'81 GS650 cafe racer/brat Project (pic heavy)

[LeT]

Thanks for sharing your project with us here. I enjoyed the picture sequence. Good luck with completing your build, ready to ride post lock down!

[timebombprod]

Hope you change that blue!

Edit: realised you did lol

[Behry]

Cheers guys, ill update again in a couple of days i tried so 340mm shocks but still seems too close so im gunna try some 360's see if that does the trick.

[motorush]

Nice bike. Will be looking for the finished results.

[salty_monk]

Making good progress it looks like!

[Behry]

On to the next update, i didnt have the space onder the seat pan to hide the reg/rec, iginotor, and the stare relay, so i spent the day searching for places to hide these bits.

I welded on a bracket to the from of the fram to house the Reg/Rec this also puts it in a good place to stay cool as i understand these can get hot.



I then found that i could fit the starter relay between the coils so attavhed a second bracket and mounted it there.



And tapped and threaded the fram to move the ignitor.



I then remounted the seat lugs on to the pan this is before they were fine tuned to the position has moved slightly



i then repurpose a seat latch from a Kawasaki zzr as i had one spare in the unit



Next i finally decided on a place for the rear brake cylinder to go so welded on a new braket and adjusted the geometry to make sure that it moves freely, i still need to fine tune it though before its finalised

[Behry]

The Seat pan was them temporarily shaped and a box section was welded in to cover the battery and motogadget etc




The "air holes" in the battery box section are there due to me not following the age old rule of measure twice so had to cut the top off space it and reweld in order for the battery to fit safely and securely. i then found some old foam in the garage and started shaping the seat.







Then tidied up the pan, sanded, and primed.





Still left to do before the strip Paint and final build

Fit the brake and clutch levers
fit the switches and wire the bars
fit the lights
general wiring
strip and paint the fram strip, clean and paint the engine
paint the wheels
hide the choke
fit the new shocks
Get the seats unholstered
replace the hoses with braided lines that are cut to length

and probably a bunch of other thing i'll find aong the way.

As always thanks for reading and the comments all are welcome be they praise, curiousity or downright disgust at the travesty ive made from a decent base bike!

[MikeinSaudi]

Behry,

Mate absolutely loving this build and the photos. I'm in the middle (near end hopefully) of sorting out a 1978 GS550e up here in North Shropshire; i was going to post up a bunch of photos that i have taken over the course of the build when i had finished, although they are able to be seen in the various posts where i have asked for help. I'm trying to get mine done when home on leave which is not often due to the pandemic!

One thing i really don't get/agree with on your posts....you said at the start that you were "a complete amateur" who are you trying to kid!!!!

Excellent work mate and good luck finishing it!

Here's my work in progress... (everybody loves pics on this forum)

Untitled by Mike Balmer, on Flickr

[Behry]

Hey Mike,

Cheer man, its much appreciated, this is my first bike build, ive dabbled with cars in the past but never to the extent im doing this! yours looks amazing how are you finding hiding the electronics?

im wishing i had done the kicked up loop and the clearance on my is a real issue that im struggling to rectify!

I look forward to seeing your build thread!