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1981 GS450E Rebuild

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Thanks Sonia, think I'm pretty set on the maroon now :D

I was initially thinking blue with white stripes ages ago, but I couldn't find a nice shade of blue that I really liked and the colour that's on there now (that maroon) is one I've always liked.

I think I like most Brit bikes from the 60's and 70's actually, although I have a distinct lean towards Trumpy's...

I think blue/white stripes may look a little odd with the maroon, but I will put it into the thought banks :)

And yeah, that is a sweet looking Norton!
 
Well, for better or worse the fork brace/mudguard mount is done and I don't seem to have balls'd it up too badly...

I'm not sure how stiff it will be compared to stock, but I'm sure there's a way I can tack on an extra layer of aluminium underneath to stiffen it up some more if I need to.

I ended up taping a file underneath the portable work bench to use as the lever point for the clamp.



I then proceeded to do all the bending without taking a single pic of the process.

Basically I just used the big C clamp to pull the pipe down onto the aluminium and bend it like that, seemed to work ok.

Here are some random pic's of the bending done and pilot holes for the fork mounts drilled:





Test fitting looks good:



And mounting holes drilled:

 
So got it mounted up with the front bolts only as I discovered I was 1mm or so off with the hole centres, so I'll need to take a file to it and elongate the holes a little so I can get both bolts in each side. I guess I haven't had enough filing for a while after all...



I realise it looks a little lopsided there, but partly that's because it isn't bolted up tight, and partly it's because the front tyre is flat and the bead has separated from the rim meaning the tyre is actually out of shape. I'm pretty confident it will straighten up nicely once it's bolted down.

Test fitted the front guard again:



I'll need to get a heat gun onto it and shrink the sides in a little, and I'll also have to cut the sides out where the hole is in the brace, but aside from that it fits over the brace pretty well.

So the only concern remaining is have I introduced an issue with fork travel where the guard will hit the bottom triple clamp and will the tacho cable get pinched?



I believe I should be able to do something with the tacho cable, and if all else fails I can remove some off the bottom of each side of the brace to lower it a bit as well.
 
I love it when a plan comes together.
Nice work on that front end there Pete, keep it up.
Now you can see the metamorphisis happening before your eyes, feels good, don't it?
 
Flyboy said:
I love it when a plan comes together.
Nice work on that front end there Pete, keep it up.
Now you can see the metamorphisis happening before your eyes, feels good, don't it?
Click to expand...

Me too Flyboy, and thank you kindly! :D

It does feel good, and gets better and better... I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel even though it is just a little pinprick at the moment...
 
So fixed the mounting holes for the brace tonight and it fits now, except it definitely is a little lopsided. Not hugely so, but enough to annoy me.



So I got back into it with the file and elongated the right side holes upwards a bit which has made it sit well enough for me to leave it as the guard will cover the top anyway. It's actually not that far out of shape, it seems that one of the bends was maybe half a degree off perpendicular to the sheet of aluminium so the rear sits flat but the front is up a little on the right hand side.



Anyway, I think I've figured how I'll be mounting the guard and I've asked the house mate to pick me up some stainless allen head bolts tomorrow seeing as he has a good fastener shop just around the corner from work.
 
House mate did me a quick favour and picked up some stainless cap head allen bolts today so I can work on mounting the front guard.



Marked it up to cut the sides out where it rubs on the fork gaiters at present:



And then completely forgot to take any more pic's until I had it mounted:



It's on a funny angle there because there's a ridge in the centre of the guard where it mounts that causes it to flop left and right, so I'll put the other two bolts in the front either side to steady it.

Looks like I don't need to trim the rear quite as much as I thought either:

 
Well, I don't know how but I missed doing an update last night with a bunch of work I've done. Could've sworn I posted it but obviously not because it ain't here...

Anyway, in case you haven't seen my ignitor thread, I've put the HEI setup on the backburner for a bit due to major frustration, and I've started on plan B:



I've had a reasonably indepth email conversation with Scott from Dynatek and I'm confident this will work even though it's designed for the 400's with points ignitions.

