1981 GS450 resto-mod fighter/cafe/whatever...

[Billy T.]

All of this is cut and paste from a thread I had started on another board. I brought this bike home on June 6, and all of this gets the build caught up to where I am at today. Was originally going to build and flip this bike, but the more I got into it, the more I liked it, so I am prolly gonna hang on to it for a bit and have some fun with it....




Plans are 16/16 spokes with Shinko 240s, VM32s, prolly some reverse cones on the stock headers... not much cutting on this one. Just low low low. Stock tank, bare metal... tracker type seat.

I got this bike for free, not trying to put a ton of money into it cause I need to make some cash so I can get going on the Buell chop.

Updates as they come. Should be a pretty quick build...


Tank is stripped...





Dual lights are on too. Thinking I am gonna run the stock speedo centered, and mount the tach down low on the frame.

Going to get on the seat tomorrow...

Oh yeah, the front wheel is just on there for sitting. Pulled the 19 off to clean it up, once the 18 is in, they will both get refinshed and go back on. Thinking about gold/machined for the wheels, instead of the black/machined they are now.

Seat ready for upholstery...



Pan...



Going to be brown diamond tuck with contrast stitching. Dropping it off tomorrow.

Lots done today...

Picked up the seat from the upholstery shop...



Perfect.

Bent up my electrics tray...



Snapped in...



Loaded up...



Profile...

[Billy T.]

Then got the gauges sorted...

Tach on the down frame....



Modifying speedo mount to put speedo in the middle...





And how she sits of of right now...



At this rate, I will have this thing on the road early next week. Wife is out of town this weekend so I might even get it around the block once or twice, but I'll have to steal some parts of the honda to make that happen. But if if I don't get it running, I will get a lot done this weekend... Just grabbed the 18" off the porch, so getting the wheels cleaned up is next



Straight bolt-on.

Stoked.

93 GSXR 750 front end. Still not sold on the clip-ons. Gotta put a wheel on it and see how the riding position feels. Super stoked. Been wanting to run these things for a long time, and this bike is perfect for it.

At this point, I decided to ditch the snowflakes and run HD Fatboy wheels front and rear. Nothing bolt on about this...

Doin it...



Spent some time with the bearings pulled and a tape measure. It won't be as bad as I had originally though. Still gonna take a little time on the CNC mill though, but not much. Stock FB rotors will work on both sides too. They are a little small, but 80-90% of the brake surface will be on the pad. Gonna be way better brakes than I have now


Might end up with a smaller tire too, but I have always had thing for the Exile bikes, so I may roll it. Just put the same size on the back. MT9016 and 4.60-16 right now. So it'll either be 4.60 frpont ans rear or mt90 front and rear.

For me, it's more about the industrial look of it than anything else. I am all about the brushed raw silver.





So this is pretty much it. Just waiting on the CNC guy to get the wheels done.

Running 120/80s on the 16x3 Fatboy wheels. Going to the machine shop today to hopefully make some progress on the front wheel. The wheel will go on no problem, but I have to get the brake rotor mounting surface milled down so that the rotors line up with the calipers. Need to take .4375" off each side to make it work. The rear will be a little more involved as I will need to get a 41t sprocket made, mill the mounting surface, the convert the rear brake to disc. It will be worth it in the end, though.

[Billy T.]

The bike didn't come with any carbs. The round slides on my Honda are great for what the are, but they just aren't as smooth as a set of stock carbs. Found a pair of GS500f carbs for about 110 shipped, so I rolled the dice on them. Hoping that the jetting will be pretty close for the pods and 2-1 exhaust. They have 130 mains which should be almost spot on, but they run a mid main jet and a way smaller pilot. That will be the mystery spot... I'm just going off the assumption that a 42hp stock 450 with pods and 2-1 might make around 47hp, which is what the 500 is stock. Might not be prefect from the start, but it should be close enough to get me on the road. Will post up results as soon as they are on...

[PoppaDre]

Wow! That is a nice looking bike, i love that seat. What did you do for a rear fender?

[scaylabs]

Awesome, I'm loving it! I think it's going to look great with the Fatboy wheels. I like the silver/brown combination, that's what I'm doing with mine as well.

