1981 GS450E Rebuild

Have you seen the new Husky Nuda road bike? That thing looks wicked...

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

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

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

[pete]

So good to hear Pete, you deserve it!

Cheers mate, I'm lovin' every minute of it! Really need to get out for a longer ride with some good weather though, need to make some time to get a really good run on her.

Have you lubed the other end of the tach? Certainly could be the cable, but I think brwinger page has instructions for cleaning the part the cable responds to in the engine. Had the same problem with the GR last fall. Didn't have to pull that part, but do remember researching it.

Got lucky with the GR speedometer...can tear it all the way down without prying or cutting anything. Of course I did break the speedometer needle..but got it glued back together.

Good luck with the cables.

The drive for the tacho. is off the exhaust camshaft, so I *hope* it's certainly getting plenty of lube! I replaced the seals and bushing on the tacho drive during the engine rebuild so that end should be ok.

The tacho cable is the same one that was on there when I bought the bike back in about 97/98 so it might even still be the original...

Have you lubed the other end of the tach? Certainly could be the cable, but I think brwinger page has instructions for cleaning the part the cable responds to in the engine. Had the same problem with the GR last fall. Didn't have to pull that part, but do remember researching it.

Got lucky with the GR speedometer...can tear it all the way down without prying or cutting anything. Of course I did break the speedometer needle..but got it glued back together.

Good luck with the cables.

So good to hear Pete, you deserve it!

[pete]

I grinned at the first line, Pete.
I got out today on a Husky motard. That was an eyebrow raiser.

I'm still grinning

Got half way to Dayboro today and said out loud in my helmet "this is the s&*t"... oh yeah

A Husky motard hey? Have you pulled your eyebrows off the back of your head yet? Have you seen the new Husky Nuda road bike? That thing looks wicked...

I grinned at the first line, Pete.
I got out today on a Husky motard. That was an eyebrow raiser.

[pete]

Got out for a short ride up to Dayboro and back today, that was nice except for the showers on the supposedly "mostly sunny" day... oh well, at least I got out for a ride

The speedo seems a lot calmer now and doesn't seem to stick any more but has an occassional bounce, but the tacho is pretty much useless, bounces all over the shop. I still reckon the speedo's about 10% less than the speed I'm actually doing because of the larger tyre though, and knocking 10% off the speed did seem to bring me in line with most of the traffic I came across, so I'll stick with that until I can confirm for sure (without using a speed camera for reference ).

New cables in the new year will be the way forward to fix the bouncing I think.

Anyway, tonight I cut the knee pad shapes out of the neoprene sheet and started working on the design I'll attempt to carve out of them.

I'm going to use just the "GS" out of the GS Resources logo on the GS Goodies page. I don't think I'll be able to pull off the whole logo, so I'm just doing the "GS" bit.

Mock up on the cardboard template with the letters cut out:



Marked and cut out the two pads:



The shape and size should be right:



And made a template for the GS letters as the start of the design work:



I'm also thinking some of putting some horizontal lines through the surrounding areas along the lines of what's in the attached photo of a Triumph knee pad.

[pete]

Pete,
I think you should be OK now. This is just about a definite must do on a 30 year old bike and the same goes for the the left and right handlebar switches.
Have you ridden at night yet? I was just wondering how you find the LED conversion on the road.

Well just got back from a short 20km ride, just waiting for the Mrs now as I'm doing the taxi thing to a hair appointment today...

The speedo is still a little bouncy but doesn't seem to stick as such, but the tacho is still reasonably bouncy. I think new cables might be the go, especially for the tacho. I replaced the speedo cable not long after I got it when it stopped working (didn't know I could lube them back then) so it's in better condition than the tacho one but I think they both could just be replaced.

I haven't gotten out at night yet unfortunately but all the idiot lights are easily visible during the daylight hours which was my first concern.

I do need to get a night ride in soon to check the headlight focus and night visibility of the gauges as well.

I also tried the iPhone speedometer app today (Speed Box Free 4.7) and it seems to be reasonably accurate going by the time in the car with the known speedometer, but it tends to read pessimisticly which means I wouldn't rely on it solely given you'll occassionally be doing probably 5kmh over the limit at times. It seems once you're keeping constant speed for a while it's ok, but stop start it's almost useless.

I put it in the tank bag for the short run today and glanced down at it occassionally and I think with the 100/90-18 tyre on the front I'm now going about 10% quicker than the speedo says

I might have to look into an alternative speedometer next year. Not sure I really want to replace the whole gauge cluster though as even though it's a tad ugly it's all easy to read and right there... in the meantime I'll just compensate and drop 10% off the speed where necessary.

I also rode the last couple of km's back behind an awesome 3 wheeler. It looked like an old Morgan with the fish tail pipes up each side and sounded great but when I pulled up beside him he said it was home made but I didn't quite catch the rest of what he said as the lights went green. Sure was quite an impressive piece of work with all the perfectly curved body work which was shiny metal, no idea if it's alu. or what though. I turned off before him so didn't get to catch up with him again.

Pete,
I think you should be OK now. This is just about a definite must do on a 30 year old bike and the same goes for the the left and right handlebar switches.
Have you ridden at night yet? I was just wondering how you find the LED conversion on the road.

[pete]

So I think my issue may have been at least partly due to drilling those drain holes during the LED conversion. Heaps of orange plastic shavings around the speedo in particular:



Everything got a clean with either degreaser or lighter fluid and the drill test worked. Fingers crossed they're fixed as the drill test is not exactly conclusive...



Also, the guy sending my pilot jet had his order paperwork moved on him so no orders got sent until yesterday and I won't have it until Monday which is a bit of a bugger. I was hoping to get time this weekend to have a fiddle with the mixture screw. Oh well...

I also got the registration papers and sticker in the mail yesterday so that went on as well.

[pete]

Hahahahaha nah I'm happy knowing how many km's she's *really* done... not gonna help resale value any (not that I intend selling of course)

I dunno, looks like the odometer is reading a little high... now would be a great time to take care of that.
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Kidding!!!
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(Sorta)

[pete]

So the trip reset knob is threaded onto the shaft... sheeesh...



Didn't get much time at all tonight, just enough to work that out.

Hopefully I'll get in there again tomorrow night as I need to clean and lube them and reassemble them yet.

The orange bits are from drilling those extra drain holes during the LED conversion:



Didn't get the #20 pilot jet today either, would really like to get a chance to fiddle with the mixture screws again on the weekend but if the jet doesn't arrive there's not much chance...

Also, a mate at work brought in his brand new tank bag he doesn't have a use for, so figured out it will hold my work laptop and the tank so I'll buy it off him. It's brand new to boot!



That also means I can give the iPhone speedo app a go once I get the speedo and tacho back on the bike.

[pete]

Put a punch or a nail in it, grasp the knob and tap the 'pin' with a hammer.

very gently at first...

I like how you think Dale, you always seem to come up with a real good suggestion that always seems to work, so I'll definitely be giving this a go tonight

If that hole is indeed all the way down to a metal splined post as seems to be the case in the other thread, then that should be a perfect technique for it...