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can you extend a swingarm on a shaftie?

  • Thread starter Thread starter beachbum3478
  • Start date Start date
B

beachbum3478

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i have a extra gs1100 frame with an engine/drivetrain. and ive been wanting to fool around with it and customize it somewhat since my tech school has all the tools i will ever need to do the tasks. but i was wondering if it is possible to extend a swingarm on an 82 gs1100GL shaftie. i dont know how the prinicple of the idea would work.
 
i guess the first question is why would you want to do that
your biggest problem would be "extending" the shaftdrive (although not impossible)
 
alright if this post is going to start a huge debate on why i would do that to a gs then lets end it here. otherwise heres my reason. i have a frame and engine with no title. the bike has been sitting for a while now. so i figure why not have some fun with it while i have the equipment at hand. half my friends are metal fabricators at the school here. so the reason for extending the rear the tire back is so i can lower the the seat down without hitting the rear tire.
 
Of course you can!
If you have the time,resources and gear why not.
After all it is *just* a matter of extending the drive shaft,drive shaft housing and the other side of the swing arm.
bish bash bosh and Bobs your uncle.
Dont forget do post the pics if you do it
Cheers
 
Yeah, it should be perfectly straightforward as long as you've got access to all the advanced metalworking equipment needed. People extend or shorten driveshafts for trucks and cars all the time, so the GS driveshaft shouldn't present any special problems.

It's not something you'd want to try with a stick welder, of course -- the driveshaft needs to be straight and balanced, after all.

Since the driveshaft does not move back and forth as the suspension moves, (the u-joint is perfectly in line with the pivot point) you'll avoid angularity problems as long as it's in the ballpark. If you end up moving the shock mounting points, you'll want to pay attention to the angles.
 
another problem you might encounter is if you want to (at the same time) fit a wider rear rim (which i imagine anyone who's there would want to do, no?) :?
 
Someone else asked this very question a few weeks ago and I will offer the same answer to you: Given enough time and money, anything is possible. 8-[

Sounds like you have a decent idea, no reason why it won't work. In fact, since you will need to lengthen your driveshaft, I have what's left of one that I can offer you. It is the rear section and is just about 8 1/2 inches long. This came from an '82 650L, but I just checked Bike Bandit and the 650, 850 and 1100 all use the same shaft.

You will still have to extend the tube that surrounds the shaft, but with the resources you say you have available, that should not be much of a problem.


.
 
Extending the drive shaft & swingarm is not much of a problem ive done it a few times, there are a couple of things to be aware of......

For the drive shaft itself ive cut them & fitted in a turned extention peice, the shaft plugs into this by 2" either end is welded cross drilled & pinned ive not had balance problems with up to 4" of stretch but its worth checking

it depends on how far you intend to go with it but if the wheel is going back + the bike is lowered you have to be aware of how the front UJ is sitting, most will only turn at a max of 33 degrees angle take into account any suspention movement here

with a big stretch you may want to replace the whole swingarm tube on the drive side as ive seen these in poor rotted condition & the extra length will put more strain on that tube

last but not least the gs seat rails can be lowered by a couple of inches without stretching the arm its neater to replace the top tubes while you're at it though
 
psyguy said:
(thread hijack, sorry :oops:)

hi there
do you possibly have a picture of this?
Click to expand...

i did have some of a gs750 i did a couple of years ago somewhere i'll have a root around & see what i can find :-D i can give a detailed discription of a safe & much used way of doing it if needed
 
tone said:
i did have some of a gs750 i did a couple of years ago somewhere i'll have a root around & see what i can find :-D i can give a detailed discription of a safe & much used way of doing it if needed
Click to expand...
great, much appreciated \\:D/. maybe you can pm me (so i stop abusing this thread :oops:)
 
hmm, if i can lower the seat rails a few inches maybe i wont even have to extend the tire. i plan on replacing it with a single seat so maybe i squeeze something in there.
 
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