GS450L - Project Hodgepodge

[RBS]

Hello all,

I`m starting this thread to keep a roughly chronological record of progress on my 450. I got the bike from a friend of mine, basically for free. It was pretty bad off when I got it home. Here`s some pictures of when I first got it.

For now I`ll be catching this thread up to the present. I`m not nearly as fast as this will make me look

 

[RBS]

The friend that owned this GS, bless his heart, did some things that made life a little harder for me... My airbox was not salvagable, the exhaust was just straight pipes, the air filter was a shirt sleeve, etc. He did a couple good things though, like the regulator/rectifier is a Honda unit. I decided to get this thing back on the road in an economical manner, also known as being a cheapskate.

 

[RBS]

My end goal is sort of scrambler-esque bike. Almost an adventure bike, one that can do anything(i.e. not limited by modifications like a hard tail that look awesome but don`t function well for actual riding). I`ve decided to borrow from several styles of custom bikes, and thus can`t classify my final vision of how this bike should look very well.

Then it was time to start the actual work. Broken off exhaust bolts in the head, rebuilding carbs, putting in a good battery and taking stock of how screwed the wiring system was, etc.

For the exhaust, I opted to weld nuts onto the broken shafts of the bolts to try and remove them. The heat of welding on them seems to have helped free the stuck bolts.

 

[RBS]

It helps if you`ve got a bucket or bin of spare hardware around!

And the result:

 

[RBS]

More pictures coming later.

 

[RBS]

With those bolts out, it was time to work on the carbs and find replacement hardware. I got new exhaust bolts and allen head bolts for the carbs locally. An o ring kit came from cycleorings.com and arrived promptly. I dipped the carbs to get all of the yers of filth, grime, and paint off of them. In the mean time I removed the intake boots from the head, which the screws were stuck as well. Vice grips made quick work of them.

The intake boot o rings were not broken, but clearly well past their prime and not sealing much of anything. I had an entire bench of carb parts, at this point I was super glad that I didn`t go for a four cylinder bike

 

[RBS]

I painted the inner fender and battery tray while I had them out. A wise man once told me "rattle can will hide a multitude of sins"

 

[ShadowFocus603]

Off to a strong start. Will be following along.

 

[RBS]

Thanks Shadow! I`m still catching up to real-time, but we`re leaving on a short vacation Thursday, so I`m trying to get this thread up to date before we leave.

Now is when everyone who only believes in 100% stock restorations should look away now. This is where I crossed over to the dark side, even verging on blasphemy....

I bought a parts bike for $50. It`s a `74 Honda CB200 It was entertaining to go pick it up with our smart car!

 

[RBS]

I bought this bike because I fell in love with the tank. The shape and top padding are what really drew me in. The fact that the seat was the same general style I was looking for just sealed the deal. I know it`s not Suzuki parts, but I like them. I also have a Yamaha brake master cylinder for the front, and *gasp* Harley Davidson turn signals on the rear(but they will probably migrate to the front eventually). That`s where my title came from. Here`s some close ups of the new tank.

This tank is a little rusty inside, and I will need to find a different petcock for clearance. I had to massage the bottom corners of the frame tunnel with a good sized ball peen hammer. I also had to remove my coil mounts from the frame. I`m still working out where to move them to. If you`re wondering why I am bothering to switch tanks when mine looked fine, it also had rust inside. The tank on the bike in the first pictures of the thread was not for this model. It would have required frame mods to make fit as well.

Here is it sitting on the bike with no modifications to either.

 

[RBS]

Obviously that wasn`t going to fly. It looks way off, but with surprisingly little hammering, and some cutting, it fits pretty good. I`ll spare you the billion pictures of me slowly working it down onto the frame. Here`s where it sits now.

The seat isn`t mounted in these pictures, but the tank is. I`ve got the front on the Suzuki mounts, cut down and welded into the holes in the frame just behind the steering head. The stock Honda bushings were trimmed slightly shorter to fit snug in the tank brackets.

 

[RBS]

The back side of the tank is held with a simple bracket I hacked up from some scrap I had. It`s quick and ugly, but not many people will ever see it. And it`s decently strong.

In the meantime, I`ve mounted up the long lost front fender(the original to the bike). I put it up when my buddy took it off the bike, he wanted to scrap it. Turns out it was a good thing I did. I also adapted the Yamaha master cylinder to the front, which involved reshaping my stock brake lever a little work in it. Also, it has no mirror mount. Not a problem as I am going to try out some bar end mirrors that my wonderful wife got me recently.

I also took the piston out of my caliper and cleaned up everything as well as I could. When I popped out the piston with compressed air, it blew black gunk everywhere. Probably a good thing that I cleaned it.

I got the bike running on a bottle of gas. It idles ok, but only seems to be running on one cylinder. I haven`t ran it too much since it had no mufflers or airbox at this stage.

 

[RBS]

And finally, I spent some time at my local motorcycle junkyard Friday. I got both rear wheel adjusters(both mine were messed up), a brake lever, a fancy shift lever from a bigger shaft drive GS, and two shorty mufflers. I may go back and grab an 18" rear wheel they have, as I really want to ditch the stock 16" I have in the back. The long term plan is to eventually go with dual sport tires, and I think I`ll be able to find a matched set easier, as well as look better overall.

I`m planning on either making or adapting a luggage rack to the back of the frame where it sticks out behind the seat, and some kind of luggage on the sides. I`m thinking about making up a mount to put some ammo boxes on for saddle bags. It`s got a long way to go!

Now you`re caught up to where I am, and it`s going to be a little slower going

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure I'm feeling the Honda seat and tank, but the seat is definitely an improvement over the stepped L seat. I am enjoying your fearless plunge into the unknown, too. I don't think I could ever start a project like this with a cutting torch in one hand and the determination that it is somehow going to WORK, no matter how much blood gets spilled. :clap:

Since you are looking at a sorta scrambler theme, have you seen this BOTM from last year. Just an example of one way to go with a 450...

Go to http://www.thegsresources.com/botmgallery.php and check out the April 2016 motorcycle.

Mark

 

[RBS]

Thanks Mark. I definitely understand that the tank and seat aren't for everyone, but it makes the bike feel like a big dirt bike. That tank is so narrow, you can't even see it around the forks. I believe that the engine is actually slightly wider. That BOTM bike looks really nice. It's not quite where I'm going, but it's a nice take on a scrambler for sure.

-Jake

By the way, I try to keep the torch away from delicate projects like this. I am however a firm believer that anything can work given a hammer, grinder, and welder

 

[Guest]

I've always liked the CB200 and agree with the tank padding. It always looked good on the Honda hope you get it to look the way you want on the Suzuki.

 

[RBS]

Well, I've been slowed down by life in general and working on everyone and their brother's lawn mower in particular. Also, photobucket appears to have turned to the dark side, and broken every picture link I've ever posted in the process. Progress has been slow, but not stopped.

I've went back to the junkyard and obtained an 18" GS450E wheel, complete with brake drum assembly and sprocket for $40. I've spent time deliberating seat mounting options and petcock solutions. I've looked at much fancier bikes and wondered why I didn't at least buy one that could be ridden Of course without photobucket I temporarily have no means to post pictures of any of this.

I also got a new job which starts next week. It should yield more bike money without losing too much garage time! I'm excited for sure.

-Jake