Keep us posted!

[mike-s]

The only concern i would have is clearance from the rear tire to the guard, that's what, an inch and a half clearance? what's the stroke like on the suspension your using? is it a lot firmer (i.e. for a lot heavier bike?)

Looks pretty neat otherwise.

[spyug]

Dang, this is looking tuff! I love the look of the Exile Cycles bikes and I see you're heading in that direction. The industrial strength bike appeals to me too. This should turnout to be a head turner my friend. I'll be watching closely.

Good luck.......and hurry up......we hate being kept in suspense!

Cheers,
Spyug

[Hoosier Daddy]

Just found this thread while I was at lunch at work thanks to the linky on the Custom page... SUBSCRIBED!

[Billy T.]

The rear fender is the stock front fender. That whole section in the rear is still just mocked up. Waiting on getting a 1" die for the bender so I can make a real hoop for the rear. Here are a couple of better shots of how it is mounted right now.



The hoop on there now is made out of some old bars I had in the garage, just cut and welded the sections together to make it fit.

The rear suspension is going to be pretty firm. I wouldn't guess more than about 1.5" of travel. My Honda is this way, and it is stiff for sure, but tolerable. You become aware of imperfections in the road for sure, but it kind of makes you stay on your toes when you ride(literally, some times), so that's not a bad thing at all.

Here is a pic of my Honda, btw:

This was a CM400 to start, but finished as a few different models Way fun bike to build and ride, but I needed to get something new going, thus the GS...

[Billy T.]

headlight mock up...



There will be two of these. The ones on there now, just like the one picutred, are super cheap. But I wanted to check the light output of the mr16 bulbs before I spent the coin on a nice pair. They are wired so that one is low beam and one is high beam.

Just founds these from Trail Tech while i was looking at their speedos...



About 60 bucks each, but should work perfectly to replace the cheap set I have.

The goes here was to make the lights as hidden as possible. So from the profile, you don't see them at all.

[Starboard M]

I love the look you gone for. Those GSX forks look awesome. Any more info on this, or was it literally just a bolt on affair?



Is that the stock rear ride height? How did you limit the uptravel since it looks like you have more shock shaft showing than clearance between the tire and fender.


Where did you hide all the wiring that went in the headlight bucket? And how crummy is the light output on those lights?




Again, I love the look, and am really debating if I should go this route, or a more conventional cafe look.

[Billy T.]

93 GSXR 750 forks literally bolted on in 10 minutes. I knew the bearings were the same size, but was surprised that the stem length was spot on. No mods at all.

Some of the pics have the stock shocks and some don't. Stock shocks are 12.5 eye to eye and I am looking to get somewhere in the range of 10.5-11.5. It really depends on how the new rear tire sits in relation to the fender. The tires are 23.5" tall, which is a little shorter than the 4.60-16 that is in the pics. Oh yeah, the pics with the stock shocks, that is a 110/90/18 just to roll the bike around with.

All the wiring is tucked under the tank. Fits down there pretty easily. It really wouldn't be all that much if I had a set of taller bars.

Lights are actually pretty good. These bulbs are 55w 12 degrees spots. No complaints from my vantage point 'cept the really cheap housings.

[Guest]

Mate it looks great! While I'm not a huge fan of this style from the view point that I wouldn't want one myself, I can definitely appreciate the effort and quality that goes into them, so I'm definitely tagging along for the build and it looks good so far

Keen to see how those Fatboy wheels look when they come back...

[midnightcafe]

subscibed. so much awesome going on here

[Billy T.]

Exhaust came in today... BUT, my fork tubes are out, so the center stand is up so I can't put the thing on

But, I went ahead and brushed out the chrome so it would go with the rest of my "theme" The front section is a Mac, and the canister is from one of those Joyner UTV buggy things... Slips right onto the Mac like it was meant to be



I built the exhaust on the Honda, but it's so hot here now I just wasn't down to spend the time. Plus, for what I have into this exhaust, it almost would have cost me the same to build it, not including my time. I am thinking about making the can turn up, which won't take too much time, just need to get a little bit of stainless. Gonna wait till I fit it as is and see how it looks.

And yeah, this is the one that was on ebay last week. Sniped it at the last second