GS 750 Cafe/Modern Sport bike

[kodiak]

First off I want to thank all of the diligent readers and supporters of this site. I know your knowledge and experience will become invaluable to me as this project unfolds. The reason I say that is because of my lack of experience with motorcycles and anything mechanical. I can barely change my own oil; enough said.

A little about me.
I am a 27 year old Firefighter living in Kansas City and on a whim made the decision to purchase a motorcycle. On a limited budget and months of scouring craigslist I came upon this cherry!

I know some of you might cringe at the thought of changing/modifying this classic beauty. I remain hopeful I will do it justice and make the snootiest Suzuki aficionado's proud. Side note; lacking experience was a huge deterrent in buying a bike in shambles and building it from the ground up. I wanted a good strong foundation for my first bike.

Here is a few pics of my inspiration for this build and where I am going with it.

Phase 1
This morning I finally got around to actually starting the project and here is my progress thus far. I removed the headlight, gauges, and replaced the stock handle bars. On order are new gauges, headlight, and clutch/throttle cables. Still a lot of work to do and money to spend but will keep everyone posted on my progress.

Please all input and suggestions are welcome.

 

[PoppaDre]

I can't see any pictures. Is it just me? I look forward to following your build!

 

[spyug]

Welcome but , what he said..........where are the pics??????????

Cheers,
Spyug

 

[kodiak]

That's weird you can't see any pics. Every time I pull up the thread I can see all the pictures I posted. Let me look into it, sorry about that.

 

[TheCafeKid]

That's weird you can't see any pics. Every time I pull up the thread I can see all the pictures I posted. Let me look into it, sorry about that.

You can see them because you linked them from on your computer. To post pics everyone can see you need to first upload the pictures to an online picture storehouse or gallery like Photobucket or imageshack.com (both free but you need to register and create an account) and then copy and paste the image code ( looks like

) into your post.

 

[wacky941]

You can also upload the pictures to thegsresources in your user CP by creating albums and dumping the pictures in there but, like TheCafeKid said, I would recommend photobucket, you can store many many more pictures there than you can here on thegsresources.

 

[kodiak]

Christmas came early! The Mailman delivered my new gauges from http://www.dimecitycycles.com yesterday and they look amazing. Unable to contain my excitement I pushed through the 100 degree heat and got them mounted.

With the new gauges on I still had to find a headlight, but luck was on my side when I scored a rusty old headlight from craigslist for 5 bones. She isn't pretty but will work until I find a new one. Any suggestions on Headlights please post.

After a quick stop at the hardware store for spay paint and a few screws I was able to finish the gauges and temporary headlight.

Still not sure what to do with all the wires you see?????

 

[hampshirehog]

Any suggestions on Headlights please post.
Still not sure what to do with all the wires you see?????

A headlamp plus brackets off the 8 valve 550 / 650 / 750 or late GT750 will work better than your current set up (the original square headlamp brackets are different and hold the light in 'the wrong place'). Or you could pop on a fairing as in the Kawasaki pic.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

The wires that came out of your original the headlight bucket should still go back into the replacement, tight squeeze sometimes, but a little creative organization of the connectors helps.
DCC where you got your gauges has headlamps too, I've bought fom Cycle-X http://www.cyclexchange.net/Lighting%20Page.htm in the past, you can trust them. I'm kind of fond of the old Lucus style...

 

[tkent02]

Man, that is a really clean 750.

 

[kodiak]

Nice. That headlamp is real clean, which is what I am looking for. Thanks for the suggestion....Eventually I would like to get a newer front end, but a little hesitant that's above my knowledge.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Sorry to see this project?

Sorry to see this project?

Only because the bike you started with looked so absolutely fabulous, it's sad to see you do this.
But if you'd started with a rat bike, I'd like your project.

Bill

P.S. Yes I did a cafe bike myself, but it was crapped out when I bought it.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I thought about saying something along those lines B-Bill, but figure "He bought it, he can do whatever he want's" I always seem to find rusty old heaps to play around with.
My only suggestion for an owner of a bike of that quality is to not cut anything so it could be returned back to stock someday.
Easy for me to say... I already cut mine up!!!

 

[81GS750]

That's a slick 750, hope you don't do anything that can't be undone easily. I'm no purist, (I've removed every bracket not needed and installed lots of gsxr parts) but I wouldn't massacre a clean survivor. With that said, I wish you good luck and welcome to the group!