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81 GS 450 the long way back......

  • Thread starter Thread starter olddaddy
  • Start date Start date
O

olddaddy

Guest
OK, so I crashed my GS 450 S back in April. At first it looked like minimal damage to the bike, and to me. A closer look at the bike showed the forks were toast, the front wheel was suspect, the fairing brackets were all broken and so on. The more I looked the more I found that needed fixing, and the more I found that I'd like to improve on. My damage turned out to be mostly scrapes and bruises and a left knee that it still not really working right. I pulled all the damaged bits off and sent all the body work out for paint. Since the front rim was suspect I had my spare pair, front and rear powder coated white. I bought a pair of fork legs and rebuilt them. Since the bike was going to be down for awhile I pulled the airbox and installed pods. A new 2 into 1 is in the works, but currently only a mocked up plan. New turn signals found their way into the mix. The fairing needed and got a new windscreen. A lot of small bits needed some cosmetic attention and are slated for black powder coating. The aluminum brake plate and sprocket plate are being polished as are the lower legs on the forks. New brake shoes and pads are on the list. Installed balance beads in place of lead weights. Tank gets a new petcock. The paint work is done, but there is some red pinstriping to be added, more pics when that is done. Engine sidecovers need to be polished, so while they are off new sprockets front and rear. I'd like to add new rear shocks, and need a new throttle/switch setup on the right handlebar. Hope to have it done by October when the weather gets nice enough to ride again.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/olddaddy/Suzuki GS 450 Rebuild/
 
Wow! That looks nice! I'll be watching this one.

Hope your feeling better!
 
Mate that looks great! Love the paint scheme!

Definitely will be watching this one, very keen to see it back together and in one piece again.

I'm still undecided on colour and scheme for my 450, but at the moment I'm thinking twin white stripes with white in the knee dents and I'm still thinking of making up some rubber knee pads to stick in the dents also.

Seeing that blue and white... man it's nice...

So what's the deal with the 2 into 1? Custom or off the shelf? I just got mine back from Tranzac if you haven't seen my thread for a while, and I'm mighty impressed.

Keep up the good work!
 
Glad you like it so far. I'll post better pics as progress is made, which will be slowly........ So Pete, break my heart, show me the Tranzac exhaust!
 
That is really impressive, but the pipes are on the wrong side.....unless of course you drive on the wrong side of the road :)...........yikes! Well done, but I am too old to ride upswept pipes. I'll keep working on my homemade job. I want to use original pipe collected under the frame with a single exhaust on the right side. Pics to follow.
 
olddaddy said:
That is really impressive, but the pipes are on the wrong side.....unless of course you drive on the wrong side of the road :)...........yikes! Well done, but I am too old to ride upswept pipes. I'll keep working on my homemade job. I want to use original pipe collected under the frame with a single exhaust on the right side. Pics to follow.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate! Haha yeah pipes are on the right side here, although that was more dictated by the dipstick location more than anything. If they went on the right like I wanted initially, I'd have no idea what my oil level was and I'd be removing the pipes to do an oil change or top it up :eek:

Mate you're never too old for nice pipes :p

Definitely looking forward to seeing what you're doing with yours though, and if you're keeping it relatively stock in appearance, then the scrambler pipes would look a little odd...
 
I striped the bodywork tonight, red along the blue and checks down the center. I've got to live with awhile though, not sure I will keep it this way! Might pull the checks and leave the red between the white and blue.....like the fender on the right.
 
Hard decision between keeping the checkers or not.... Both look good!

Very nice. :)
 
Man I love that paintwork! I vote for the checks... love it!

If you choose to remove the checks, it will still look awesome...
 
How's it coming along? Any progress to report? I'm very keen to see how it goes...
 
Well, any progress has been sideways lately. I ran into trouble with the wheel bearings and am waiting on parts. Same with the forks. I was hoping to just replace the seals, but there's crud in the legs, so they will have to come apart. Once those two issues are resolved it will be a roller again and I can make better progress. I will keep you posted via this post as things happen. With the holiday this weekend I might find some time for the bike.
 
Aaah I see! I know the feeling... sorted spark, now got fuelling issues...

Anyway, will wait (im)patiently for updates :)

I'm living vicariously through everyone else's 450 builds at the moment because I can't seem to make much headway with mine...
 
If it were not for vicarious living I'd have no life at all.................
 
After my battle with the bearings yesterday I managed a little progress today. I got both sets of bearings installed and got the rear wheel back on the bike. Not quite a roller yet, still need to do the forks first. I hope to get to that next weekend. Cooler weather is about eight weeks away, so I am motivated again.
 
Good stuff! Glad to hear you got your bearings sorted, I really need to track some down and take care of that, but I'll probably wait until I'm doing tyres so I can knock both things off at the same time with the wheels off. Having said that I just had the front off last night and tonight to do the Ikon fork springs :rolleyes:

I'm liking the look of that white wheel, should look great with that bodywork of yours too, and are they stock shocks I see? Do they still go ok? Mine were like struts after sitting for the best part of 10 years...
 
More progress

More progress

I managed a few hours in the shop today and made some more progress. The main thing was getting the forks rebuilt and back on the bike. I drilled the rotor and will install the front wheel maybe tomorrow. I got the tailpiece, seat, battery, and side covers back in place also. I found a piece that appears to be missing. It looks like there should be some sort of cover on the front wheel opposite the rotor side. The L parts bikes have a plastic cover, but it doesn't fit my S wheel. Anybody every seen one for the S wheels? Now that the wheels are powder coated that side looks unfinished.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/olddaddy/Suzuki GS 450 Rebuild/?start=all

Hopefully the link will take you to the pictures..........I'm not good at the link thing.
 
olddaddy said:
I managed a few hours in the shop today and made some more progress. The main thing was getting the forks rebuilt and back on the bike. I drilled the rotor and will install the front wheel maybe tomorrow. I got the tailpiece, seat, battery, and side covers back in place also. I found a piece that appears to be missing. It looks like there should be some sort of cover on the front wheel opposite the rotor side. The L parts bikes have a plastic cover, but it doesn't fit my S wheel. Anybody every seen one for the S wheels? Now that the wheels are powder coated that side looks unfinished.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/olddaddy/Suzuki GS 450 Rebuild/?start=all

Hopefully the link will take you to the pictures..........I'm not good at the link thing.
Click to expand...

Mate that's looking great! Your link worked fine :D

As for the bit you think is missing, is it this side of the wheel?



If so, you can see where I didn't think it needed painting either... There's nothing missing there, it's just exposed.
 
I managed a bit more work on the 450 this weekend. I got the rear brake all set and adjusted, and adjusted the chain as well. Installed the front fender, caliper and speedo cable. Installed the new windscreen and set the fairing in place for a trial fit. The new turn signals are too short to be fully seen, will have to come up with some sort of extension. Feels good to see it coming together. A few more weekends and I'll be riding again.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/olddaddy/Suzuki GS 450 Rebuild/
 
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