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Gs850 drag/cafe/oem+ build

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Guest

Guest
Hello fellow gs owners, I’m fairly new here and my intro post was basically becoming a build thread so I figured I’d start one in the proper place. I’d like to preface saying I bought this bike with the intentions on making a long low bare bones bike. Yes I’m cutting off stock parts, yes it’s not getting restored but the beauty of motorcycles is there is plenty of room within this culture everyone can have their own opinion on what’s “right” or “looks good”, that being said let’s get into it!

So last year I picked up a ‘79 gs850 from someone local for 300 bucks. Bike had been sitting for years and was the guys late grandpa’s bike. I’ve never owned a gs but what gravitated me towards the bike was the mag wheels, the square shaped tank and just how long the bike was. I’m a big guy and feel way to cramped on most old Japanese bikes. I’ve owned and modified several bikes over the years mainly Kawasaki 750 twins and a few Harley’s. My current daily is a ‘81 gl1100 so there is no discrimination here, I dig lots of different styles. This is how the bike looked when I bought it, more or less. I had already mocked up the clip ons and had swapped the shocks in this picture. The seat was toast and the wiring was a mess. The paint and bodywork has the perfect patina for a 40+ year old machine and to my delight the gas tank on the inside is absolutely mint. No surface rust or anything. So it seemed like a good base for a budget build.
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I knew it needed fork seals immediately so I decided to start on the front end. I took the front end off and cleaned everything. Noticed my steering neck bearings were roached so I decided to replace those as well. While everything was off I painted my front wheel got the new fork seals and fluid installed and replaced my crappy neck bearings.

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Also took the opportunity for some cosmetic upgrades up front so I mounted a smaller headlight and smoothed over the top triple tree to delete the stock risers since I was running clip ons.
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By this point I’ve also ditched all gauges and hand controls and rewired the bike. Luckily these bikes end up having like 10 total wires with all the stuff that gets tossed. So that makes life easier. My stock seat was basically a good 50/50 split of oem materials and duct tape so I decided to ditch it and buy a 30 eBay seat. For the price and what I’m trying to do with the bike it was well worth it. Seat weighs about 1/3 of the stock seat and is a place to put my ass so I’m happy.

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It was now time to get the frame, seat mounting and tail light situated. Started by rolling some tube at work then cutting it to the proper length to hug the seat. Also made some “filler pieces” to box in the frame where it was cut behind the shock mounts.

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Found a nice little laser cut scrap at work for my taillight tab and bent my seat mounting bracket out of 1” flat stock.
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Cleaned up the frame a bit and painted it black. Here’s how it ended up turning out with the seat and tail light mounted.
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I wasn’t happy with the tail light wiring running up the rear frame so I hid it by routing the Tail light wiring through the seat with an epoxied in grommet.

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Now that that was all buttoned up I removed my rear brake (needs rebuilt) my back wheel and dismounted the tire from the wheel. Perfect time to paint while waiting on a new back tire.

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I have a supertrapp 4-1 that will be going on so the stock exhaust came off, (it’s for sale). This is where it sits today… Have done a lot of work and still have a ways to go but I think with some perseverance I’ll be riding it this season.

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I'm curious how your going to keep the tire from hitting the cross bar? It looks pretty close ;)
 
I'm curious how your going to keep the tire from hitting the cross bar? It looks pretty close ;)

Its definitely a concern lol. I was bouncing around with all my weight and a buddy of mine said it wasn’t close to hitting but worst comes to worse, I’ll put some taller shocks on it.
 
B1E88464-3849-4D9D-98F2-34917EE6C614.jpgGot my new rubber on the rear wheel. Went with a Shinko tour master. Was able to mount it easily by using some big zip ties to squeeze both tire beads together as I maneuvered it over the wheel.
 
Also there were comments about my tire being close to the frame, which I totally agree with, so I ended up putting the stock shocks back on which raised me back up about an inch. Here’s how it sits today.

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