GS 450 build

[ottawa rogue]

I've started on the rebuild of my 450E, and i'll use this thread to document the long process.
Here's what I started with.

[ottawa rogue]

the first thing I did was pull out the old battery and remove the fairing.
I never did like the look on this bike. then I removed the fuel tank breaking the hose nipple off of the petcock in the process.
I then proceeded to have sticker shock over the cost of a replacement....looks like I might be going to a manual petcock.

I have some wiring repair to do up front, I found a couple of scotchlocks in the front harness. whoever invented those should be forced to rappel down a cliff using 14ga. wire that is held together with scotchlocks.

here's what it looks like without the fairing

[ottawa rogue]

and looks like I'm going to need to replace the master cylinder reservoir, which means that I might as well just replace the whole master cylinder.
this sucker is getting expensive for a free bike

[Big Rich]

Sign me up.

[ottawa rogue]

as far as paint color goes, i'm thinking something like this

[ottawa rogue]

when I took the fairing off I found out it was cracked all the way through, so even if I wanted to keep it I can't.
Looks like I'm going to need headlight brackets and a new headlight assembly. I toyed with the idea of using the rectangular light assy. out of the fairing and I kinda like the way it looks. I may still go with the round type that everybody uses.
here's a photo of it mocked up with the rectangular light

[skreemer]

For a 1 to 1 replacement of the headlight bucket I bought one of these:

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-racer-caferacer-bobber-brat-chopper-customer-motorcycle-lighting-parts-7-inch-chrome-black-headlight-bucket-6630-26.html

The bucket itself is metal instead of plastic (mine was destroyed), I was able to just plug it right in, and there was plenty of room for the rest of the wiring.

Question for everyone watching this. I have a 1981 GS450 and I want to "convert" from tube to bead tires. I know there is something that needs to be done to the wheel, I think specifically widening or making a "shoulder" for the valve stem. Has anyone done this and could they give me what they did/the measurements. I've seen where people mention they've done it, I have no idea what they did.

[ottawa rogue]

+do you have spoke or aluminum rims like mine? I think the aluminum rims are already set up to be tubeless. the tires I have on this bike are marked tubeless and I don't think there's tubes in them
you might get a better answer than that if you post your question in the tire/suspension section, that's probably the best answer I'd have for ya

[skreemer]

I have the aluminum rims like yours, I could have sworn that something needed to be widened... If not, I'm off to buy me some Pirelli sport demons.

[Guest]

On the tubeless tire question, I used a stem from a Kawasaki dealer. This was for a '78 1000E and didn't require modifying the rim in any way. I also sprayed the inside of the rim with clear epoxy, to be sure the supposed porosity of the older wheel wasn't a problem.
For the crack in the fairing, have you tried using acetone. It works very well on some of the plastic used back in the day. Ray

[ottawa rogue]

I'm going to hang on to it and play around with fixing it. the crack is about 15 inches long, and runs from top to bottom right through the headlight bucket mounting hole on the right side.
the mounting bracket was bent a little too. I have a feeling the bike was dropped on that side sometime in it's life