1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

Nah Pete, she is down South of you in Sydney, she is young and impressionable, too many biker types up Brizzie and surrounds.

Hahahahaha I'm past my young and impressionable days... just ask my wife! Hahaha

But you know young Woodsy ain't far from Sydney...

she is living in sydney.... enough said... unfortunately where i live now is turning into sydney on weekends, pretty sad when it takes you 30minutes on a weekend to drive 7km to the local shopping centre.

Yeah you can keep Sydney all to yourself, I'll stick to up here in Brissie or down Melbourne way thanks

FANBLOODYTASTIC

Seriously, Pete, it looks the goods.

Cheers Leigh! Very happy with it... be happier when I can get a seat on it and some rubber... and a rego' plate on the back...

Pete for the breather you just need something like this;

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/on...her-12mm-CALMAB12.aspx?pid=155192#Description

when the paper gets too wet with oil and drips you need a new one, or wash it out with kero if your as cheap as me. helps if its mounted vertical.

Your carby overflows can just be routed down with the battery one.
Thats perfectly fine for rego purposes, as it it was the done thing when your bike was built.

Having seen your bike before you painted it I know your photos don't always do it justice. So if it looks that beaut in yer pics, Then cant wait to see it finished!


John

That looks the goods thanks John! That should do nicely, I'll have to get up there sometime soon and get me one of them.

I've been struggling to remember where the carb overflows ended up and you know I think you're spot on, and I think they may have actually routed down with the battery overflow... it's been so long since I took them off...

And thanks! I reckon it turned out alright for a first time effort

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be on two wheels finally! Then we'll have to go for a spin...

That's the same breather I bought, it looks quite good too, well worth the price.

Cool, should do nicely! Did you mount yours somewhere? Don't recall seeing it on your thread...

 

[Guest]

Had a look through the Clymer PDF and it seems to indicate the carb overflows just run down the right frame tube behind the side cover, so I just need to do something to get them out of the wind as I won't have side covers... so much easier

Oh, and nothing done tonight as I got to watch the MotoGP from last night.

No spoiler, but what a cracker of a race that was! And a very impressive Marco Simoncelli tribute too...

 

[Matchless]

Pete, she is turning out very well! That exhaust gives her a nice sleek look and the colour is outstanding!
You must be itching to take her for a ride by now!

 

[Guest]

Pete, she is turning out very well! That exhaust gives her a nice sleek look and the colour is outstanding!
You must be itching to take her for a ride by now!

Cheers Andre, she is indeed!

I'm more than itching, I believe I have a rash...

 

[Guest]

Ok so I did get in there last night...

Routed and mounted the stainless brake line:



Partially routed the speedo cable, but I have the speedo gearbox oriented incorrectly so that'll be fixed when I take the wheel off to do the bearings, disc, and tyre:



And I got all the seat foam I've done so far glued together with the contact adhesive (it's not glued to the seat pan though):



I'm working from home for a bit today as I'm going to my neighbour's funeral later on so I'm hoping to get time to quickly drop into the upholsterers up the road to see what they'll charge me for covering it...

 

[Guest]

No progress to update as such as that was a bit of a sad day yesterday and it only really hit me then that my neighbour is actually gone... anyway...

I did duck up to the upholsterer and I have a lot more work to do.

I thought just getting the front, rear, and seat height would be enough but without either the bike or the original seat to work off they can't do much in the way of shaping themselves. Makes sense when you think about it

Anyway, when they cover it they'll put a thin layer of soft foam over the top and he gave me a sample of that that I can sit over an area once I'm done to make sure it won't bulk it up too much.

So, that means I have a bit more cutting to do and then some shaping. An angle grinder with something like a 120 grit sanding wheel is the way to go for that apparently, although doing that at night isn't really going to be an option. I'll give it a go by hand instead and see how that goes.

Oh, and he's also had better success on rivetting covers to metal pans with some big upholstery washers so it doesn't tear as opposed to putting some sort of spike on there, so that makes it a little easier for me also.

 

[Flyboy]

Damn Pete, sorry to hear about your neighbour, real downer, keep your chin up.
Sounds like you are rolling those rocks out of your way one by one, good progress, now you know it would be no fun if it all just worked and went to plan.
Yet more skills to be added to your ever growing list, awesome.
Sounds like you need to get shaping.

