77 GS400 to Cafe Project

[Sci85]

That's a real nice looking build. I like the twins. So easy to work on. That bike would look really nice with a set of spoked wheels if you had them.

Sci85

Unfortunately, between work, Christmas and life, its been 6 weeks since I have been able to do some work on the project. Recent deals on ebay on Progressive fork springs and a rather nice pair of shocks were waiting installation. Thanks to a tool looking like a miniature pick-axe in my father in laws too box, removing the old seals was only a 5 minute thing. Rubbing the paint and anodizing of the fork legs took somewhat longer (4 hours each) but the results look great. New seal and wipers and smoothing a few pits off the fork tubes and progress was made.




Next up, empowered by the Dremmel that Santa brought me was cutting the seat/tail unit to accept the Ducat 916 lookalike LED tail/break/turn lights...... I know this is not the purest cafe rear Lucas type light, but I wanted to keep the race tail look without hanging a big red lump off the end.





With one of the rear Progressive's in place and 5mm taller eye-to-eye than the stock units, Im startinbg to feel like Im getting somewhere again.



Next thing will be to fabricate a new battery tray to hold a gell cell battery. Bet you cant guess where it will get installed !

Mark

[pete]

Mate that should look good!

And yeah, the minute I had a rolling frame I could wheel around the garage it felt a whole lot better than just a pile of parts...

This weekend I put the motor back in the frame and fitted the Raask's and the exhaust arrangement to determine what cutting and grinding was needed to hang the pipes. Overall Im happy with the look thats emerging.





..and a view care of MS Paint, if I was to go Laverda Orange on the project



If anyone is at the stage in their project where it does not feel like you are making any progress, putting a few things together like this gives a little inspiration to get rolling again.

mark

[pete]

Pete, you have hit the nail on the head with that question. Quite frankly, they are a little disappointing. The pegs and levers are OK but the linkages seam sloppy and poor quality fasteners supplied to hold things together. A little booklet supplied with them by the US importer implied that I would need to do the final adjustments, filing holes to fit and buy some bolts myself ! As I said the large boomerang shaped brackets to hang the things onto the frame are ugly but very 70's looking and have saved me many hours and $ to fabricate them myself. However, I can see myself fitting some generic Tarozzi pegs to the Raask brackets later on

Mark

Aah ok, yeah that's similar to other feedback I've heard along the way which is quite disappointing really.

When I was initially going to cafe mine I looked into them and while the price was good, the feedback was making me wonder if it was worth it or not.

Hopefully they'll do what you need them to and you can just neaten them up a little with the pegs etc.

How's the quality of the Raask sets? I've heard mixed reports...

Pete, you have hit the nail on the head with that question. Quite frankly, they are a little disappointing. The pegs and levers are OK but the linkages seam sloppy and poor quality fasteners supplied to hold things together. A little booklet supplied with them by the US importer implied that I would need to do the final adjustments, filing holes to fit and buy some bolts myself ! As I said the large boomerang shaped brackets to hang the things onto the frame are ugly but very 70's looking and have saved me many hours and $ to fabricate them myself. However, I can see myself fitting some generic Tarozzi pegs to the Raask brackets later on

Mark

[pete]

So far I have been concentrating on the motor, but for a break I trial fitted a few of the larger pieces I have been accumulating for the project. Thanks to Pete for a heads up on his GS450 wheel sizes I was able to find some very modestly priced 450 cast wheels in great shape from ebay. Also I wanted to fit the Raask rearsets as they looked wrong in the box, but fitted just fine. The controls are great but the brackets are a far cry from the lightweight items on todays sports bike…..very 1970’s looking !

Anyway for those that like picture see below


..and the Raask pieces




Mark

That should be a nice shape once you're done. How's the quality of the Raask sets? I've heard mixed reports...

So far I have been concentrating on the motor, but for a break I trial fitted a few of the larger pieces I have been accumulating for the project. Thanks to Pete for a heads up on his GS450 wheel sizes I was able to find some very modestly priced 450 cast wheels in great shape from ebay. Also I wanted to fit the Raask rearsets as they looked wrong in the box, but fitted just fine. The controls are great but the brackets are a far cry from the lightweight items on todays sports bike…..very 1970’s looking !

Anyway for those that like picture see below


..and the Raask pieces




Mark

[pete]

Definitely starting to take shape, and I'm definitely seeing the Laverda influence there too...

So over the weekend I did a little daydreaming and laid a few parts on the frame and took a break from sanding and polishing engine cases. The tank is half done for the leg indents of both sides. Next is building out the front to make it more square and Laverda looking.


One thing that I liked about styling based on a Laverda, was finding somewhere to put the tail light and license plate was obvious. With the bubble or rounded tails, lights and number plates can be an after-thought and can spoil the looks. For mine while its not true Café, I decided to use a Ducati 916 light to be “frenched” into the back of the tail. Its LED with integrated turn signals which at $30 shipped from a man in China was too good to pass on.


The adjustable Laverda or Jota bars were not a bargain, but look good and will help with riding position and steering stop....keep telling yourself that Mark!


Ahh well, back to rubbing cast aluminum with wet and dry….

Mark

[pete]

Engine and tank are looking good! I wouldn't be game to do anything like that on a tank because I'd ruin it for sure... was hard enough for me just to bend my fork brace reasonably straight...

I just masked off my compliance plate when I painted mine, but I just roughed the existing paint up, sprayed some metal ready over it to give the POR 15 Blackcote some purchase and brushed it on... didn't get it acid dipped or sand blasted or anything like that...

OK its time for a small update. Progress is slow but I only get one day per week to work on it.

I have cleaned up the engine side covers taking two layers of silver paint off, then the anodizing layer, then corrosion and finally down to aluminum. All by hand using wet and dry sandpaper but the result before any polishing is good.



To get the shape of the Laverda tank, I found a GS550 tank on ebay that was dent free and have begun the reshaping process with a body hammer. Its been a long while since I have done anything like this but happy so far
Before…..


After….




Now a question. When you have done a restoration, what did you do with the original VIN label – Peel it off, paint around it or find another way to put a VIN number visible?


Mark

Dont hold your breath.......this is a longer term project

Mark

Mine is longer term,got a Skunk to do first.After that I might do this,if I find a engine.

Nice project!

These old twins are a great platform for modification (cafe!)

I'm in .