GS550E Project "Kafebiku"

[Guest]

Hello GS Forum,

I want to share with you my build. This is my first bike and my first bike build. I bought this bike down the street from my house and had to walk it home. It ran but was not in riding condition. I have always wanted to build my own Cafe style bike and this was a perfect candidate. It was rough, dirty and ugly when I started (see pics).

I tore it apart the next day and left everything sitting for two years while I worked on my track car (EVO). Recently I Finished my EVO project and jumped right into the GS build.

[Guest]

The finished head.

[Guest]

Before pictures

[Guest]

The crank case and all the covers are powder-coated wrinkle black.

[Guest]

[Guest]

[bonanzadave]

That is looking very nice. Anxious to see more progress......

[Sand_fiend]

Looking Great !

[steve murdoch]

Not usually a fan of the wrinkle finish but yours looks great.
The new hardware contrast works well with it.

[Guest]

Thank you.

[dorkburger]

Definitely some quality work. Looks great so far.
What kind of fairing is that?

[JEEPRUSTY]

absolutely lovely wrinkle finish. I tried my hand at a rattle can offering and had to strip and start again. There is a knack to doing it well and you did a perfect job.

What masking material is that? The green stuff I mean.

[Guest]

I have no idea what fairing it is. I was terrible in the way it was mounted and not my style. It threw it in the trash the first chance I got.

Definitely some quality work. Looks great so far.
What kind of fairing is that?

[Guest]

I jet washed the case and then had it go in the oven to burn off anything that was left. Then bead blasted it. After that I used the tape given to me by my local powder coating shop and I did all the masking. Masking alone took about 6 hours. It is some super high heat tape that leaves no residue. Not sure of brand or name but it's awesome. The actual coating was done by West Coast Powdercoating.

absolutely lovely wrinkle finish. I tried my hand at a rattle can offering and had to strip and start again. There is a knack to doing it well and you did a perfect job.

What masking material is that? The green stuff I mean.

[alke46]

Beautiful results. Anxious to see the finished project. Looks like a lot of love and time is going into this job. Way to go.