• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

1980 GS1100e Monoshock How-to

  • Thread starter Thread starter johnnay
  • Start date Start date
J

johnnay

Guest
This is a writeup of how I converted my GS to a late model GSXR swingarm and monoshock. I did a lot of searching and reading to do this mod, and while a lot of people have done it before, I didn't find a succinct write-up that laid it all out in black and white. This post will attempt to do that.

My bike is a 1980 GS1100e, and the swingarm is 225mm at the pivot. There are a few more modern swingarms that are narrower than this dimension, but I bought a 2004 GSXR 600 off of ebay because it looked cool and was a reasonable price, so that's what I used. It measured 233mm wide at the pivot and 545mm long, which is a little longer than the stocker at 530mm. To do the swap, you can spend lot's of money by getting nice bushings made and stuff like that, but I like finding more economical ways of doing things - mostly because I'm too impatient to wait for machining work to be done...! So, this was all done with a metal chop saw, a grinder, a MIG welder and regular hand tools. Enjoy...\\:D/

You will need:
2004 GSXR 600 rear end complete from pivot shaft back (other GSXR years/models will work but swingarm fitment method won't be exactly the same as what's in this writeup)
GSXR Rearsets (mine were 2005 GSXR 1100, but I believe the mounting dimensions are the same for several models)
 
1. Grind off all the extraneous tabs on the frame (includes brake master cylinder mount if you're going to rearsets). Don't grind off the tabs that the footpeg brackets mount to - we'll reuse these for the rearset mounts.
 
Last edited:
2. Mill (grind!) the swingarm to be 225mm wide at the pivot with the dust seals on. I just ground down to the edge of the bearing, which turned out to be the right width (you'll have to replace the bearings before reassembly of course!)
 
Last edited:
3. Reduce the width of the two inner bearing sleeves from the GSXR swingarm from 35mm to 33.5mm (you can just reduce one to 32mm if you're lazy!). The stock one is on the right, the cut one on the left.
 
Last edited:
4. Do the same as what you did in #3 to the stock GS inner bearing sleeves - shown below the GSXR sleeves from #3.
 
Last edited:
5. Cut a 158mm piece out of the GSXR pivot bolt - this is hollow and will be used as the inner spacer..
 
6. Paint/refinish the swingarm and reassemble it with the GS spacers inside the GSXR ones. Then mount it using the stock GS pivot bolt with spacers or washers on each side (you don't need the big footpeg brackets anymore because we'll be putting on rearsets a little later), or use the later year GS pivot shaft - apparently it's shorter. I just ground down the original footpeg brackets (sacrilege, I know) and used the stock swingarm bolt.
 
Last edited:
Top Shock Mount:
7. Fabricate a crosspiece of sufficient strength (I used a piece of bent 1 5/8" tubing I had on hand) to hold your shock mount in the location specified below in #8
 
8. This will probably vary depending on your shock, but for mine, I located the upper shock mount 105mm above the pivot shaft (center to center), and 70mm rearward of the downtube centerlines. My shock's top eye is 26mm wide, but obviously, measure yours before welding the tabs..! You'll need a 10mm bolt at least 45mm long
 
Last edited:
Bottom Shock Mount:
9. Cut off part of the outer tabs of both center stand mounts, keeping the inner tabs and the rest of the outers as bracing
 
Last edited:
10. Cut the lower shock linkage bushing from your new swingarm into two pieces 15mm wide. Weld on 2mm thick washers with an outer diameter big enough to butt against the lower shock linkage and stop it from sliding sideways. Drill out the centre stand mounts to 12mm and use a bolt at least 85mm long. Obviously you'll need to get a new lower pivot bushing before reassembly.
 
Last edited:
Rearsets:
11. Enlarge the upper mounting hole to accept a 10mm bolt. Mount the upper mount of the rearset to the existing tab on the frame for the rear passenger footpeg bracket
 
Last edited:
12. Weld a tab with an 8mm weldnut onto the frame for the lower rearset mount - you could probably reuse the brake master cylinder mount here (cut & bent properly). Spacers may be required to move the rearsets out a bit, but this added leverage may compromise the strength of the mounts - they may need to be braced a bit more.
 
Last edited:
13. Done! Now you should be a happy camper like me in the picture... (I know, I look young for my age):rolleyes:

I hope to add a 530 chain conversion to this thread as well. Stay tuned....!
 
Last edited:
Nice write up
Really thorough with pics\\:D/
Now you should be a happy camper like me in the picture... (I know, I look young for my age)
Click to expand...
I was wondering how you were going to reach the handlebars
 
Nice job! Will this work for other gs models? I've got a 550L, and would love to do this conversion. Its probably just build as you go, right?
 
The basic premise is the same, so I'm sure a lot of the steps would be very similar. Things like the actual measurements would probably not carry over except maybe for the larger framed GS's...
 
Oh, and regarding reaching the handlebars... I'm almost there... :-D
 
If I could fab like that, I wouldn't care if I could reach the bars!!!! :-D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top