R
raerickson
Guest
So a couple weeks ago I found a '81 GS450 for sale for a pretty decent price. It was chipped, faded, pitted, scratched and overall not the prettiest example of what a bike could look like, but I saw the potential and was looking for something to do over the next couple months.
After I bought it I hopped online and started searching for info about the bike and found this forum as well as some inspiring pics of other gs series bikes. I eventually decided to try my hand at a bobber project.
The only major change to the bike is going to be making it a hard tail and cleaning up the rear. I'm going to do this by keeping the swing arm as the lower support and welding another support up to the original fram near the gas tank. As nearly all the paint/chrome on the bike is in bad shape, I'll be repainting most parts flat-black with the exception of the tank and fender, which will be some WWII olive drab color scheme. (Not totally decided as that will be a bit)
Now I've never dealt with carburators, which brings me to my first problem which I need some help with. The bike started and ran decently when I bought it, but it certainly wasn't ideal and I'm fairly certain its going to need a GOOD carb cleaning and possibly even a rebuild.
With no air box or filters and a stock exhaust the bike would idle just fine. When given some gas it would rev up fine with no load, but under load it would cough and sputter. Once thouroughly warmed up (~20 min) it would get through that pretty good, but not great. Also, once warmed up, it would cough and sputter under load between ~4000 and 6000 rpm to the point where if I was at that point in the powerband and tried accelerating, nothing would happen.
So thats how it ran when I got it. It has since been parted out quite a bit in my garage and wont be started again for a few weeks at the least, but I'd like to do as much as I can before it starts to get put back together. Final product will have individual K&N cone filters and an fiberglass wrapped exhaust cut off right before the original muffler flaring begins. ( I realize this will be loud, and will probably not have as much power as running with the stock exhaust, but to each their own
)
So the questions I have are what are some recommended jet settings as well as where I can buy a rebuild kit if I'll need it?
After I bought it I hopped online and started searching for info about the bike and found this forum as well as some inspiring pics of other gs series bikes. I eventually decided to try my hand at a bobber project.
The only major change to the bike is going to be making it a hard tail and cleaning up the rear. I'm going to do this by keeping the swing arm as the lower support and welding another support up to the original fram near the gas tank. As nearly all the paint/chrome on the bike is in bad shape, I'll be repainting most parts flat-black with the exception of the tank and fender, which will be some WWII olive drab color scheme. (Not totally decided as that will be a bit)
Now I've never dealt with carburators, which brings me to my first problem which I need some help with. The bike started and ran decently when I bought it, but it certainly wasn't ideal and I'm fairly certain its going to need a GOOD carb cleaning and possibly even a rebuild.
With no air box or filters and a stock exhaust the bike would idle just fine. When given some gas it would rev up fine with no load, but under load it would cough and sputter. Once thouroughly warmed up (~20 min) it would get through that pretty good, but not great. Also, once warmed up, it would cough and sputter under load between ~4000 and 6000 rpm to the point where if I was at that point in the powerband and tried accelerating, nothing would happen.
So thats how it ran when I got it. It has since been parted out quite a bit in my garage and wont be started again for a few weeks at the least, but I'd like to do as much as I can before it starts to get put back together. Final product will have individual K&N cone filters and an fiberglass wrapped exhaust cut off right before the original muffler flaring begins. ( I realize this will be loud, and will probably not have as much power as running with the stock exhaust, but to each their own
)So the questions I have are what are some recommended jet settings as well as where I can buy a rebuild kit if I'll need it?