Pretty much a bolt in except a little close for comfort around the oil pressure switch:



A few little fitment issues like needing a spacer for the rotor (which John very kindly machined up for me), but no deal breakers at all at this point. I'm working on wiring it up at the moment in such a way that I can put the stock coils and signal generator back in with no dramas.

I will revisit the HEI setup but for the moment I just want to get it running so I can drop the first lot of oil and redo the valve clearances and retorque the head etc.

And yesterday I got a parcel:



Containing:



Finally I can look at putting some nice shocks on there to compliment rather than insult the pipe and that won't feel like a pair of struts, and I can have forks that don't feel like they have rubber bands inside...

And finally I got all the mounting for the front guard done, except I ended up with the left side bolt hole too low which pulls it out of shape to the left now:

 
And tonight I got a huge amount of work done...



The guard sits straight. That's it... full on night tonight :rolleyes:
 
Yeah I'm likin' 'em Dave! Just gotta get 'em on... means dropping the pipe to do the left one but I've gotta get exhaust gaskets in there yet anyway, so probably after I fire her up with the Dynatek.
 
Just updated my ignitor thread with some more work on the Dynatek setup, mainly getting a separate wire ready for the oil pressure switch.
 
Rightio, firstly I think I found the solution to my jetting dilemma. Looks like I need VM22/210 pilot jets and N102/221 Small Round main jets. At least going by this thread I finally found during a Google search:

http://forum.motorcycle-usa.com/default.aspx?f=18&m=472209

So, I decided instead of twiddling my thumbs tonight I'd get the shiny new Ikon shocks in.

I spent ages trying to get the exhaust of but had to settle just letting it rest against the side of the engine with a towel to protect it. I think the way to get it off will be to remove the left header and then it will come off easily, but I couldn't get it to separate from the collector by myself, think I need a second person to steady and hold the pipe.

Anyway, the Ikons have a slightly larger spring diameter than the stock shocks, so I popped in some washers on the mounting bracket to bring it out enough for some good clearance:



And they're mounted up and bolts torqued up:



Love it! I could even feel the difference already just dropping it off the centre stand. It actually had a little bounce to it instead of the thump from the stockers that are now more like struts...

Now, this is the end result of my quick trim of the front guard yesterday:



Definitely much better. Obviously I have some tidying to do as I just whacked each end off with the dremel, but the size should be good to go now.

Then I got everything back on for some final mockups, and I'm real happy now:



Ignore that horrid headlight, that needs replacing.

The only things missing from the mockup now are a round mesh grill on the headlight, mirrors, hand guards, and a fly screen. Oh, and some good tyres, preferably dual sports.

Speaking of tyres, I emailed Tyres 4 Bikes the other day to see if they had anything suitable and what prices are like, but no response at all. Sometimes Brissie annoys the crap out of me, all these places are so old school it's not funny, can't email or look online, you have to walk in or ring them and I just don't get time for that very often these days...

Anyways, not sure what I'll do next time, maybe start tidying up the guard and fork brace or something.

I definitely need to do something abou that tacho cable too as it's going to be a real clearance problem on the guard the way it is right now. I might be able to put some sort of guide on the side of the guard to keep it out there like the brake line has on the left side of the stock guard.
 
Haha same boat I have 4 engines and a extra head but all run just picking and choosing which one is gonna be my badness and i want to swap all the case bolts because the previous owner swapped it for hex nut so thankful its the main reason i bought it!
 
Hey lots of choice, can only be a good thing :)

You mean the PO put the allen head bolts on there or hex heads? Hex heads would be weird... I've got SS allen heads on mine from Z1 and I love 'em, so much better than the dodgy philips...
 
mike-s said:
Looking good there, looking very good
Click to expand...

Cheers Mike, it's definitely starting to come together cosmetically now.

I just need to do the finishing/tidying bits like smooth off the cut edges of the front guard and get the tail piece sanded down properly and get the layer of putty on it to make sure it's all even ready for paint.

You finished that fish tank yet so you can get back to the GS?
 
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