 

[Guest]

Damn Pete, sorry to hear about your neighbour, real downer, keep your chin up.
Sounds like you are rolling those rocks out of your way one by one, good progress, now you know it would be no fun if it all just worked and went to plan.
Yet more skills to be added to your ever growing list, awesome.
Sounds like you need to get shaping.

Thanks for the sentiments Stan. I can't say we were close, but he was a good bloke, only 43, wife and two young kids. He was also a very highly regarded senior firefighter so it was quite sad and the biggest thing for me is realising he won't be asking how long til we can go for a ride together...

Anyway, yes, knocking the remaining bits off one by one and I think the seat is my last big learning curve.

I'm just uploading pic's of tonight's progress...

 

[Guest]

And here we go, this is where it sits after tonight:



Now I realise it looks rather plank-ish at the moment, but it's still far more comfortable than I thought it would be, and it is a scrambler...

I have yet to try any hand sanding to smooth anything, everything so far has simply been cut.

I need to trim probably half an inch off the height of the pillion seat yet also.

One thing with the shape of that seat compared to the original one is that just sitting on it helps my knees move into the tank a lot easier, the old seat tended to push my legs apart.

 

[drivera84]

Its looking awesome pete!!

what are you going to do with the fenders?

 

[Guest]

Its looking awesome pete!!

what are you going to do with the fenders?

Thanks mate!

And nothin', they're all done and dusted I know the front's not perfect but it will do until I get sick of it...

 

[7981GS]

I hadn't noticed before.
You are using a dirt bike front fender?

Daniel

 

[Guest]

I hadn't noticed before.
You are using a dirt bike front fender?

Daniel

Haha yup sure am Trimmed front and back... it's a bit less than perfect but will do the job for now at least. I'm hoping once I get a real tyre on there it will look the part a bit more... definitely not working with that Michelin road tyre...

 

[Guest]

More seat shaping tonight, it's really getting close now. Hand sanding it is indeed a very tedious and slow process, but it's getting there slowly. I think I'm going to be able to just make sure all the main shapes are taken care of and then hopefully I can get the upholsterers to finish the little tidying up bits that I'm sure they have a better technique for than I do.





Then I got the carb overflow hoses back on the carbs and routed them to the right side of the frame and strapped them to the downtube:



Next I got my new fuel tap and accessories out ready to install:



And mounted, first time in a loooong time:

 

[Guest]

And thanks to John I picked up one of these when I went up the road this morning:



I ended up mounting it above the K&N's. I cable tied it to the little harness support that pokes out the front of the frame cross tube with the rubber on it to support the tank:



That was the most out of the way place I could find for it where it shouldn't interfere with the throttle cable or the harness. I can't find the clamp for the valve cover end of the hose at the moment but I honestly don't think I'll need it anyway.

It's pay day this Tuesday, which means I'm planning on making a 'phone call to a certain shop to get me some Pirelli tyres ordered so I can take my wheels over on Saturday to have them fitted :dancing: (providing of course they open Saturdays!)

Also, I attempted yesterday to go and have another look at the fly screen I've had my eye on only to discover they've taken off their website. I shot them an email and got an almost immediate reply that they sold the last one and won't be stocking them any more... bugger! Back to the drawing board on that one...

 

[7981GS]

It looks like you are doing a great job on the seat.

Daniel

 

[Flyboy]

+1, that seat is coming on really nicely Pete, you really are getting close to swinging a leg over it very soon.

 

[Guest]

It looks like you are doing a great job on the seat.

Daniel

+1, that seat is coming on really nicely Pete, you really are getting close to swinging a leg over it very soon.

Thanks guys, yeah, I think it's really taking shape now.

At this point I'm thinking I'll try to work from home on Friday which will allow me to duck up to the upholsterer as they're only 5 minutes up the road.

 

[drivera84]

pete, how can you stand not taking her on a ride as is?


looking at how you are almost done, I dont think I would be able to...

 

[Guest]

pete, how can you stand not taking her on a ride as is?


looking at how you are almost done, I dont think I would be able to...

That front tyre was on there when I got the bike in about '98 and that rear tyre was slippery in the wet with lots of tread... I ain't ridin' nowhere on her 'til I get fresh rubber

And yes, there's a chance I may "forget" she's not registered and take her for a shake down run once she has new tyres and I have the seat back

Which reminds me, I must do static timing of the Dynatek! It's just sitting there at the moment...