfy the guys' at work's curiousity to see her all done

I'll do some more, just not every day... although may do it again on Thursday if the weather holds out...

what about initailly putting them on with some small spots of not so good glue. say hot melt or PVA, this should'nt damage the paint. Once your happy Ive got some cold laminating sheet (double side glued sheet ) that grabs like the proverbial, is water proof and will never come off.

Agemax is right about the chain, expect to do it again in 200k or so, it will settle down.

see I knew you'd wind up commuting, catching the Train Vs Riding. it just dosnt compare...

Chers John

[Agemax]

the velcro strips would stick to the tank but you could still remove the pads easily to reshape or redesign and still use the existing velcro on the tank to refit them again. you can buy self adhesive velcro which is possible to peel off with no damage if done very carefully

[pete]

Pete, just a thought about the knee pads.....dont use double sided tape or you will never remove them without ripping the paint off! have you thought about VELCRO instead? will hold them on tight but easy to remove if needed.

P.S. new chains to stretch in the initial few miles but then settle down to normal wear rate

Yeah that's what I'm worried about... stuffing them up, not being happy, taking them off, and ruining the paint... velcro could be the way forward, but the velcro still needs to get stuck to it somehow right? I think if I used good enough tape there'd be a way of safely removing it... but I may be wrong.

And thanks for the tip on the chain, only done a few hundred km's so if that's the case then that makes perfect sense and it should be good now.

[Agemax]

Pete, just a thought about the knee pads.....dont use double sided tape or you will never remove them without ripping the paint off! have you thought about VELCRO instead? will hold them on tight but easy to remove if needed.

P.S. new chains to stretch in the initial few miles but then settle down to normal wear rate

[pete]

Rode in to work today and took a lunch time ride with one of the guys up to Mt Coottha which was nice, haven't been up there for years. Sign posted 50kmh and narrow and twisty so it's a nice road to get used to curves on again for me so I really enjoyed that.

Anyway, my work mate noticed my chain looked a little loose while he was following me and when I checked he was right. Not sure if I messed up the adjustment initially or if it's just wearing in (never had a brand new chain before), but I fixed that up tonight.

Last couple of rides I've also had the occasional issue getting back to 1st at stops and sometimes down from 3rd to 2nd as well, so I've adjusted the shift lever up a small amount as it feels like I'm just not engaging them quite right. See how that goes next time.

I also received my #20 pilot jet for the left carb today, so I put that in tonight as well and set the mixture screw two turns out again.

Not sure when I'll get to fire her up again and try the highest RPM method again but it'll be interesting to see if the mismatched pilot jet sizes sorts that out.

[pete]

Ahh. Wasn't sure how the 450 setup worked.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

Mate all good, glad to hear other thoughts on the matter because I often overlook things

Oh, Pete, I don't need that bike. I need my license.
I don't think I could keep both at once.

Hahahaha no I don't think you could either... or me... it just begs to be ridden hard doesn't it? I wanna see Boris review it...

Knee pads looking good Pete, how are you going to attach them?

Thanks mate! Thinking some good quality double sided tape should do the trick, which is why I really want to get them right before putting them on. Don't want them just "ok" and end up taking them off again...

[ged]

Knee pads looking good Pete, how are you going to attach them?