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1981 GS850G preparing for road trip

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Juke Nukem said:
Bought a pair of old Craven side boxes for the bike for 55€. Made in England. They are nice and slim so they don't stick too much out sideways and they have locks (must!). They may outdate the actual bike by a decade or two but I like the classic look. Plan is to make a mounting bracket for them which will extend back and make a grille on top of the rear fairing for a tent and other stuff. Then paint boxes to bike colour.

View attachment 61481
Click to expand...

Those are classics.
I had a pair on an ex-Police BMW, and was grateful for their slimness through the traffic. You can get a surprising amount of stuff in them, too.
 
Steve said:
You must have a lock that is different than what we have here in the USA. :-k

Our steering lock is incorporated into the ignition lock.

.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Well there are always these small differences between Europe & US.

Yeah these work so that the handlebar is turned to extreme right and then that whole thing pushes in to a slot in the steering axle and then it's locked. Apparently with enough force it breaks though but may discourage some potential bike thieves.
 
Today I started to diagnose the charging system more closely as per the instructions in my manual. I made a new grounding directly from the R/R to battery negative - no effect. Then did the no-load test and measured the AC voltage between the different disconnected cables from the stator. At 5000rpm all were well over the 75V limit mentioned in the manual so the stator seems fine! Will install a new R/R next.
 
I bought a really cheap Chinese R/R from ebay (did I mention my budget is close to zero). Its cables are pretty good looking (thicker gauge than in the original) and the potting looks very good. I didn't want to start cutting the wire harness of the bike, so I took the connectors from the old R/R along with a length of cable, and soldered them carefully to the new unit. I also extended the ground to go directly to battery negative. Lo and behold, charging now works! Voltages are according to manual. This is excellent, fixing the charging was worrying me a lot. Hope the cheapo unit lasts.
rr.jpg
 
Well, since you went cheap, you might want to obtain a handlebar mounted volt meter to monitor the charging. You can find them with USB outlets to charge your phone, or run a Go Pro,etc
 
Big T said:
Well, since you went cheap, you might want to obtain a handlebar mounted volt meter to monitor the charging. You can find them with USB outlets to charge your phone, or run a Go Pro,etc
Click to expand...

Thanks, I had a plan to rig a sat nav to the handlebar and that could also provide power for it.
 
Twice now has the leaky fuel petcock (and flooding carb) filled my engine with petrol. The local well equipped bike parts shop had a TourMax brand replacement petcock in stock. It was 39? and immediately available so I went for it. First thing I noticed was that it is missing the selector lever completely. On closer inspection the bolt spacing is also wrong, 50mm instead of 44mm. Double fail, super annoying. I would really like to get rid of the vacuum system, so maybe I'll try to do that right away instead of trying to fix the existing system first. I know about the Pingel replacement. It's a bit expensive but it might be I'll have to get it anyway.
petcock.jpg
 
Your new petcock is what we call "the dreaded '80 petcock". It was used only in 1980, and fortunately, not on all bikes. The shafties were spared that horrible creation, so it should never have been specified for your bike.

Just order a proper petcock from Suzuki. You have already shown that your carbs are not sealing properly because the petcock failed. If you happen to forget to turn your Pingel off, it is no different than accidentally leaving the stock petcock on PRIme or having a leaky petcock. A new, properly-working petcock is a wonderful device. You just get on the bike, start the engine and GO. When you arrive at your destination, you turn the engine off, park the bike and leave. No worries about forgetting to move the petcock to OFF. And, I believe that a new Suzuki petcock is cheaper than a Pingle.

.
 
Steve said:
Your new petcock is what we call "the dreaded '80 petcock". It was used only in 1980, and fortunately, not on all bikes. The shafties were spared that horrible creation, so it should never have been specified for your bike.

Just order a proper petcock from Suzuki. You have already shown that your carbs are not sealing properly because the petcock failed. If you happen to forget to turn your Pingel off, it is no different than accidentally leaving the stock petcock on PRIme or having a leaky petcock. A new, properly-working petcock is a wonderful device. You just get on the bike, start the engine and GO. When you arrive at your destination, you turn the engine off, park the bike and leave. No worries about forgetting to move the petcock to OFF. And, I believe that a new Suzuki petcock is cheaper than a Pingle.

.
Click to expand...

Okay, good points here. What would be a good online shop for ordering a genuine Suzuki petcock? If I go to a local Suzuki dealership here in Finland, I suspect they'll order it from wherever and charge me plenty.
 
Juke Nukem said:
Okay, good points here. What would be a good online shop for ordering a genuine Suzuki petcock? If I go to a local Suzuki dealership here in Finland, I suspect they'll order it from wherever and charge me plenty.
Click to expand...

Fowlers can have surprisingly good prices on OEM stuff and will happily ship to Finland.
I nearly bought a petcock from them, but they were on back order and I couldn't wait so fitted a manual tap.
https://fi.fowlersparts.co.uk/
 
I have an 81 850G that has many miles, tiny oil leaks, and has taken out 2 deer. I coated the tank years ago with Red-Kote, upgraded the stator & R/R, went tubeless. I would not be afraid to circle the entire continent on it.
 
wymple said:
I have an 81 850G that has many miles, tiny oil leaks, and has taken out 2 deer. I coated the tank years ago with Red-Kote, upgraded the stator & R/R, went tubeless. I would not be afraid to circle the entire continent on it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement! ;)
 
With the bike came some crash bars which were in a bit of a rough condition. Initially I thought I'll never put them on. Then I got to thinking that if I happen to tip the bike over somewhere far from home, they may save me from catastrophe. They buffed up reasonably well, an on they went.

crashbars.jpg
 
Juke Nukem said:
With the bike came some crash bars which were in a bit of a rough condition. Initially I thought I'll never put them on. Then I got to thinking that if I happen to tip the bike over somewhere far from home, they may save me from catastrophe. They buffed up reasonably well, an on they went.

View attachment 61873
Click to expand...

Exactly. They prevent an unpleasant event from turning into a stranding.
Some people don't like the look of them. I don't see them when I'm riding.
 
Some update after a long time. Been mostly busy with the luggage rack. The bike is in a garage with welding equipment few km away, so everything happens sloooow, mostly between 10pm and 1am. Anyway, some shots:

Finding a good shape for the rack with cardboard, and then bending:
tarakan_raami.jpg
 
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