P
Paul.S
Guest
What's up guys? I have used this forum a few times in the past several months to answer some questions I had about these bikes and so I thought I might as well join the group. I have to say, there are some very smart people on this forum and I can't thank yall enough for posting all the information out here on the web for others to use. I picked up my GS1100E less than a year ago out of Flowermound Texas. It is the first real motorcycle I have ever owned or even drove! I had one bike before it (a 1982 Honda XL250R endure bike) so the GS1100E was a huge step up for me! I am only 21, but I really like these old GSs. I think of them like they are the "classic muscle" of street bikes.
Anyways, my bike is in a million pieces right now. It was running pretty good when I picked her up but I found the compression was down on a couple of cylinders so I performed a leak down test and found the valves were not holding very well. So, I tore her all down to do a complete rebuild. The motor was built back in the day and only has 7,000 miles on it so the engine is still in great shape. The specs are: 1198cc MTC big bore kit, knife edged porting and polishing on cylinder head, stainless steel exhaust valves, Vance & Hines camshafts (mild), the crank was welded/balanced/polished/shot peened by Falicon along with the rods, Kerker exhaust system (loud!), 1150 intake boots, Mikuni 33mm smooth bore carbs, push/pull throttle linkage, Vance & Hines clutch hub & clutches, Vance & Hines transmission gears, 10.5 to 1 CR pistons, Lockhart oil cooler, K&N pod filters, manual cam chain tensioner, 1983 gs1100 wheels (lighter than 1982), progressive fork springs, stainless braided brake lines, Works performance adjustable rear shocks, aftermarket handlebar, and it has a fork brace.
I have the head at the machine shop right now getting a valve job done to it and I have the Crank back at Falicon to get re-balanced since my new MTC pistons are heavier than the old MTC pistons by 70 grams. I had to get new pistons because they no longer sold the rings for my old MTC pistons. Other than fixing the leaking valves and putting in new rings/pistons, the only other thing I am doing is of course replacing all of the seals/gaskets. Back in the day, this bike supposedly ran a 10.98 1/4 mile at 140-something and it was making about 140 wheel HP and 160 engine HP. Even with the bike only running on 3 cylinders, it would still accelerate wicked fast. I accidently got her up to 13,000 rpm at one time in 1st and the motor took it nicely! I won't be doing that again though! I purchased a new Dyna S2000 ignition system for it so I can run a rev limiter on it to keep me from blowing it up lol.
Also, I am proud of the steering stabilizer I put on it. I think it turned out nice! It has 7 different firmness settings. The bike already had a fork brace so now with the stabilizer I shouldn't have any problems with steering shake (even without the stabilizer the bike ran perfectly smooth even coming down off of some small wheelies). The pics below are when I first picked the bike up. I put shorter stemmed rear blinkers on it since the originals stick out a little too far for me.
This is where I am at right now. I plan on getting her going again in about 1-2 months.
Anyways, my bike is in a million pieces right now. It was running pretty good when I picked her up but I found the compression was down on a couple of cylinders so I performed a leak down test and found the valves were not holding very well. So, I tore her all down to do a complete rebuild. The motor was built back in the day and only has 7,000 miles on it so the engine is still in great shape. The specs are: 1198cc MTC big bore kit, knife edged porting and polishing on cylinder head, stainless steel exhaust valves, Vance & Hines camshafts (mild), the crank was welded/balanced/polished/shot peened by Falicon along with the rods, Kerker exhaust system (loud!), 1150 intake boots, Mikuni 33mm smooth bore carbs, push/pull throttle linkage, Vance & Hines clutch hub & clutches, Vance & Hines transmission gears, 10.5 to 1 CR pistons, Lockhart oil cooler, K&N pod filters, manual cam chain tensioner, 1983 gs1100 wheels (lighter than 1982), progressive fork springs, stainless braided brake lines, Works performance adjustable rear shocks, aftermarket handlebar, and it has a fork brace.
I have the head at the machine shop right now getting a valve job done to it and I have the Crank back at Falicon to get re-balanced since my new MTC pistons are heavier than the old MTC pistons by 70 grams. I had to get new pistons because they no longer sold the rings for my old MTC pistons. Other than fixing the leaking valves and putting in new rings/pistons, the only other thing I am doing is of course replacing all of the seals/gaskets. Back in the day, this bike supposedly ran a 10.98 1/4 mile at 140-something and it was making about 140 wheel HP and 160 engine HP. Even with the bike only running on 3 cylinders, it would still accelerate wicked fast. I accidently got her up to 13,000 rpm at one time in 1st and the motor took it nicely! I won't be doing that again though! I purchased a new Dyna S2000 ignition system for it so I can run a rev limiter on it to keep me from blowing it up lol.
Also, I am proud of the steering stabilizer I put on it. I think it turned out nice! It has 7 different firmness settings. The bike already had a fork brace so now with the stabilizer I shouldn't have any problems with steering shake (even without the stabilizer the bike ran perfectly smooth even coming down off of some small wheelies). The pics below are when I first picked the bike up. I put shorter stemmed rear blinkers on it since the originals stick out a little too far for me.
This is where I am at right now. I plan on getting her going again in about 1-2 months.
, then started reading about all the engine work including the crank and am very happy for you. 
