The 'joy' of owning a one year bike. Ressurecting an 85 Gs700es.

[Guest]

So i sniped a deal on craigslist and got an 85 GS700es for $450. I even got a set of Lockhart Full fairings! Totally stoked. Those alone might be worth half what i paid for the dern thing. Moving on... the front end had a very bad knock. Pulled the forks apart. Missing tons of parts. A total wreck. What's worse, the front wheel is warped like crazy. I'm looking at a truckload of money to return this thing to OEM spec. Bummer.

Back at the funny farm i had a blown up 1983 Honda VF750c Magna laying around. It just so happens that the front fork diameter was the same. And the same fork to fork distance, or so i thought. For any of you who might also need to reference fork data, i use http://www.caferace.com/forktubesizes.pdf

I did the transplant and realized my axle had about an 1/4" of slack in it. Yikes. I had to fabricate some basic spacers and patiently install, measure, note, disassemble, shave the spacer, try again. Eventually getting success.

So this particular GS now sits 1.5" higher than stock thanks to those long honda forks. I'm missing a magna caliper, so i only have a single disc brake working right now, but it works! It'll hold me over till i find a replacement and get all this other work done. I still have to mount of up the stylish Lockhart full fairings and install a new D&D exhaust, and try to track down a stock airbox.


So here we have exhibit A. A 'Creature' with a chrome front fender and a honda mag wheel



gs700escreature.jpg

[Brendan W]

So is that an 'L' ?

[steve murdoch]

Problem Solving 101...using what you have on hand. Well done.
Couldn't you just slide the legs up into the trees to get rid of the increased height?

[eil]

I've always like the 700. Would like one some day. I believe they're pretty similar to the 83-84 750s, but not sure to what degree.

I see a leading axle fork there, doesn't the 700 have the axle in line with the fork? If they're different, you'll have some strange handling on the road.

[tkent02]

I have an entire front end from a 700, brakes, wheel, forks, everything up to the triple clamps. Let me know if you are interested.

[IronFox102]

First ride is tomorrow. If the geometry feels weird, i'm gonna drop the forks. I can probably get it pretty dang close to factory dimensions if need be. But we'll see. If i hate it, i might stick this magna front end on something else and bring in a totally different frontend for the GS.

[8ball]

The leading axle forks will have much less trail. (They are used to compensate for chopper-ish rake frames). Lowering the front end will exacerbate the issue.

[rapidray]

My first ever NEW motorcycle was an 85 700ES. GREAT bike & good handling, one of THE most comfortable seats Suzuki ever made! Keep in mind that the 83 750E & ES used the same front end. I would look for the CORRECT front end & get that Hondog crap off your bike. The 750 frontend & the 700 were the same so that gives you a much bigger search area to find your needed parts. Ebay is a good place to find stuff.
Ray.

[tkent02]

Again, I have the whole thing sitting up in my attic.....

[rapidray]

There you go! Buy the stuff that's right in front of your face! Good guy to deal with too!!
Ray.

[IronFox102]

Tkent, how much do you want for the whole shootin' match? Everything therein? I'm going to ride this all through the winter so sooner or later i'd like to get a suzuki front end back on it. This Honda front end is a good surrogate but nothing i'd want to keep.

Rapidray, thanks for the advice! i'll keep that in mind when i search for stuff.


For any who are interested, it actually handled about the same. Maybe a rider with more race-oriented experience could tell the difference. I mean i blitz the backroads of northwestern north carolina at *cough* legal road speeds *cough*, and i thought it did pretty well. If anything i had more confidence in my braking, since honda's anti-dive is a whole different ball game. The GS700 brakes felt like they were laid with spongecake in there somewhere! haha

[tkent02]

I dunno, make an offer.

[JEEPRUSTY]

One million dollars?

[IronFox102]

tKent i reckon that would largely depend on if you're close enough for a pick up or if it would have to be shipped. I travel far and wide to pick stuff up all the time. I'm in western NC, you within 8 hours of there?

[tkent02]

tKent i reckon that would largely depend on if you're close enough for a pick up or if it would have to be shipped. I travel far and wide to pick stuff up all the time. I'm in western NC, you within 8 hours of there?

Colorado, but if you are driving this way can you pick up a bike in Kentucky for me?
I'd give you the front end and some gas money if you would.